We've had pretty good rainfall in Northern California, but I had a big disappointment when I spent March in San diego. I've always wanted to see the spectacular desert wildflower display at Anza Borrego State Park, a vast area east of San Diego. I called their wildflower hotline, and they said not to bother coming. They had half an inch of rainfall all winter, and the flowers just didn't come out at all this spring.

After I got married in January, I moved to my wife's home in the Sierra Nevada foothills, a 45-minute drive northeast of Sacramento. We're at 2,300 feet (700 meters), on a west-facing ridge that gives us spectacular sunsets. Next door is a mile-square wooded area, with a creek running at the bottom of a steep ravine. The area has great trails, and it's full of wildflowers. We had trilliums early in spring, with subtle, dark flowers that were almost black. Then we had an unusually big crop of brodaeia, a very delicate blue flower. We also had lots of larkspur, a dark blue delphinium. We had a few sprinklings of star tulips, which are a vivid gold; and some delicate five-spots. We also had a nice crop of wild iris this year. The strawberry-like flowers of mountain misery cover a whole hillside in the ravine, with two dogwood trees at the bottom of the trail. The tiger lilies are growing well, but won't bloom until about July. We have lots of trees in blossom right now, particularly buckeye, lilac, and mock orange - the deer brush has already blossomed and gone.

That's just our woods. The American River Canyon, 1,200 feet deep, is just across the highway. If you click here you can see some of the wonderful wildflowers of our canyon. The canyon's wildflower season is more-or-less over for the season. Our last hike there was about three weeks ago - we still saw lots of poppies and lupine, and monkeyflowers everywhere. We'll follow spring higher into the Sierra through the end of August.

I think I'm glad I moved here.

-Joe Offer-