California's Gold

If anyone has ever seen Huell Howser's show on PBS, you will know it is called "California's Gold." Here's a view which fits that description perfectly.

I took a trip up again to Sunrise Highway, which is up in the mountains, east of San Diego. I decided to leave a little before sunrise, so I can get better light and have a better blue in the sky. Well, I got sidetracked along Sunrise Highway. So this photo was taken 2-2 1/2 hours after sunrise. Still early enough to get some nice shots of the wildflowers.

The wildflower you see dominating the landscape in this photo is called Blennosperma, which is Greek for "slimy seed." But, this is more commonly known as Stickyseeds. I went up last week, as well. But, this week, I noticed this wildflower move more across the landscape. I also started noticing the other dominate wildflower, which we should really start seeing in the next few weeks, the Tidy Tips, starting to sprout up. There will also be some nice lavender, reddish, and purple flowers popping up shortly. So the stickyseeds will have some company soon enough.

I plan on taking another drive up this way next weekend and to check out the progression of the other wildflowers I saw breaking through all this yellow and gold tones.  Along Cuyamaca Lake, I started seeing patches here and there. That should really start popping up by next weekend and be fuller. I think this will be pretty good throughout most of this month.  If you are local, take a drive up this way, preferably early in the morning.