If it ain’t drought that’s keeping the flowers down, it’s the visitors.
After a record series of winter storms buried the Sierra Nevada in snow, and filled rivers and lakes to the brim, a “super bloom” of desert flowers has sprouted in long-parched Southern California and painted the landscape in swaths of bright red, orange, yellow and purple.
The eruption of flora — perhaps the largest in more than a decade — has drawn a steady stream of eager flower-peepers, including naturalists, tourists and hordes of amateur photographers seeking the perfect trophy shot for their social media accounts.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary bloom has also caused many visitors to stray from established foot paths and sent them tromping through fields of California poppies and other flowers, crushing their delicate petals and stems.
Click here to read the full story on LATimes.com.
