Big Bear Lake, CA: fashionably late wildflowers

At Southern California sites such as Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve and Joshua Tree National Park, the high season for wildflowers has come and gone. “The peak has passed and the flowers are fading fast!” warns the Antelope Valley website.

But at higher-elevation locales such as Big Bear Lake, California, the party is just getting started. You see, in and around this mountain town, the wildflowers are fashionably late.

The lupines, shooting stars and other flowers of innumerable colors and assortments have not just been lazing about. Rather, they have to wait for the leftover late-spring snows to melt before they get their time in the sun.

Even if you’ve been following the wildflower-bloom boom in other parts of the Southland, you’ll find something new in Big Bear: The vibrant troupe coming up will include varieties endemic to the local area, such as cushenberry buckwheat, Big Bear Valley phlox and ash gray paintbrush, to name a few.

The season is expected to last through July, with a peak expected in early June or earlier. According to a press release by BigBear.com, some of the best areas to see wildflowers this month include the lake’s north side and in Holcomb Valley.

Keep us posted on what you see during your Big Bear wildflower hunts.

— Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Photo: Large paintbrush; BigBear.com]

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at 2:24 pm by Susan Derby and is filed under California, Los Angeles, Summer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.