Day Trip to Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
Living in Santa Barbara means that I do not have to travel far to see spectacular natural beauty. Whether it be strolling along our amazing beaches, hiking the beautiful mountain trails or a quick walk down to Alice Keck Park to see the native plants, birds and bats that make it a local paradise, this area is chalk full of nature activities.
Consequently my weekends are largely spent in and around Santa Barbara. This Sunday I decided mix it up and take a little day trip south to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve. With all the Super Bloom talk that has been in the news recently and the amazing weather, it seemed like the perfect time to go see the natural display in action for myself.
The reserve is a California State Park about two hours south east of Santa Barbara (about an hour and a half outside Los Angeles) near Lancaster, California. It was a beautiful drive down the coast, then through mountains along the southern edge of the Los Padres National Forest.
I read an article earlier this week about the Super Blooms that were starting to emerge in Southern California and having never seen one for myself, I was determined to find one near Santa Barbara. A quick google search led me to the Poppy Reserve. The website noted it wasn’t quite a full Super Bloom, but it still looked pretty amazing to me.
As the poppies prime opening times are mid to late morning I decided to leave SB around 7am to get the the park around 9-9:30, hoping to beat the heat and crowds!
While the weather ended up being perfect, I found out that I had cut it close with the crowds. I was not the only one with the great idea of seeing a bit of Super Bloom on this lovely Sunday morning.
I arrived to the park around 9:15 and found a line of about 40 cars waiting to get into an already crowded looking parking lot. With a few cars already parking along the main highway before the turn off, I was worried I had arrived too late to get a spot and was now stuck in a car line waiting for the early birds to leave.
Luckily this was not the case as I ended up being one of the last people they let in to park in the official lot before it filled up. After a two drive and a 20 min wait in line I was finally walking into the preserve. While it wasn’t a full “Super Bloom”, it still blew me away!
The Park is well laid out with 7 miles of walking/hiking trails. Some were paved for wheelchair access. Even with a full parking lot, the expanse of trails meant that the actual park did not feel too crowded.
It was a truly spectacular sight and well worth the drive out to see such a insane amount of blooming poppies along with tons of other wildflowers including pink Owl’s Clover, purple Lupine and yellow Fiddleneck and Wild Parsley. (and a bunch of other flowers I do not know!)
There are even a few Joshua Trees in the Park, with many more along the highways just to the North. That is the direction I headed next, to grab some lunch at Wee Vill Market before heading further northwest to loop back through the Los Padres Forest to visit Rose Valley Falls, near Ojai, on my way home.
My coworker told me I should check it out when I told him I was potentially heading south this weekend to see the flowers. He had been the week before and said the waterfall was largest he had seen in California outside of Yosemite. I was excited to take him up on his recommendation and see for myself.
The drive added an extra hour to my ride home and took me along beautiful mountain roads and through flooded river sections due the recent rains. It looked like there had been some recent clean up and I was able to easily make it through the mud and water in the roadway with my car.
Two hours after leaving the poppies, I arrived at the Rose Valley Waterfall.
A short and easy hike from the parking area and I was right at the base of the lower of the two falls.
I tried hiking around to get to the upper falls, but could not find a safe path. Although I did end up with sweet view of the both falls.
The lower waterfall is about 70 feet tall, while I read the upper fall is over 200 feet.
Note that it costs $10 to park in the official camping area, but there is no fee to park along the road before the gate. It is only an extra 5 min walk to save $10, and there are only 6 official parking spots.
Also as of 3/17/19 the park website says the road is closed but it’s definitely open and was quite busy.
From there it was an easy hour drive back to Santa Barbara.
I had an amazing day exploring the California Poppy Reserve and stopping by the awesome waterfalls. It was great to see so many families out enjoying the outdoors!
I would definitely encourage people in Southern California to go see the amazing wildflower blooms that are on display now and hopefully through April. It is truly spectacular!
Cheers
– Alan Evans