Go see the wildflowers in season
–Spring often comes early to San Luis Obispo County. Abundant rains in early winter months followed by lazy warm days bring out the best of nature’s displays – wildflowers.
Probably the most popular spot for folks who love wildflowers is found in the eastern part of the county way out Highway 58. You can’t miss it in a good flower year. As you approach Shell Creek Road the fields are bursting with miles of yellow flowers. People come by busloads to see the spectacle and to take photographs.
Wildflowers you might see there are goldfields, tidy tips, baby blue eyes, owl’s clover, poppies, and several varieties of lupine. Farther down Highway 58 is the Carrizo Plain and more of the same flowers.
While the Shell Creek Road display is the epitome of wildflower viewing, flowers grow everywhere in the open spaces of the county. Where should you look? Check the sides of the roads. Mustard plants are sometimes the first plants to show up in fields and alongside the edges of highways. Other areas to watch for would be places where rain runoff occurs or any area near a stream, rocky outcrops, open grasslands, woodlands, orchards, and chaparral-covered hillsides.
To view this complete story, visit the San Luis Obispo County Visitor’s Guide.
Editor’s note: Use caution not to trample wildflowers and respect wildlife.
