The superbloom: It’s a Southern California phenomenon that incites glee within the hearts and minds of Angelenos, and frustration into the lives of native officers. In 2019, the final important superbloom — brought on by a excessive focus of dormant wildflower seeds lastly getting the moist situations wanted to blow up into existence unexpectedly — led to visitors jams and parking points, in addition to overwhelmed mountain climbing trails, with guests typically trampling the very flowers they had been there to see.
This yr, the city of Lake Elsinore in Riverside County, an epicenter of the 2019 poppy superbloom, is shutting off entry to fashionable Walker Canyon trails as a way to keep away from the “Disneyland-sized crowds” that confirmed up 4 years in the past. Fortunately, there’ll possible be various locations to see superblooms up shut. One neighborhood embracing its floral abundance is the Cuyama Valley, a hall of low, rolling hills with wealthy soil and loads of solar. And whereas flower peeping has its charms, there’s a lot extra within the valley to see and do.
Only a two-hour drive from Los Angeles, the realm nicknamed the Hidden Valley of Enchantment lies north of the Sierra Madre mountain vary and Los Padres Nationwide Forest. Traditionally a area for farming and cattle grazing, the valley flipped to grease fields within the Nineteen Fifties when the Richfield Oil Corp. struck a vein close to the tiny city of Cuyama, close to the Carrizo Plain. By the Nineties, the oil fields had been practically spent; Richfield had been absorbed into what’s now the gasoline station conglomerate referred to as ARCO; and farmers and ranchers began reclaiming many of the land once more. As you flip off I-5 and head west down Freeway 166, you’ll see indicators of those worlds coexisting as you move by rows of citrus orchards, carrot fields, grazing cattle and the occasional lazy oil rig. (There’s one other, arguably extra scenic, solution to get right here, however Freeway 33 from Ojai to Cuyama was closed on the time of publication; test forward for reopening.)
As you climb the foothills simply previous the town of Taft, be looking out for the “Welcome to the Cuyama Valley” signal planted firmly up on a bluff. That is the place the enchantment begins. Blink on the incorrect time and also you’ll miss the previous boomtown of New Cuyama, the very best place to hunker down on your weekend of flower peeping (and extra). With a present inhabitants of simply 550, the city consists of small homes, a park and a college, which had been all in-built 1951 to deal with Richfield’s oil staff and their households; a small airport and a motel had been added to accommodate visiting executives. That motel has now been restored as a contemporary roadside resort referred to as the Cuyama Buckhorn. From bikers to day trippers to locals, all roads lead right here.
Whether or not you’re checking in for a fast escape from the town to discover the Carrizo Plain Nationwide Monument or grabbing a chew to eat earlier than looking down the proper patch of wildflowers, be sure you take a minute to completely recognize your environment. From wine and mead tastings to mountain climbing within the close by Sierra Madre mountains to attending to know native olive growers, the Cuyama Valley gives a lot greater than the superbloom.
Listed below are 11 issues to see and do when you’re within the Hidden Valley of Enchantment.
