It’s mid-April, 2017, and the recent horrific rains have created severe penalties all over California. Oft-repaired power lines, and washed-out roads everywhere, remind us of our sometimes fragile (and neglected) infrastructure. But the rains have also produced a blessing, for the western wildflowers are blooming like few of us have ever seen. It all serves to remind me of a trip we made quite a few years back, to a little-known, lonely valley in southern California.

It was early 2010, and we were out exercising our new-to-us motorhome, ‘Howie’. Karin and I were both still working, so we didn’t have lots of time to go roaming, but we did have enough of a break to go south to explore a “designated grassland” in (of all places) California. Most such grasslands are out in the vast central plains, so — in addition to being a large stretch of public land in the middle of otherwise-private western California — it was an intriguing bit of ecology begging to be investigated.

Carrizo Plain was proclaimed a National Monument well after it had been a controversial battlefield of conflicting and land-destructive interests — oil exploration, ranching and farming, even solar farms all had their claims. Plowed up, chewed up, drilled and dug up, and endlessly seeded with non-native, invasive grass species (for cattle fodder), the area was heavily human-influenced. But starting in the ’80’s, Carrizo gradually saw some more caring stewardship, and finally was accorded Monument status in 2001. (More history is available at the WIKI.)

Since then, various programs have sought to restore a more pristine quality to the nearly quarter-million acres (almost 400 square miles). Now, far from the mountains and deserts, Carrizo is the biggest, wildest place you’ll find for 200 miles or more.

As luck would have it, we first explored Carrizo in February. We started out down in the flatlands, and took some time to check out some of the abandoned farm equipment.

There is a huge collection of old iron of various vintages. They’ve been left in place as historical anecdotes, while the rest of the area is gradually being returned to its previous un-invaded status. One of the more stand-out items was this old caterpillar tractor. Karin looks right at home on it.

After our short visit, we found that liked it enough to come back a month later with some co-explorers.

By early spring that same year, it had turned into a bountiful year for wildflowers. On the way east on CA-58, we were getting a preview, and the narrow, twisting highway would try to distract me with its roadside beauty. Howie was still a handful at that time, and mostly only Karin got to look at the scenery until we got parked in KCL campground. Then we all spent some time roaming the surrounding hills and taking in the sweeping views. All around us, the flowers dominated the landscape.

I’m not any kind of botanist, so I won’t eve try to tell you what kinds of flowers were there, although it’s certainly easy to spot the poppies. Suffice it to say that just about every color of the rainbow could be found with not a lot of work. Hiking through any part of it was a sublime experience.

Even the dry/alkaline Soda Lake offered spotted purchase for the bright blossoms.

Linda’s favorite color is yellow. She was in seventh heaven.

Later, as we were driving away from Carrizo to the southwest, CA-166 had some equally grand hill-scapes for us to see.

There are only two designated camps in Carrizo, Selby and KCL.  Selby is back off the main road (Soda Springs Rd), pretty much tree-less, but lots of space and quiet.

KCL camp, on the other hand, is right off of Soda Springs Rd, nicely shaded, and had a corral for horse folks.

As of this writing, both of them tend to fill up pretty quickly. But it is possible to scout out some dispersed camping areas. It’s always good to check with a Ranger or the Visitors’ Center for the latest information (and rules).

Speaking of the Visitor Center, there’s a small but nice one up at the south end of Soda Lake, and it’s well worth a stop. They have some good local information and a few nice displays of regional flora and fauna, including an impressive hanging/flying condor (BIG bird).

There are still several areas we have not yet seen. Painted Rock, and the western hills, and a long stretch of Elkhorn Road (muddy when we were there) are all waiting for us to explore them.  We’d also like to get way high up in the hills and see if we can get just that right visual angle to look at the big fault line. This aerial shot from the wiki is too much to ask for (from the ground), but it will be fun to look for the features.

Plenty of reasons for another visit.

The 2017 Spring turned into one of the finest ever for Carrizo wildflowers. Bob Wick of the BLM took this fabulous shot:

And here is the current BLM map:

Still Curious?

• Wikipedia
• BLM-Carrizo
• Friends of Carrizo
• Nature Conservancy – Carrizo