I had a friend in town for a conference that I had met playing Fallout 76. We got to talking and found out we both have a passion for photography and he would be visiting in March for a conference. Fortunately for him there are some super blooms of poppies and lupine going on around the central to southern part of Arizona. In my head I’m thinking Saturday afternoon is perfect. We planned on meeting on the way to Horsheshoe Dam Rd. near Bartlett Lake. Phoenix was showing cloudy weather and even on zoom.earth an hour before arriving they looked like cirrus cloud cover, those are the ones that look like brush strokes.
Here’s a couple flowers to look at.
Well that didn’t last for long. I don’t know if it was the mountains, but it was probably the mountains that created some rain clouds directly over our route. Mountains kind of act like a wall where wind is forced up combining with cold moist air and creating (condensing into) thicker clouds that rained on our short road trip to find poppies. There was even a little thunder and lighting. My friend was a bit nervous about me driving a low clearance vehicle on a dirt road and talking about how flash flooding made all the deep cuts of erosion we were avoiding on the road and shoulders.
My friend got over any apprehensions pretty quick as we found our first field of poppies. The poppies also answered his question, “Do you think the flowers will be closed up?” They sure were in a state of nyctinasty. The petals that usually bare all to the shining sun were in fact rolled up tight. They did however still provided brilliant colors in a dramatic environment as we cleared the storm cell.
The mountain ranges were contrasting each other as the sun shone through breaks in the sky and sharp shadows covered other areas in the distance. Almost like a spotlight made to direct attention to the beauty of the green valleys full of old Saguaros standing tall like soldiers with sporadic patches of yellow poppies. Ah the Super Bloom!
We stopped a few times until we reached a point I wasn’t so sure my Hyundai Sonata could pass. A small stream was crossing the road with some soft sand and an ankle deep pool with some good sized rocks. Although I did ask the people near by how much they would pay me to try. A beer and help getting unstuck was the final offer. Well look at the time! We gotta get back to the top of the hills if we want to catch the sunset.
I drove carefully back through the storm that seemed to park itself over the worst parts of the road. We passed by an unfortunate family stuck in an area that was not meant for passenger cars. Luckily everyone one was friendly in trucks and jeeps and a couple decided to stop. Well almost everyone was cool. We had a red-orange Tacoma go flying by with in a foot of my parked car earlier. I’m surprised they didn’t throw their empty beer cans at us.
We arrived back on the paved road to an area with a decent view of the horizon. I had pointed the section out early as our fall back position if things didn’t go well. As my friend put it. It turned out to be an Epic Sunset. The view east had some of the most vivid colors at the start of the golden hour with clouds just barely light enough to hover over the mountain peaks.
Then to the west as the sun sunk behind the mountains, the light created a lustrous yellow glow that slowly turned into orange, pinks and purples with the last perceivable light before complete darkness passed the blue hour.
We may not have seen the Super Bloom in it’s full glory. Hell, it was even a little chilly and questionable if I made the right choice. As you can see sometimes plans go sideways, but if you persevere and stay malleable, plans can turn out better than expected. I’m glad my friend trusted me and nature delivered on the goods.
