It’s no superbloom, but one SLO County spot is still booming with wildflowers
After a drier-than-usual winter, San Luis Obispo County likely won’t see a “superbloom” this spring — but smaller patches of wildflowers still sprouted along Highway 58 and on the coast at the start of April.
The Carrizo Plain National Monument didn’t receive enough consistent rain to support wildflower growth like last year — when a carpet of yellow, purple and blue blooms coated the grassland, Carrizo Plain Conservancy President Neil Havlik said.
Instead, visitors will find a sea of grass dotted with the occasional yellow flower at the national monument this spring.
“It’s still beautiful out there in the Carrizo,” Havlik said. “It just isn’t going to be wildflowers.”
But flower fanatics aren’t entirely out of luck this year.
Here’s a guide to where to find wildflowers in San Luis Obispo County.
Wildflowers bloom along Shell Creek Road
Just east of Santa Margarita on Highway 58, tidy tips and California desert dandelions grew among patches of goldfields along Shell Creek Road.
Cotton ball clouds sailed east across the sky on the wind, while intermittent sprinkles of rain watered the blooms.
A handful of visitors admired the wildflowers on Wednesday as hawks cried overhead, woodpeckers tapped trees, crickets chirped and wind whispered through the grass. A rusty windmill and the occasional car on Highway 58 were the other sounds in the wind.
The property is part of Avenales Ranch, which boasted an “above-average” wildflower display on Wednesday, owner Daniel Sinton said.
“It’s better than it was last year, that’s for sure,” he said. “If we keep getting little bits of rain it could turn out to be a really good year.”
The Sintons want to share the beauty of the blooms, so they don’t prevent people from entering the property during wildflower season.
“We believe that we’re stewards of the land, not just for our own family, but for the community,” Sinton said. “We really appreciate that this gives the community a chance to experience outdoor space and what rangelands have to offer.”
He asked visitors to be respectful of the property. Don’t drive off of the road, don’t litter, don’t open any gates and keep to the paths to avoid stepping on flowers.
The Sinton family uses managed grazing techniques to support the wildflower blooms. A powerful growth of grasses can out-compete wildflowers, so the Sintons roll out the cattle on Shell Creek Road just before the flowers are expected to pop.
The cattle eat and trample the grass, which gives the flowers a chance to grow, Sinton said. Then, the next round of grasses tend of have deeper roots that last longer, providing more food for the cattle.
As a fifth-generation farmer, Sinton inherited these land management practices from his family, and he’ll pass them on to his children to continue to protect the land, he said.
“All across the state we’re losing land like ours to development,” he said “It’s just so important to support cattle (and) cattlemen to be able to sustain that kind of ranch land.”
Flowers spotted on SLO County coast
The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge was also peppered with flowers at the start of April, according to a receptionist at the Dunes Center.
Osos Flaco Lake is the best place to see the blooms, the receptionist said.
Flower enthusiasts can also join the Dunes Center on a hike from Osos Flaco Lake to Coreopsis Hill on April 12 from 9 a.m. to noon.
A botanist will lead the hike, pointing out bright yellow bunches of flowers known as giant coreopsis, the mustard-colored dune wallflower and soft purple crisp dune mint along the way.
The hike costs $5 for Dunes Center members and $10 for non-members, according to the website. Buy tickets online at dunescenter.org/event/coreopsis-hill-wildflower-hike.
Meanwhile, the Morro Bay Museum of Natural History offers guided nature walks for students and adults. Learn more at parks.ca.gov/?page_id=31273.
In Cambria, Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve will host its annual wildflower walk on May 3 from 10 a.m. to noon. A docent will lead the free, 2-mile walk down the bluff trail to enjoy the late spring flowers. Register online at fiscaliniranchpreserve.org/connect/event/index.php?id=267.
A lackluster bloom at the Carrizo Plain
Meanwhile, far fewer wildflowers poked out of the grass at the Carrizo Plain National Monument this spring, Havlik said.
“The rainfall this year just wasn’t conducive to a good establishment and bloom of our wildflowers,” he said.
Not only has it been a relatively dry year, but what little rain the grassland got fell inconsistently, so flower seeds likely didn’t have the chance to germinate.
A patch of flowers bloomed in a burn scar along Soda Lake Road, while other flowers grew in a plowed field off of Highway 58, Havlik said.
Undisturbed areas of the Carrizo Plain, however, remained relatively flower free, he said.
