Southern California Superbloom is Super

A green hillside near Elizabeth Lake has put on its coat of many colors (Photo – Reg Green)

Our family piled into the car this week and 90 minutes later were in Antelope Valley (near Lancaster) to see the millions of orange and yellow poppies, nourished by the recent extraordinary rain.

By Reg Green

After savoring the sights alongside route 14, which was full of other families doing exactly what we were doing, we drove west and were shortly nearly alone enjoying the spectacle.

We came home, not by retracing our steps, but by driving southwest to Santa Clarita and were rewarded by completely different views on the steep drop to Route 5.

There was another bonus to this plan: we crossed the California aqueduct, carrying 650 million gallons of water a day, without which Pasadena would be a much thirstier place. Its grandeur, as it runs majestically and relentlessly along the hillsides, always awes me. (Keep the kids well away from the edge, however. If they fall in, nothing can save them).

California Aqueduct, Southern California’s lifeline (Photo – Reg Green)