Antelope Valley California Poppy State Natural Reserve

About Antelope Valley California Poppy State Natural Reserve

The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is scheduled for spring and autumn is a pleasant time to visit as the days are usually warm and milder. The park is open during the wildflower season, which usually lasts from mid-August to the end of October, except in the spring, autumn and winter months, but the duration and intensity of the colours and scents vary from year to year.

The quiet benches along the way are a good place to watch the singing skylarks and the quiet hawks flying above you. Leave the city and relax in the silence of the country, only the birds sing and a falcon glides silently over your heads. Hike and explore this wonderful place in any season, as the hills roll past, the asphalt sections for wheelchair users are included, and you should make sure you roll up and down the mountain and include them in your hike.

The Antelope Valley is set in a high desert landscape, making it a great place for hiking and camping. In the numerous caves along the way, you can see various animals such as deer, elk, coyotes, foxes and, with a little luck, coyotes or cats.

Since the railroad in the 1880s brought in recovered species, the pronghorn antelopes have grazed here. Sheep have grazed on the hills since the early 1970s, but the park administration has ruled them out.

As unpredictable as nature, the intensity and duration of wildflower blossoms vary annually, but the state's nature reserve sits on California's most consistent poppy fields. Desert and grassland share, to name but a few, the same species of poppy that produces a mosaic of colours and scents in spring. California State Parks do not water or use any other means to stimulate the flowers, and the land is preserved as if it were only affected by the natural forces that once affected the entire environment.

Although most of us are familiar with California's national parks, such as Yosemite National Park and the Grand Canyon, this is the place to visit. The vast views of the countryside offer brilliant colours and scents and is the perfect place for a walk through the wildflowers.

The reserve is located in Antelope Valley, California, about 15 miles west of Los Angeles, on the west side of the San Gabriel River. Drive 15 miles west and the avenue becomes Lancaster Road and you are at the entrance to the reserve, south of Lancaster.

Take Highway 138 East and turn right onto 170th Street West. Follow the road for two miles and then turn left onto Lancaster Road at the entrance to the reserve on the west side of the San Gabriel River.