Thursday, March 14, 2019

Flowers in the Desert

I hear a lot of people using the word "superbloom" to describe the flowers in the desert right now. To be honest, I'm still not sure if we are having an official superbloom this year. What I do know is the desert has gotten a lot of rain, and there are a lot of flowers if you know where to look. 

This last weekend, we drove through Joshua Tree National Park from the north entrance (29 Palms) to the south entrance (Cottonwood Spring). The flowers are patchy... absent in areas, abundant in others. We found the best flower viewing to be in the Cottonwood Spring area (low elevation). Blooms will probably remain good to excellent and move up in elevation as the season progresses.
Our first stop was at the Contact Mine trailhead, based on a tip we got from the ranger at the entrance kiosk. After just a short walk up the trail we could see lots of yellow blooms, and no crowds. Well worth the stop. It was a rare overcast day in the desert, and the yellow flower color really popped!

Just past (south) of Cottonwood Spring, we noticed heavy flower blooms with a nice variety of color. Blue, yellow, lavender, white and purple seemed to dominate.







My cousin-in-law, Beth, enjoying the beauty (and fragrance) of the desert flower bloom.




The next day, I captured a couple flowers near our house using late afternoon back-lighting:


And by late afternoon, we were treated to another glorious desert sunset!

Linking with Skywatch Friday.
Thanks for stopping by!!

47 comments:

  1. Wow, is right. What great flowers, wonderfully photographed. I remember a few times seeing the desert near Phoenix almost as colorful as yours after a wet spring.

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  2. Awesome sky shot and beautiful floral shots too ~ all so uplifting after all the 'white stuff' in MA

    Thanks for your Get Well Wishes, too!

    Happy Day to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  3. Stunning, who would that thought th edesert would produce such wonderful displays. Th esunset is beautiful

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  4. Gorgeous - am thinking of that "the desert shall bloom like a rose" - definitely here! Am surprised -so early in the year:)

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  5. Stunning. What's an official superbloom? (I know the news has been calling it a superbloom.)

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  6. Gorgeous flower scenes.That sky is amazing as well.

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  7. A delightful series of captures - thank you for sharing.

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  8. So beautiful! I am hoping I will see the same here on the front range in June after all the snow we;ve been having.

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  9. Amazing , Beautiful flowers.
    Thanks for sharing.

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  10. Lovely light on those back-lighted yellow flowers. The white hair (?) on them looks nice. Well spotted, most of us would walk by never noticing them. And not bad with the sunset either.

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  11. Lovely---- some of the pictures I'm seeing from the greater Bay Area are showing gazillions of poppies and others. We see the best wildflowers where trees have been harvested, or blown down by volcanoes. Well, that doesn't happen very often!

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  12. Wow, such great and impressive photos !
    Warm regards from Germany
    My sky...

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  13. That's what I think of when I hear the word "Paradise". Thank you for sharing this across the world; we need some beauty today.

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  14. Must have rained a lot but that delivers beauty as showed here so fine.

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  15. J'adore these floral images SPP, how beautiful the desert looks in springtime 🌷🌼🌻🌺🌹🌸

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  16. Hello, the colors and wildflowers are just beautiful. I wish I was there to see them too. Lovely sky capture. Enjoy your day, have a great weekend.

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  17. awwwwwwwwww

    ohhhhhhhhh

    the desert is an amazing place

    I miss it

    (but not the dust storms)

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  18. What an enchanting time of year in your neck of the woods. Stunning purple photos! Since I'm in Florida, I'm enjoying blooms. But home is only a few days away. Back to snow and rain. Our basement is flooded. Ugh. Goodbye flowers and sun.

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  19. Beautiful. I hope the desert will always have super blooms. They are so lovely.

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  20. such a wonderful "bunch" of fowers !!! each image is gorgeous and fabulous coulors !

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  21. What a wonderful serie of these colourful flowers, Peter. The desert seems to be ful of surprises.

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  22. Beautiful captures!, it's so wonderful to see all those pretty colours.

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  23. Lot of colors, and such beauty.
    Coffee is on

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  24. How beautiful! Our flowers are not blooming yet.

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  25. Beautiful! If you didn't say this is the desert, I would not believe these flowers are found in the desert!

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  26. Very colorful and beautiful picures.

    Bernhard

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  27. So beautiful with a lovely greenery

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  28. Here at 4,100 ft, the blooms have not arrived yet. Until they do, your pictures are such a treat!

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  29. Not sure what a typical spring bloom looks like there, but what you've got seems pretty "super" to me! Lucky you to enjoy all that color!

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  30. lots of wildflowers - so pretty!

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  31. It's always nice to see the colorful, but unusual, beauty of the desert blooms.

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  32. Very pretty flowers, looks unusual for me..

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  33. What a transformation! Isn't Nature just a stunning artist? All that, lying under the surface, waiting for some precipitation. So glad you were there to capture it and share it with us. Just not enough adjectives to describe it!!!

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  34. Such beauty. I loved the sudden burst of color in the arid areas of New Mexico after spring rains (if they happened). Bluebonnets remind me of spring in Texas.

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  35. These are beautiful. We have the blooming pretty well over here too. I need to get out again and find more.

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