2023 spring wildflowers

[SSSdave]

Thanks Phil for that input with images. I wish the forum allowed LIKES to posts but that is Eric's call. Many times I read or see posts I like and approve of but rarely enough to bother posting to say so. On other web forums I frequent that have that feature enabled, active members use such a great deal.

Advise looking at latest inputs at DesertUSA dot com. Although areas north of Hurricane Crocker Springs Road are droughtier than better years, areas that were just yellow a week or two ago are now showing modest colors. Also an input about the east of the Southern Sierra at Sand Canyon I've visited in the past looks nice. Given much above normal sagebrush zone lower elevation Owen's Valley rains, expect there will be some good blooms in near weeks with aesthetic backdrops of snowy peaks.

Ok, just returned from a Thu/Fri/Sat road trip south into the SR166 areas including southern Carrizo Plain. Funny how I was set to drive up to the DF&G's North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve near Oroville, but Wednesday evening changed plans given poppy superbloom reports now all over media on Antelope Valley. WU showed AV still windy Friday with calm mornings Sat/Sun. But WU showed calm along Cuyama River zones Friday so decided to head there first with just one nugget of info on the old calphoto board suggesting it was better than Soda Lake areas.

So late morning Thursday drove down I5/SR33 to Taft then west on SR166 through Klipstein and then over-nighted at Cottonwood Creek Canyon Road. Best conditions I've ever seen there. Heavy rainfall along SR166 areas based on lush to dry vegetation looked as though it was spotty with some areas quite lush green while others not so. Some areas of the impressive towering badlands Caliente Range north of the Cuyama River are very green and have wildflower color I'd never seen before while others not so. Areas blocked by Keep Out oil lands. Klipstein Canyon as an example is modestly above normal but drier than in best years. Captured a couple nice subjects there. Friday had a superb morning at Cottonwood. Huge expanses of purple owls clover and valley tassels within first mile south of SR166. Lots of tidy tips, hillside daisies, goldfields, thistle sage, Bentham lupine, desert dandelion, filaree, and many more species beyond the ford creek crossing. Much is private open cattle range lands without posting so please respect lest it become behind barbed wire and posted. Use the often empty, nice Bates Campground at the road end.

In the afternoon drove back east on my way to Antelope Valley expecting to work one obscure national monument mystery area. Never made it to AV and spent all Saturday there after over-nighting at Klipstein. Some of my best subjects ever comparable to 2017 and with more color variations. But once again places out of view from roads, without signs of human footprints in years, I doubt anyone else will discover. And no don't bother asking me haha. Although I could have continue on to AV and worked that Sunday, I already have plenty of strong work at AV and the exhausting effort to hike into the mystery area left me weary so just drove home last night. Will be processing images for weeks with something later today.

[SSSdave]

Have processed 3 images now and the other two are even stronger with much more to work. Plan to drive back south for more later this week. Downsized for web below to 1500 pixels from 6200x6000 pixel original, 2 column 1 row, 51 image focus stack stitch blend. Primary colors: hillside daisies, phacelia, fiddleneck, Parry's mallow, cryptantha, silver bush lupine, California poppies, globe gilia, desert pincushion.



A 100% pixels 1080p sized crop showing actual detail.

[gtw_smooth_ambler]

Went out this weekend on the hunt for the trifecta of golden poppy, yellow daisy and phacelia on the hillsides. Didn't get that the first time I went out in 2019. Got up back in the Temblors and found all I could handle. I think all the rain could mean a very late peak but its predicted to hit 90 next week so that could start wrapping it up. It's maybe not as dense as 2019 but I found a lot more variation. Or maybe just had a better idea of where to go.

DSC_2001.JPG

DSC_1966.JPG

DSC_2081.JPG

[SSSdave]

Back today from a second recent road trip down to Carrizo Plain. Linked up with another photographer also in a very dusty Subaru. Given the intense April sun, have never seen wildflower conditions change so rapidly week to week as is occurring about the Carrizo area.

What I expect has been the best bloom in the monument during 2023, was a Temblor Range sub two mile long lushly green section about 4 miles north on Elkhorn Road from the Elkhorn Grade Road junction. Smooth curves of peak 3505 even without the flowers, is arguably, given a ring of erosion gullies, the best looking mountain in that range. The purple hued phacelia and magenta hued Parry's mallow covered much larger average areas of these mountains versus any areas to the north. And the purple hued phacelia often mixed with orange hued San Joaquin blazing star creating interesting mottled patterns.

Not only was the Elkhorn Plain in front of the main peaks covered with dense dull orange fiddleneck but further west, low areas of the Elkhorn Hills on side roads were saturated with lush green slopes dense with many species like goldfields, hillside daisies, and cream cups. Also at the Elkhorn Road Elkhorn Grade Road junction is a large green area with dense zones of great valley phacelia. Shows storms at this wettest location of the range favored not just the Temblor crest.

https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=35.0704 ... 1&z=14&b=t

Carrizo dirt roads can become horribly dusty. After two days working peak 3505 areas, our dusty vehicles had become ridiculous. West on SR166, the rich Cottonwood Creek flood plain at the paved stream ford was only aesthetically peaking now during my second visit. In just days, large numbers of Bentham lupine, yellow desert pincushion and striking thistle sage have added to its colorful mix. However the surrounding more sun / wind exposed landscapes peaked a week or two ago with large expanses of hillside daisies, goldfields, valley tassles, filaree, Bigelow coreopsis, gilia, purple owls clover, tidy tips. But the first thing we did was put on our swim trunks. Then parked mid stream in the shallow swift current luke-cool flow, scooping and tossing pails of water. Much post processing all tomorrow.

[SSSdave]

Second Carrizo road trip (4/21 > 4/24) was also very productive as I now at home slowly work through post processing of dozens of subjects requiring tedious focus stack Zerene Stacker manual blending. Linked up at sunset with the other photog (long drive) at familiar ignored, remote, Klipstein. But also before joining friend, did full CCW long miles dirt road exploratory loop from Taft so I could see what the Temblar Range NW to SE trending mountains and their foothills looked like in the afternoon when light is best. So we 2 could then make better use of our coming weather forecast calmer days window. And that loop trip was golden because 3 to 5 miles north on Elkhorn Road of the Elkhorn Grade Road junction was a lush green zone with a seed bed from past years where storms had obviously been very wet both up on the wonderful gracefully smooth curving badlands mountain peaks as well as down in the Elkhorn Plain and the delightful low lush hills of Elkhorn Scarp. North of there was a long drier section on Elkhorn Road until reaching a few miles from the Hurricane Road junction. In arroyos, lot of species including much pretty blue Bentham lupine and owls clover. Then north of Hurricane, a drier zone.

The above downsized for web from a 6000x4000 pixel focus stack blended image was shot about 6pm Thursday at peak 3505. Worked right at Elkhorn Road near the map section red 4. Really was magical for this guy that has seen a lot of amazing light. The orange glow from the freshly opened from bud fiddleneck was surprising. Note, lower purples are mostly Parry's mallow while high purples are darker lacy scorpionweed (tansy phacelia) that mixes with the dull orange of San Joaquin blazing star though there are a few small patches of vibrant orange California poppies. Yellow green areas are not all grasses but rather the exquisite desert candle, caulanthus inflatus.

ps://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=35.06993,-119.54917&z=15&b=t

The next morning we explored over several miles some of what I'd discovered the previous week but April sun desication was a net negative. No problemo, as not only was I not going to Antelope Valley but we 2 were going to be sitting atop at Elkhorn Plain what were obviously the strongest subjects in the region. And yes at least some of our days were awesome. Below downsized for web near our backroad's midday lounge spot. 6000x4000 pixels 22 shots. Bigelow coreopsis, fiddleneck, dense still closed cream cups.



Those map red dot line sections lines are a mile long. Thus on 2 days we hiked out wading knee to waist deep through fiddleneck with shoe tugging filaree below the ~3/4 mile to lower canyons. I stepped right over a fair sized rattlesnake that immediately became coiled menacingly hissing. Oh well my Levi 505 would be difficult to bite through if walking at usual dynamic rates.

Was looking at Sentinel Hub earlier today and noticed on an April 23 image, interesting yellow wildflower color Along SR178 east of Walker Pass. Likewise just north of Red Rock Canyon about the Indian Wells bajadas, some of which is an ORV playground. But lots of beautiful and interesting wildflowers including cactus and glowing red paintbrushes. Greatly love being in such desert environments with a Mojave/Sierra mix but hate the long drive.

https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=35.4393 ... &b=t&a=sma

[oldranger]

Heading down to Yosemite next week. scheduled trip a few months ago to view waterfalls near peak and around other scheduled trips. Any suggestions where we might find some great wild flower views while in the area? As retired old farts we have flexibility to do significant alterations to our departure from Yosemite at the end of the week. Thanks for any suggestions.

[SSSdave]

Usually March and April, wildflowers bloom along SR140 and the Merced River between Briceberg and El Portal. Hite Cove Trail along the South Fork of the Merced River below the main fork junction is well known. In May wildflowers more likely in Yosemite Valley itself and Forester. However this year the cold temperatures have delayed natural area blooms across the state. Even the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden blooms are 2 weeks late. So who knows? Maybe given the cold delay, this spring there still some good wildflower displays below El Portal? I may take a trip to the lower Merced in next weeks given the right weather.

The big event in the Lower Merced in wet years are the poppies. Below from 2009. From the morning sunny north side of Briceberg Bridge, park and hike eastward along the big river on the deteriorated old mining road (parts paved) for over 4 nearly level miles. One of the best spring time secrets in that region.



Inexpensive, green in spring, clean, riverside BLM campground in that region with few others.

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/sierra/ ... ecid=64880

[SSSdave]

So far have not updated my website for any 2023 work that began at the end of March. Will be doing so eventually. Instead since am overwhelmed, will post a simpler version of my spring images via slideshows with some new twists.

Bought $164 15.6 inch IPS 1080p XK001 digital photo frame. For my currently still being tediously processed spring 2023 field work, have post processed 51 large images that this week were downsized for display therein to 1920x1080 pixel limits. So from a USB-C slot with flash memory, jpg's will natively display by the app in the frame at near screen sizes. Note the unit has mainly cloud image media functions as a social media device but I am not using such. $164 PC's don't have good 15.6" 1080p HD IPS displays so that is why I just didn't obviously do that.

A downsized 2k pixel wide1080p looks identical to a displayed 9.6k pixel wide 3 column stitch blend. That way I can carry that semi portable device around without having to worry about anyone ripping off any real files while at the same time being able to show enough to a public group or single person they can imagine processed image values. Images I will in the future be better exhibiting on large 8k pc monitor displays once they are finally product. With early DisplayPort 2.1 products already in silicon, products able to drive 8k displays ought be showing up soon.

So will run the same 1080p digital photo frame images from my website via the same HTML coded slideshow functions I've used for years on my website. Will still have a Contents page but images will have minimal info on trip pages that ordinarily take a lot of my time to recall and web research HTML code. The following is an example. The first image below is a 1080p crop from a 3 horizontal stitch blend 13900x3900 pixel full image. For each Digital Photo Frame image, will have two image files with the first a near 1080p 100% pixels crop with basic text info and the second image below is a 1080p limited downsized full version image. Note how much more the 100% pixels sections shows versus the 1080p version same frame area. But then 13,900 pixels wide is a huge panorama focus stacked from F5.6 shots. At top is enough space for 3 lines of text, my website url, an image title, and a 100 pixel high downsized thumbnail at frame top right with red dots indicating where the crop was taken from full images. Thus a mechanism from crop to full image to involve an audience.



The full downsized image at 1080p limits, 1920x539 pixels. See the red dot zone? An immense difference. Oh yeah. Unfortunately none of that colorful area that is within Carrizo Plain National Monument has ever been accessible due to oil operation lands and private farms surrounding the Cuyama River. But I will be sending a land conservation group the photos that can use such as arguments it ought be. Likewise, northern sections of the nearby Cottonwood Creek Canyon cattle lands are a state plant environment treasure that ought be expanded within an expanded national monument or the nearby huge Bitter Creek national Wildlife Refuge.

[SSSdave]

I've now worked through processing 54 subjects shot over the last couple months. Spring 2023 has been one of my the most productive ever. The below are thumbnails of 21, some of the best.

(Mouse select at site to zoom to normal size.)

[The Other Tom]

Very nice, David. Thank you.