on April 2 I made our weekend plan in bed once again, I have been checking Desert Wildflower Reports everyday since last month, I knew the Poppy Reserve is in full bloom season, but what caught my eyes was one picture of the Soda Lake.
I am sure I've changed a lot, the trip to Carrizo Plain was just triggered by one photo without heavy googling for more information about what's going on around that area, that was certainly a huge commitment to make for a 3 hours drive distance.
mountains started turning yellow when we were 30 minutes away from the Soda Lake, I pulled over several times to take photos, but actually we didn't need to do that because what we were seeing was just only the tip of the iceberg, ended up deleted all the early photos I took :P
we found this color explosion madness at Temblor Ridge, about 15 minutes away from the lake.
I did not know how to react, and wasn't prepared for the view I was getting.
we did hike a bit and tired to walk on people's footsteps to avoid killing those flowers, just like the the old adage “April showers bring May flowers”, I wish I can take back all the curses I've said during pass few months while it was raining heavily, thanks for bringing this surreal display of spring!
almost all the photo I put here are original shots without any color adjustment, I even think it's going to be a sabotage if I do anything to these photos :)
except goldfields, we also found some purple Phacelia.
and fiddleneck in orange
we left Temblor Ridge and kept driving south, the path to Soda Lake turned to dirt road, my heart was bumping fast, because I started to get really excited and wondering what I will see in few minutes.
I stopped my car sometimes just to let other cars go further away, so our view will not be covered by kicked up dirt in the air.
I meant dirt air like that, its all blurry, but can you see mountain back there were screaming yellow?
we started to see beautiful white Soda Lake playa.
In wet years, the playa contains standing water, but in drier times water upward where it evaporates, leaving this white crust of minerals.
it was pretty interesting to walk on the lake.
I drove back home with no signal for an hour, we were lucky that I was going on the right direction (which is pretty rare), because there were no gas stations in the monument.
the photo I took that day are not able to represent even 30% of the craziness we experienced, I love that me and Actaeas we own this magical memory together :)
April madness 2017 super bloom (2)>>
