Superbloom - and more!

19 March 2019, 12:03 PM

Steve Miller

quote:
Originally posted by well-tempered gardener:
Be thankful you went when you did.

quote:
Lake Elsinore officials on Sunday closed Walker Canyon, citing a "public safety crisis" as visitors trampled blooms and caused traffic jams.

The town of 66,000 saw some 50,000 tourists visit en masse in a weekend.

Social media could be behind the incident, which began trending as #poppynightmare, authorities say.

After being overwhelmed by the massive influx of visitors on Friday through Sunday in what was described as an "unbearable" weekend, officials briefly shuttered access to the canyon on Sunday night.

But by Monday morning, the canyon was re-opened, with officials saying it was "not feasible for us to keep visitors away from Walker Canyon".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47615535

I’m not 100% sure, but I think Walker Canyon is the area we photographed from the freeway.

20 March 2019, 12:55 AM

RealPlayer

This is definitely on my to-do list. Are there peak times in the southwest when the cacti and succulents are in bloom too?

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“It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person." -- Bill Murray

20 March 2019, 01:42 AM

Steve Miller

It’s real iffy. You can go 10 years with no bloom and when you get a bloom it can start and end in just a week.

It has to do with rainfall and warm weather at just the right time. If you find a site that tracks it let me know. I’ll pick you up at the airport and we’ll all go!

23 March 2019, 02:22 PM

piqué

Hearty congratulations Steve!

Mr Pique and I talked about going to see the flowers, as we have in years past, but then we heard about the crowds and the mass destruction and the traffic. We're deathly allergic to all three, so we'll wait for our own superbloom here. We had record snow levels this winter so the bitterroots should be spectacular!

For those who want to keep abreast of these things, here's the web site we've always used to find out where and when to go.

Desertusa.com

23 March 2019, 07:18 PM

Steve Miller

Turns out you can see the bloom in the Elsinore area from space!

24 March 2019, 10:34 AM

CHAS

Thanks for the good news and great pictures.
Tell Scott he could replace Vanna White, or maybe not.
"Weapons of Moth Destruction"

27 March 2019, 12:05 PM

Steve Miller

Some idjit landed a helicopter in the middle of a flower field and commenced to hike.

Nice videos in the article. The opening sequence is on the hillside I posted pictures from.

27 March 2019, 12:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Some idjit landed a helicopter in the middle of a flower field and commenced to hike.

Nice videos in the article. The opening sequence is on the hillside I posted pictures from.

Terrible chance of ruining Mother Nature.

27 March 2019, 01:09 PM

Steve Miller

No mention in the article of whether there will be any prosecution effort made over this. There is a picture of the helicopter which means there is a registration #.

Any guesses as to who was in the helicopter?