Salton Sea Highway Bloom

The spring 2019, bloom in the Anza Borrego Desert was spectacular. Who knew after the super bloom in 2017 that just 2 years later there would be an even better bloom? The desert received frequent rains beginning October through February. By April the desert will be near the end of the bloom, but a lot depends on the temperatures, wind, additional rain, cloud cover, elevation, and the presence of insects.

We made a visit to Borrego in February and another in March to check out the bloom. See the next post for the March visit. The eastern low desert experienced an early and dense bloom in February, attributed to the remnants of a tropical storm that dropped heavy rain there in October. The rain did not reach the western part of the park, but all parts of the park started receiving frequent rain in late December, which continued through mid-February. When we checked online before we left, it appeared that the most easily accessible wildflowers were along County Road S22, the Borrego Salton Seaway, between road markers 30 and 35.

Snow on Coyote Peak north of S2.  Most San Diegians don't know that this is the county's highest peak


Snow covered Santa Rosa peek in the distance behind endless fields of wildflowers

We were not disappointed; there we found, growing in the loose sandy soil, countless blooming plants.  We were able to drive a considerable way on an unpaved desert road that ran through a dry wash.  There we found several other species as well as cactus, growing in more stable soils.

Lupinus arisonicus

Lupinus arisonicus

White primroses - Oenthera deltoides deltoides

Sand Verbena - Abronia villosa var villosa

Parish's poppies - Eschscholzaia parishii

Parish's poppies - Eschscholzaia parishii


California dandelion  - Malacothrix californica

Geraea canescens and Lupines

Notch leaf phacelia - Phacelia crenulata 
Phacelia crenulata

Phacelia crenulata



Desert Lily - Hesperocallis unulata

Desert Lily - Hesperocallis unulata



Plantain

Emory's Rockdaisy -- Perityle emoryi

Eriogonum inflatum

A previous year's Eriogonum inflatum

Aq
Camissonia boothii
Ocotillo in bloom

Ocotillo

Popcorn Flower - Plagiobothrys arizonicus

Salton milkvetch - Astragalus crotalariae

Cylindropuntia ramosissima

Cylindropuntia ramosissima closeup

Cholla, hills and long shadows



Sadly, there was lots of non-native saharan mustard.  However, many visitors had pulled up thousands of plants.

Uprooted Sahara Mustard

Scott action shot point out the flowers

On the way home, I drove back through Cuyamaca State Park.  It had snowed there the prior weekend.  It was the first time in the 35 years I'd lived in San Diego that I'd ever been in the mountains with snow.  You could see lots of evidence of weekend visitors, but it was still pretty cool and not a person to be found anywhere. We would return to the foothills and mountains several times in the spring to check out the spectacular 2019 superbloom that moved upland from the desert and lingered well into June on the highest peaks

We made a few quick stops to check out some of the iron sculptures in the desert




Remnants of snow and Cuyamaca Peak in the background

"Used" snow, Lake Cuyamaca and Iron Mountain

I highly recommend the website borregowildflowers.com, which is an excellent site for information about desert wildflowers and an excellent resource for identifying plants.

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