Antelope Valley April 21 - 22, 2001 [Antelope Valley Gallery] [Back to Photo Page]

Antelope Valley, located in the Antelope Buttes 15 miles west of Lancaster in southern California, is one of the California's most consistent poppy-bearing land. I have been monitoring its spring wildflower conditions on calphoto.com for serveral years, and decided that it is time to go there this year after reading so many good comments.

Getting there ...

Although the weather was not very good during the week (cloudy, windy, and rainy), forcast showed a good chance for the weekend. It's about five and a half hours driving from the Bay Area to Antelope Valley. We stopped for gas and food, and the kids slept well in the car, so the long distance driving was not too bad for us.

The First Day ...

It's about 3PM when we got to the Antelope Valley. Before we approached the poppy fields, we can see the orange color has covered the foothills from the distance. We stopped at a few places along the roads (170th St, 140th St, 130-120th St, etc.) for poppy fields. It was too windy this afternoon and all the poppies were closed. We can see there were a lot of poppies in blooming, but they need to wait for the right conditions to open their flowers. We just had to cross our fingers and prayed for a calm and sunny day tomorrow.

The Second Day ...

One good thing to photograph poppies is that you don't have to get up early. Poppies are closed and will not open until sun rises and the air gets warm. So we have plenty of time to prepare before checkout our hotel in Lancaster.

• Poppy Reserve
  It was an ideal day for poppies: warm, sunny, and NO wind. We arrived at the Calfornia Poppy Reserve before 10AM and the parking lot was still half empty. There are miles of trails passing through poppies and many other kinds of flowers. It's a very easy walk and the view is wonderful. Many people were interested in photographing poppies like me, but I haven't seen so many photographers with tripods in such a short period of time. When we left the Poppy Reserve at about 1PM, the parking was full and there was a long line waiting to enter the gate.
  

• 170th St. West
  
  

  The fields along the 170th St was by far the best poppies display I have seen in this trip and in my life. There were billions of poppies covering miles of fields. When you stepped out of the car, all you saw were poppies and the sky.

• My own rating
  
  

  There are many good poppy fields scattering around the Antelope Valley area. I'd like to give my own rating based on the condition on this weekend. Grand prize award: 170th St. Second prize: Poppy Reserve. Third prize: 120-130th St. This map shows their locations and other poppy fields we've visited.

Going Home ...

It's another long way to drive back home. It's definitely a good year of poppy blooming and well worth the 750-mile round-trip. Besides seeing so many poppies at once, at least we also know we are not allergic to poppies and other wildflowers in Antelope Valley.

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