Saturday Apr 8 – 9, 2017
It has been raining a lot in California that the wild flowers are blooming every where, the press calls it “Super Bloom”; it has been so long that we have a good wild flowers year so we decided to check out Carrizo Plain National Monument where people say that the flowers are in full bloom. It’s a 4 hours drive from Santa Ana so we decided to stay 1 night in some town near Carrizo Plain so that William would not feel tired of too much driving. I booked the hotel in Santa Maria town without knowing that there’s no road that goes from Soda Lake Rd to 166 thus we had to drive a big circle to get to our hotel in Santa Maria (58 –> 101)
Spend 1 night in Santa Maria @Best Western Plus, right off on freeway 101 on Broadway st.
Saturday, left house around 6:20 AM, William woke up when we carried him to the car and would not go back to sleep. First stop is at Gorman (there’s no wild flowers at all on the hills) to have breakfast at Carl’s Jr.. Continue driving on 5 N – 166 W – Soda Lake Rd to enter the Carrizo Plain National Monument on the South entrance. There were not that many flowers on the south of the park, lots more flowers at the north of the park. We drove along the Soda Lake Rd, then stopped by the Goodwin Education Center for some information. They said the best flowers found on the Elkhorn road. But it was 3 PM and we didn’t have much gas left so we decided to go to the hotel and visit Elkhorm Rd tomorrow. Lunch time William refused to eat the spaghetti soup that we heated up using a small slow cooker plugged into the cigaret plug, so I gave him a bottle of water and then he felt asleep.
To get to the hotel we’d have to take 58 and then 101, it’s about 2 hours drive; but along the 101 we stopped at the Avila Beach and Pismo beach so the drive didn’t feel that long. From Avila town, before going back to 101 free way to get to the hotel, we stopped by a McDonald, bought some chicken nuggets and Strawberry Banana smoothie, Moca Frap because I thought William might be hungry. William only ate 1 chicken nugget but he ate lots of fries. I tried to feed him the smoothie but he preferred the Moca Frap better. There’s no gas or restaurants along the 58 but it’s a very nice curvy road along the mountain. Finally we got to the hotel around 7 PM. William loved the bed, he climbed on it when we first got in. Our room was 226, at the end, on the 2nd floor. Pool and Spa is under construction so no access at this time. Gave William a good warm bath, then we fed him spaghetti soup, he finished the whole can. Tim & I had a quick diner: instant noodle.
Next morning, after breakfast at the hotel, left the hotel around 8:30 AM, stopped by a Mexican market near by to get a pack of hot dogs and jello for William because yesterday he didn’t eat the spaghetti soup; and there’s no foods sold inside the park. We chose 101 – 166 – Soda lake road – Elkhorn road. So we started at the South entrance again and then made a right turn which is next to the information stand to get to the Elkhorn Rd. The road is uphill and then down hill. It’s a dirt road so whenever a car pass by, dirt is all over the place. No internet service, no phone signal, no GPS, no maps so we were kinda lost after a while driving because we were not sure if we were on Elkhorn road or not. Lucky for us we met some nice people camping along the way, they gave us a map and told us to keep going. William at this time is too tired of sitting in the car seat so I let him out to sit next to me; our car was moving very slowly so I would not think that would be dangerous to William. Finally we reached the destination the we were looking for: hills filled with purple and yellow flowers. We made a right turn to the parking area to get closer to the hills. Here I met my friends Phuoc & Hanh and their little 3 year old boy Minh. Then I hiked 1 hour further into the hill sides while Tim stayed in the car to watch William; he was sleeping.
The next crowded spot: Wallace Creek; lots of people stopped by this place and hiking on the trails. The hills were filled with lots of flowers than other previous hills at that we stopped at. William was now awake and didn’t look happy so we didn’t stay long at this location.
Continue on the Elkhorn road and make a right turn to get to freeway 58, we were surprised to see lots of yellow flowers along the road and the hills. We stopped here and took a few pictures and then headed home because it was getting late.
Stopped by the In and Out burger at the The Outlets of Tejon to fill up gas and have dinner. William must be hungry because he ate some piece of burger with cheese and lots of fries. He especially loved the lemonade. We got home about 9:30 PM. William ran straight to bed, happily sat on the bed and play with his toys.
There was lots of driving in this trip but this was the first time that I’ve seen so many flowers in my life. They’re so beautiful and Tim was so nice to watch the boy and encourage me to hike to watch flowers if I want to. Thank you hubby!