Cali Blossoms

Driving through Southern California last week, the desert was in full bloom...a little later than the Arizona timetable as the winter and early spring were somewhat cooler and wetter in Cali than farther east.  Here, near Desert Hot Springs, the brittlebush was still in full bloom under the snowcapped Mt San Gorgonio.

Claret cup cactus grow at elevations of 3-4 thousand feet in Joshua Tree NP.  Very showy!

Lenticular clouds above the joshuas.

JTNP rocks...always cool.

Lupines.

The numbah one claret cup!

Rocks, pinyon pines, and lennies.  Pleasantly surreal.

Not brilliant, but there was a carpet of goldfields among the joshua trees.

Wallace wooly daisies, according to my flower chart.  Only a couple inches high.

A teddy bear cholla cactus gets showy.  Caution is advised when shooting a closeup.

Mammatus clouds on a balmy morning in Twentynine Palms.  Looking east.

Looking west, lennies loom over carpets of desert dandelions.

A desert lily.  These don't bloom every year...it has to be fairly wet.  No problem in 2017!  There were many of them in this area, perhaps 20 miles east of 29 Palms.

Desert datura.  These plants are poisonous but, in measured doses, have been used as hallucinogens.

This pic was actually taken across the border at a rest area in Arizona.  A fine blooming paloverde with neat clouds.