Antelope Valley 4/20/2019 [Back to Photo Page]

Antelope Valley, located in the Antelope Buttes 15 miles west of Lancaster in southern California, is one of the California's most consistent poppy-bearing land.   The wildflower season generally lasts from as early as mid-February through May.  The duration and intensity of colors and scents vary from year to year highly dependent on the rainfall (and timing) in the winter months.  It was a good rainy season in California in 2018-2019 winter, and it brought a "Super Bloom" season with carpets of orange/golden California poppies.

Getting there ...

I took off early from work on Friday afternoon at about 5PM to start to drive south.  The traffic in the Bay Area during rush hour was terrible so we decided to have an early dinner (however, it was not getting much better after dinner especially on 152 around Gilroy).  I booked a hotel on Highway 5 near Buttonwillow which is about 90 miles from the Antelope Valley so I did not have to drive for too long at night (but still needed ~200 miles of driving).  

4/20 (Saturday) ...

• Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
  We had an early start at 7AM to begin our drive to the Antelope Valley as people said the parking at the California Poppy Reserve is often full very soon.  When we got to the Reserve at about 8:30AM, the parking lot was already half full (by 10AM, there was already a long queue outside the entrance...).

• Poppy Trail South Loop

• Poppy Trail North Loop
  

• Outside the Poppy Reserve
  After spending almost 4 hours in the Reserve, we drove out of the park and stopped by a few poppy hotspots along the way.
  

Going Home ...

It another long way to drive home (more than 5 hours with a quick McDonald's lunch stop), but it was well worth the effort to see blankets of flowers covering the hills and fields.  The drought in California in the last 10+ years has made this year of Super Bloom a big news that people came from all over the places to witness this "rare" event (our last visit to Antelope Valley was exactly 18 years ago...).   We will look forward to its next Super Bloom season!

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