Last Tuesday my friend picked me up at 5:30 am and we headed towards San Luis Obispo. The drive was very nice as we passed through grape vineyards and citrus trees. Driving through the citrus fields was very fragrant and smelled so nice.
A few miles just before arriving to CP, we found an old, abandoned farm with some farming equipment circa 1930. It was pretty interesting.
We finally arrived after a 2.5 hour drive. Our first destination was driving to Soda Lake. There is a short boardwalk but it smelled, and I wasn't at all thrilled.
Next was Seven Mile Road. This was the first area where we saw the hillsides filled with yellow, orange & purple colors, along both sides of the road.
With no real plans in mind, we then made a quick stop at the Goodwin visitor center to hike the Painted Rock trail but it was closed.
After talking with the volunteer we found out where all the hot spots were to see the most wildflowers. He also mentioned that roads were rough and that only certain vehicles could drive on them. Well he was wrong. More on that later.
Since time wasn't an issue we wanted to make the most of our road trip. We continued on to Shell Creek. It's a 45-minute drive outside of Carrizo Plains. It's a seldomly visited area since it's outside of the National Monument area. However, this was a goldmine of wildflowers!
Next we returned to CP and drove to Wallace Creek where we were told we could see the San Andreas Fault line. I wasn't really interested, but in the distance, off trail, I spotted a beautiful Desert Candle all by itself. The trail was easy to walk on and overgrown with a few wildflowers. In my opinion not really worth it.
We continued driving on Elkhorn Road, and observed a few cars turning on Hurricane Crocker Spur road. It sparked our interest so we followed.
I'm glad we did. This was a bad-ass spur road that starts out flat then becomes a steep incline to the very top that gives you spectacular views close to the superblooms.
The road was rough in some sections but doable. We could only drive so far and decided to park and walk up to a certain point. We made it to a flat area but the road continued on. I was so jealous as other people in their cool-ass jeeps drove past us. We managed to get a few pics but those guys in jeeps at the top had the best views.
Next we continued driving on Elkhorn road through the Elkhorn Plains and exited Elkhorn Grade road. By doing this it was a huge loop drive out of the CPNM. This was totally worth the drive.
We passed through fields of lupines which was the most I have ever seen in one area.
Overall, it was a great day and well worth the drive. I never saw pronghorn like I had hoped.
Oh and getting back to the volunteer at the visitor center. He was only giving out information to certain people about the wildflowers, to those who drove high clearance automobiles. The first question he asked was, "what kind of car do you drive," when we asked where to see the most wildflowers. Luckily, I overheard details on where to go and I had a map.
My friend did not have a high clearance vehicle. However she found some YouTube videos and the info given was that most of the roads can be driven with a regular vehicle. The roads were a combination of asphalt and rocky dirt roads but we made it just fine.
The flowers I saw were purple & blue lupines, tidy tips, poppies, phacelia, purple sage, marigolds, owl clover, winecup clarkia, fiddleneck, baby blue eyes, desert dandelion and a few more.
The majority of brightly colored flowers that could be seen on the hills were lupine, owl clover, poppies and dandelions.
The best views were Seven Mile, Elkhorn and Hurricane Crocker spur road if you have a high clearance vehicle.
Picture below is the spur road. If you enlarge the pic you can see part of the road on the right.
Side blotched lizard
