I heard a rumor that April showers bring poppification to Antelope Valley, and by poppification, I mean the entire valley explodes into orange! I also heard that the dusty city of Lancaster hosts a yearly celebration to honor California’s state flower. With all this juicy travel gossip skipping around like water striders, I put on my hat and headed up to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve!
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Don’t spread rumors! It’s not nice! When I got to the reserve, there was no orange explosion at all! In fact, the poppies were barely peeking out of the silver grass, and those that were, had bundled up against the whooshing wind that blew my hat off twice! Feeling under-poppified, I hustled along the mile-long Tehachapi Loop, hoping to find a secret blanket of flowers, but alas, it was not to be. That didn’t mean there were no poppies at all, and I did find a patch or two for frolicking, making the trip more or less worthwhile.
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Before heading into town for the annual California Poppy Festival, I took another recommendation and trundled over to Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park. Imagine you are traveling down the road through the dusty grassland and you suddenly find yourself surrounded by a dense forest of juniper and Joshua trees! There was a line where the grass ended and the trees began, like a phalanx of desert plants! It was extraordinary!
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The park’s entrance was not so obvious: just a gate and a sign to the side of the road, all fenced in. Why the fence, you ask? Well, this park is all that remains of how Antelope Valley used to look before farmers brought in their sheep to eat the place up. That wasn’t very nice at all! So Mr. Ripley, who was also a farmer, decided it was time to preserve some of these spectacular trees for folks of the future to enjoy. Thus was born the park, small but stunning, and, I might add, home to the beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris)!
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When I finally arrived at the Poppy Festival, I found out that it was celebrating its 20th anniversary! What a coincidence! By the time I got inside, I was blown away by how much there was to see. I watched a Latin dance team performing zumba, bachata, tango, and salsa! I wanted to get up there and shake my tail with them, but they might have stepped on me by accident. If only I could find a dance partner at my height…
After some scrumptious tamales and a perfectly peachy smoothie, I got my shop on, or at least my browse. There were over 200 art and craft vendors! I got to talking with a few of them, artist folks and very talented. The first was Mr. Frank Dixon, who turns pensive people into terrific trees, er, Treetches. In the same booth, I met a nice lady named Geo May, who paints extraordinary pictures of Joshua tree people. I got chills just looking into their ferocious eyes. So intense!
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After a couple hours of walking around, I was plumb tuckered out, but that didn’t mean I had to slow down on my adventures. Oh no, I still had enough energy to add five new California Historic Landmarks to my list, starting with the Oak of the Golden Dream!
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In 1839, nine years before gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, Francisco Lopez y Arbello fell asleep under this tree and had a crazy dream that he was surrounded by gold. He woke up, probably giggled at how silly it was, and went to look for a snack. He found some wild onions and pulled them up. There were gold pieces attached to the roots! Holy crappie! Maybe I should have taken a nap under that tree too… Oh well! I won’t let that stop me from pressing on to new adventures, and you shouldn’t let it stop you either! Until next time, as they say in Italy…
Sogni d’oro!
