Earlier this spring, Carol and I made our pilgrimage to the Mojave high desert to see the wildflower bloom. This part of the Mojave is located about 3,000′ elevation, so spring doesn’t arrive until April and later. Many people choose to visit the bloom at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, a state-sanctioned wildflower viewing area — of course, this comes with fees and regulations.
Several years ago, we figured out that the poppies had a mind of their own and grew outside the preserve, free from The Man’s influence. We explored the north and south sides of CA-138 in search of flowers and this is some of what we found …
Red Clover shares the hillside with yellow Bigelow Coreopsis.The California Poppy dominates the desert floor.A Tiger Beetle enjoys lunch in a California Poppy.A somewhat rare yellow poppy hob-nobs with non-mutated poppies.Poppies and sage share the slope-side.Many, many-acre solar farms line both sides of CA-138.Poppies make everyone frolic. Like that part of the Wizard of Oz, where they’re running across the field toward Oz, while it’s snowing, falling asleep …Desert Dandelion co-exists with sage and fences.For some reason we see lots of derelict boats in the desert. The result of global warming perhaps?Along side the wildflowers and solar farms, was FloDesign, a compact, jet-engine inspired wind turbine that is three-to-four times more efficient and significantly cheaper to produce than existing wind turbines.
