My hiking club and I made a field trip out to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve yesterday to see how the bloom is coming along. I’ll say that the space is definitely reserved for the poppies, but they seem to be fashionably late to the party. What took over as the life of the party was Grape Soda Lupine. There was not necessarily what you would call a profusion of them (or any flower for that matter) but they were voluptuous in size and color and smelled exactly like grape soda which also made them fun!
There were, however, a profusion of lizards. The lizards like to make their holes right in the middle of the walking path then hide in the grass for an unsuspecting hiker to tread past. Then, just a the hiker is about to pass, the lizard runs like heck across the path into his hole. It reminds me of the old gag where you pretend to pull an invisible rope across the road to make a car stop for no reason. Those little tricksters.
The highlight of the day was definitely listening to our Kat give an enthusiastic 10 minute QVC style presentation about her new Pstyle urination device that she plans to take with her on a 3-week backpacking trip on the PCT. Pardon me. I misspoke. She adamantly corrects me when I say “3-weeks” because she will only be gone for 20 days. Apparently, the distinction between 20 days and 3 weeks is quite an important one in her household as 20 days sounds like less than 3 weeks. I believe it does. Correction: She plans to take her Pstyle with her on a 20-day backpacking trip PCT, during which time I am sure she will pee in comfort and with ease.
Here are a few other wild flowers that are peeking up at the Poppy Reserve
The best showing of poppies was actually outside the park on Lake Elizabeth Road. They were far up on the hillside, but they were also perched behind a very fun sign advertising antiques.
The lovely volunteers at the reserve said that there are contradictory predictions about how much of a poppy bloom there will be in the coming weeks, but what the park does very well is keep a running update on their website http://www.thepstyle.com so if this is something you are interested in following they make it quite easy. They are also happy to take your phone call and give you the bloom status on a day by day basis. No matter how the bloom looks, the drive to an from the reserve is beautiful if you take the San Francisquito Canyon route and the reserve is a wonderful place to spend the day trekking around with friends.
THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST 