LAKE ELSINORE (Riverside County, CA): Super Bloom 2019, aka "Poppygedon" - Walker Canyon Trail

By mid-January, 2019, I thought El Nino was a bust for the winter season. Then came February along with more rain than we'd seen in quite awhile - nothing torrential, just steady and lots of it. The abundant rain created the perfect conditions for a "Super Bloom" here in Southern California. What started out as a casual, "hey, look at those pretty poppies blanketing the hills in orange" as we drove past Lake Elsinore and Temescal Valley on I-15 on our daily work commute, to - WTF! as hordes of literally tens of thousands of people from God knows where ascended and descended with gusto on those hapless and defenseless poppy fields. Ok, I'm all for people, even in large numbers, coming out to enjoy this spectacular and infrequent floral extravaganza. But when a Sig Alert has to be issued for the I-15 through Elsinore (Wiki: A Sig Alert is defined by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) as "any unplanned event that causes the closing of one lane of traffic for 30 minutes or more." Caltrans uses the term "SigAlert" and defines it as any traffic incident that will tie up two or more lanes of a freeway for two or more hours."), then all is not well in the Inland Empire, especially when the media starts spouting monikers for this phenomenon like Poppygedon, Poppy Apocalypse, and Poppy Nightmare. It all came to a head this past weekend when more than 100,000 enthusiastic flower watchers (Elsinore has a population of 63,000) were afoot and afield, overflowing all the available AND illegal parking areas in the vicinity of Walker Canyon Road and Lake Avenue, prompting overwhelmed local officials to close the area temporarily to any further traffic. I don't begrudge crowds at all, just those who insist on trampling over poppies and other vegetation with reckless abandon outside of the designated trail boundaries, all for the sake of taking their requisite selfies. Take a cue from Aretha and R-E-S-P-E-C-T the poppies, folks! 

LA Times "Are crowds ruining California's super bloom? A debate over poppy mania"
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lake-elsinore-super-bloom-reopen-20190318-story.html 

Disneyland-size crowds visit Lake Elsinore poppy fields, creating chaos and straining city resources
https://ktla.com/2019/03/17/disneyland-size-crowds-visit-lake-elsinore-poppy-fields-creating-chaos-and-straining-city-resources/

These photos were taken a couple weeks ago (Friday 3/1/19) when Gil and I trekked out to Wilson Canyon Trail with the fur babies in tow when it wasn't too crowded yet. Next time, I'll post photos from last Thursday 3/14/19 when we detoured off the freeway on our way home from work to an equally spectacular but lesser known trail off Temescal Canyon Road.

3/1/19 Walker Canyon Trail, Temescal Mountains, Lake Elsinore:

Addy and Sasha getting olfactory overload from the trailside foliage.

Common Fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii) and California poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

California poppies with popcorn flowers (Plagiobothrys ssp.)

California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica)

White Sage (Salvia apiana)

California poppies and California Bluebells (Phacelia minor)

California poppies and California Bluebells (Phacelia minor)

California poppies and California Bluebells (Phacelia minor)

California poppies, Chia (Salvia columbariae), and Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa)

California poppies and Chia

Cooper's Jewel-Flower (Caulanthus cooperi)

Lanceleaf Dudleya (Dudleya lanceolata)

Chaparral Gilia (Gilia angelensis)

Wishbone Bush (Mirabilis laevis)

Popcorn Flower (Cryptantha spp.)

Popcorn Flower

Our princess girl!

Common Fiddlenecks (Amsinckia menziesii)

Dobie Pod/Slender Tropidocarpum (Tropidocarpum gracile)

Bush Lupine (Lupinus albifrons)

CA poppies with Red Maids (Calandrinia ciliata)

Wishbone Bush (Mirabilis laevis)