While the “super bloom” of wildflowers popping up across the state this spring following an exceptionally wet winter has so far been concentrated in Southern California, the phenomenon is spreading north.
A series of vibrant pictures from the Carrizo Plain National Monument was posted to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Facebook page, in a post that called the boldly colorful display “simply indescribable.”
“The valley floor has endless expanses of yellows and purples from coreopsis, tidy tips and phacelia, with smaller patches of dozens of other species,” the agency wrote.
The Carrizo Plain National Monument is in southeastern San Luis Obispo County near Soda Lake, about 23 miles east of Taft. It is one of the largest native grasslands that remain in the state.
The Tremblor Range, which borders the monument on the northeast is similarly carpeted with swaths of orange, yellow and purple wildflowers, “like something out of a storybook,” the Interior Department said.
Mid-March to mid-April is usually the best time for wildflower viewing in the Carrizo Plain, according to the monument’s website, with annual blooms including lupines, goldfields, cream cups, delphinium, blue dicks and poppies, among others.
Those traveling to take in the floral display should be prepared with a full tank of gas, as there are no service stations in the area, officials said.
In addition to its bright spring wildflowers, the Carrizo Plain is known for Painted Rock, a sandstone alcove adorned with images painted by the Chumash people around 4,000 years ago.