Visiting the Poppies

Today was a beautiful day here in Southern California. We decided it would be the perfect time to take a drive up North, about an hour from us, to see the California Poppy Reserve. I can't believe that I live so close and I've never been there! We get wild poppies growing on the hills around us but they are sporadic and I've always wanted to see the wildflowers in all their glory. Anyway, we took the long, WINDY (as in windy road, not windy air!), scenic route. It was pretty gorgeous with all of the Bouquet Canyon shale jutting out all around us and the trees meeting overhead to give that cozy, woodsy feeling. Little streams to each side of us entertained the occasional fisherman on the side of the road. I'm wondering, what kind of fish could have been in there? We came upon a huge reservoir which was quite beautiful. There was a tent pitched right next to the water that looked like a circus tent! But a big sign said that it was for a prayer meeting! Wow, so.....backwoods? LOL! I had no idea that people actually did that! And all of this practically in my own back yard!

I had enough of the twisty road after about 20 minutes, LOL! Yes it was scenic and pretty but you know it was a little nauseating! After a while we ended up coming out the other side and I was excited to see that we were nearing our destination, thanks to our chirping GPS mostly! The unfortunate part though, was the poppies just weren't quite ripe! There were many Japanese tourists pulled off the side of the road, walking through the fields and taking photos. I was surprised to see that! There were also a few artist doing their plein air paintings which was interesting. Basically, though, we pulled into the Visitor's Center and asked if they thought this would be better next week. She agreed that next week or the week after would probably be better! I could tell by the enormous expanse of almost flowering vistas that it would really knock my socks off when it was in it's full glory. So I'm actually thinking that maybe Easter Sunday might not be a bad day to go again! It was pretty crowded today and I can only imagine how clogged the cars will be when it's really ablaze!

So, that's my next field trip! Another visit to the California Poppy Reserve with my camera in hand, catching the perfect shot to recreate in acrylics :) I'll post some photos when I do!