Where to See Poppies in Southern California
Ever since I saw photos of the “superbloom” from 2019, I’ve been dying to see the poppies. Orange is my favorite color, and I love the “mountains” in California. I’m from the flat farmlands of Illinois, so I get excited over pretty much any elevation in the ground. Well this year, California got a lot of rain in the winter, so they are having a lot of blooming wildflowers. Thankfully, we got to see some! Here are the locations we went below:
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden
California is just different, and so are their botanic gardens. This one has a freaking VALLEY with a mountain behind it. Are you kidding me? The poppies are right by the entrance, so no hiking is required. I think entry is around $15, but if you’re a part of a participating botanic garden, then admission is free. There are also other areas, like redwoods, to see so you can spend a lot of time here!
Weir Canyon
We stayed in Yorba Linda most of our trip, and towards the end of it we drove about 20 minutes to Anaheim Hills to Weir Canyon. We parked in a culdesac near a trail entrance and took a left, hiked about half a mile, and then took a right down a curvy trail. We walked for about 5 minutes and saw an incredible bloom of flowers! Weir Canyon really did take my breath away. The big open sky and winding trails in the lush green hills has a wild feeling. I loved it!
While this trail is very up and down, the hiking was really short (less than a mile out), so you don’t have to be an experienced hiker at all. A lot of people (including myself) were not wearing athletic clothing or shoes - although I do recommend it.
BONUS TIP: Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve
An added bonus tip for you! We drove 2 hours to the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve - a location extremely high on my poppy bucket list. When we got there, not a single poppy graced that reservation. I was devastated and kind of embarrassed. The people there gave us a card and informed us that there is actually a live stream of the reservation so you can see if the poppies have bloomed or not. And that is my hot tip - make sure to check before you drive all the way out there and waste your time. YOU’RE WELCOME.
The wildflower bloom is just incredible and I hope you get to see it! Even though some of my plans didn’t work out, I’m so grateful that I got to see them in a couple different forms - and hopefully I’ll get to see more one day.
Let me know if you’ve seen them or are planning to!
