PHOTOS OF THE WEEK: PEOPLE WATCHING AND WILDFLOWER JAMS

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East County News Service
 
March 12, 2019 (Borrego Springs) – If you’re going wildflower watching in the Anza-Borrego desert area, several sources tell us that the desert floor is now in full bloom—and with wildflower season comes tourists and traffic jams.

Bob Kutscher photographed a line of cars on Saturday, approximately 10 miles east of Borrego along S 22, a hot spot for flowers right now.  Flower-loving visitors were parking and hiking into blossoming verbena fields, as vehicles kicked up clouds of dust on a nearby dirt road, West Truckhaven Trail.  

 
A word of caution:  the dirt road has soft shoulders, so it’s easy for low-clearance vehicles to get stuck when pulling over to let other vehicles pass.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Comments

Thanks!

Thanks for the kind words. Things are finally starting to pop out here making capturing the scenery irresistible. Being a Borrego resident who enjoys exploring the area, it looks to be turning into another special flower season. Rainfall and resulting foliage has been somewhat similar to the 2017 super bloom yet at the same time noticeably different in that blossom timing and coverage has not been nearly as predictable making for some nice surprises!

Photo Spot 3/12/19

Things are very dynamic now as blossoms are appearing in more and more places daily. I can suggest one sure fire spot that is easy to access (pending traffic/crowd) and is close to town. The flowers are adjacent to S22 on the north side with prominent patches of Verbena and Sunflower (small yellow variety ) as well as many other varieties in lower numbers. Directions to get there from Borrego Springs is very simple...From Christmas Circle (town center) continue east on S22, traveling 11.8 miles and look for parking alongside the road and in the graded turnout area on the north side. Also once you get there you will see vehicles on a dirt road north of S22 called West Truckhaven Trail which is another way to access the flowers. This road is best traveled if you have an SUV type vehicle and keep in mind the shoulder along that dirt road can be very soft in places and is ungraded making it easy to get stuck in passenger cars with low ground clearance. This will at least get you started at an easy to access spot known that has a nice showing of blossoms at this time. Have fun!

Note on access

Just to clarify, there is parking along S22 giving access to the flowers in that area. I only mentioned the dirt road since it is an optional point of access that is a bit further to the north. No need to drive on dirt to enjoy flowers at this location.