The “Super Bloom”, a flowering phenomenon that colors the plains of California each spring, is particularly intense this year. Just like the affluence it attracts, destructive.
Suspended in her harness 50 meters above the ground, Triana Montserrat zips down a zip line above a dazzling bed of wild flowers: orange, yellow, purple, white… The mountains of the Skull Canyon of Corona, in the hinterland of Los Angeles, amaze him. “It almost looks like a painting, with all these different colors,” blows the young woman, blown away by the intensity of the “Super Bloom”, an exceptional flowering that hits California after several spring absences.
“It’s so intricate and beautiful,” she raves, after hovering over the patterns carved along the slopes by California poppies, “encelia farinosa” and lupines. “I couldn’t have imagined that!” The American West Coast had not experienced a super bloom since 2019. Rare, this phenomenon only manifests itself when heavy rains occur after several years of drought. The arid land, cleared of weeds, then gave birth to wild flowers by the thousands, whose germs struggled to find a place.
An ocean of colors
The particularly harsh winter that hit California, with its series of storms and near-record rainfall, enabled this delicate alchemy to be achieved this year. As a result, the hills of the “Golden State” and some of its deserts are covered in an ocean of color visible from space. But the return of this impressionist nature, which has long fascinated Spanish missionaries and great pens of American literature, resonates differently in a world dominated by Instagram and TikTok.
Three kilometers from the slopes where Triana hovers, a hiking trail is closed to the public because of over-tourism: the nearby town of Lake Elsinore bars access to Walker Canyon with gates, monitored by a patrol car. The authorities refuse to relive the “apocalypse” of 2019. Tens of thousands of visitors then invaded this path and created monster traffic jams paralyzing the region. Worthy of Disneyland, the crowd of influencers and tourists obsessed with selfies did not hesitate to park on the side of the highway, to go and get their shot in the middle of the wildflowers.
“I wanted to make sure that future generations could enjoy it”
“It was a nightmare! They trampled everything and crushed a lot of the flowers,” says Pete Liston, the owner of the Skull Canyon zipline. Four years later, “nothing has grown back” on the anarchic traces left by the vandals. Faced with the closure of the public trail, its adventure park is seeing its clientele increase this spring. Many nature lovers use its zip line to admire the 2023 “Super Bloom” vintage, without damaging the environment.
A hiking enthusiast, Triana Montserrat wanted to be in the front row while minimizing its impact on the reproduction of flowers. “I wanted to make sure that future generations could enjoy it,” explains this cook, who approves of the closure of the neighboring canyon as a “necessary” measure. As an alternative, the City of Lake Elsinore offers visitors the opportunity to observe the flowers of Walker Canyon on its website, thanks to a live camera. An intransigence far from being unanimous, even among the defenders of the flora.
Protect the flowers, don’t crush them and be careful where you step
Each “Super Bloom” is a “moment of awareness that allows the public to connect with nature and generate enthusiasm for biodiversity”, underlines Evan Meyer, director of the Theodore Payne Foundation, an organization which tries to distribute the crowds with a toll-free number informing about the latest blooms. “By closing Walker Canyon, Lake Elsinore sends the exact opposite message.”
More worried about real estate development in the hills of the region than the irresponsibility of a minority of Instagrammers, this specialist calls for “developing an ethic to appreciate nature”. An effort supported by the Skull Canyon guides. Between two lengths of zip line, they remind visitors that it is forbidden to pick the California poppy, whose bright orange inspired the nickname of the “Golden State”. Just like other wildflowers for that matter.
Photography enthusiasts like Lisa Mayer are however welcome. After missing out on 2019’s “Super Bloom,” this Los Angeles shopkeeper is shooting the mountains from every angle with her smartphone. The pictures will end up on Instagram, recognizes the forties. But she will accompany them with captions reminding us to “protect the flowers, not crush them and be careful where we walk”.