California’s state flower, the California poppy, is in full bloom throughout the semiarid foothills of Southern California, thanks in part to an unusually wet winter.
Tourists are flocking to the Antelope Valley and other popular sites to see the spring “superbloom,” which decorates the landscape in splashes of orange, yellow, purple, and white.
Poppies, seen from a distance, looking south from Lancaster, California, April 17, 2023. (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
CHOLAME, CA – APRIL 12: Following record winter rains, colorful mustard, goldfields, poppies, and other wildflowers, have exploded on the landscape along California’s Highway 41, located on the San Luis Obispo, Kern, and Monterey County borders, as viewed on April 12, 2023, near Cholame, California. A California superbloom of wildflowers typically follows a year heavy rain and snow. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)
Visitors pose for photos in a field of blooming flowers near the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, Monday, April 10, 2023, in Lancaster, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The 2022-23 winter was unusually wet, defying predictions of a third consecutive dry winter. The rain and snow brought relief to the state, which had been suffering from its second extreme drought in a decade.
If you cannot find the time to drive to the area, the California Department of Parks and Recreation maintains a live webcam of the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, one of the most popular sites to see the spring colors.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.