Desert Lupine...

The Carrizo Badlands Overlook (and its immediate surrounds) is the place to go for the beautiful Desert Lupine (Lupinus sparsiflorus). On the hilltop right at the overlook, and on the east side of the road on both sides of it, these lupine grow by the tens of thousands.

Yesterday it was a bit early in the season to catch the lupine. Relatively few plants are in bloom (but even then there were thousands of them), but their color is particularly fresh and vibrant. If you visit a stand over the course of a few weeks, you'll see the colors change subtley over time as the sun fades them – they get less saturated, more purely blue, and less even.

As we walked around on the overlook, we could see that there were 10 or 20 lupine plants too young to bloom for each one that was in bloom. The plants are easy to spot because of their characteristic palmate leaves and their deep green color. My guess is that in a couple of weeks there will be a sea of lupine there (and I will be back to visit them!).

In past years that were good for wildflowers, the overlook area provided by far the most sumptuous displays in the southern Anza Borrego (at least, that I ever saw). The lupine were the centerpiece, but there are also several hillsides there that can be saturated with the yellows, whites, and blues of other desert wildflowers. If for some sad reason I was restricted to visiting only one site in the southern Anza Borrego, the Carrizo Badlands Overlook would be it...