Top Things You Need To Know If You Plan To Check Out The Superbloom

Due to all the rains in California, now the Superbloom is amazing. That's a short period of time in March/April that the wildflowers bloom in the desert. So if you are in Southern California or plan to be in the next few weeks, you may want to head to the desert to check it out. 

Here are the things you need to know: 

1. Best viewing is in Anza Borrego and Lake Elsinore, but I have also seen fabulous photos from Lake Poway and Mission Trails. 

2. Take water, food and good walking shoes. The flowers are not next to the highway. In most cases, you need to hike a bit. 

3. Check online or visit the visitor's center to see where the best places are to view flowers on the particular day you visit. 

4. Go early in the day to avoid the crowds 

5. Do not pick or step on the flowers

We headed out to Borrego Springs on a Monday due to a staff day at school. Borrego Springs is about 2 hours east of San Diego. The best part is you can drive through the small town of Julian which is known for the best pie in the world. YUM! 

First stop is the Visitors Center at Anza Borrego State Park. There is a $10 day parking fee, but it is worth it just to run in and get the map of the best places to view the flowers plus there are bathrooms, water fountains and picnic tables. 

There are also some trails where you can view flowers, but I would suggest moving onto some of the other viewing sites. On the way to the visitors center, you will see the giant sculptures in the desert called Galleta Meadows. 

We drove to the recommended viewing site at Ocotillo Wells, about 5 miles southeast. There is another visitor center there where the ranger gave us a flower guide and another map to two nearby viewing areas. 

No charge to park the car. We could walk to the first viewing area which featured several different flowers, some giant beetles and caterpillars plus big rocks for the kids to climb on. 

 To get to the second viewing area, we drove through a wash and had to dodge the sand. An adventure in itself. 

But once we arrived, it was a short walk up the hill and we were rewarded with fields of color plus sand dunes to roll in. 

On the way back, a beautiful desert sunset as if the desert was saying thank you to us for visiting, but really we were thanking mother nature for a beautiful day.