Mexican Gold Poppies

I've seen small clusters of Mexican Gold Poppies while driving around for the past week or so. I had expected to see more with all the rain we've had this winter. Maybe I just wasn't looking the right way, though.

A Mexican Gold Poppy.

I drove through Bulldog Canyon on Thursday. Didn't see a lot of flowers. I stopped to wander around on the side of a ridge and wound up going to the top of the ridge. Along the way, I saw lots of gold poppies.

Several years ago, I had been trying to find a route to the top of this ridge. I didn't try much from the west side of the ridge because it didn't look like there were any feasible routes on that side. I accidentally found an easy one on Thursday, though. The hike was less than 3000 feet with only 300 feet of ups and downs. Well, it's a little further along a not-so-obvious route to the very top of the ridge, but I know that part already.

Click below to see all of the pictures. Also, I put a large panorama on my Panoramio page (link on the right).

2013_03_07