Southern Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflowers 2019

Early season wildflower blooms in southern Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

This time - February 24, 2019 - I decided to check out the wildflowers in the southern part of the park for a change. Most people only visit the northern areas of the park around the town of Borrego Springs, but the park is huge and there is much more to see. Although I've been visiting the Anza-Borrego Desert for many years, I'm still discovering "new" areas to explore and camp. Unlike my previous visit, the sky was most clear and there was no wind.

As mentioned in previous posts, the very heavy rains in the last few weeks are causing a lot of early wildflower blooms. Note that this is NOT yet a super bloom and there is no guarantee that a super bloom will happen this year. There are nice areas of blooms in select locations, but not huge meadows or badlands full of blooms everywhere. It still could happen, but sometimes too much rain can carry the seeds away. Also, there were several days of freezing cold temperatures and heavy winds. Anyways, the general consensus is that in the the few week there will be a heavier than normal bloom to say the least. Be sure to check the Facebook groups, Anza-Borrego websites, and-or the visitor center if you're not too familiar with the park and wish to see some flowers. Don't make the mistake I made many years ago and just drive out to the desert expecting to see flowers - you need to know where to look.

The flowers in these photos include the desert sand verbena (Abronia villosa).
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