Travel

It's Bloom Time For America's Most Spectacular Wildflowers. Please Don't Ruin It!

You can look, but you can't touch.

Photo: Shutterstock; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist
Photo: Shutterstock; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist
Photo: Shutterstock; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist

We do love a good floral bloom in this country. Each spring, the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve re-emerges as a national treasure, carpeting the horizon in orange poppies sprinkled with fiddlenecks and forget-me-nots. It’s an explosive display of nature’s more painterly instincts, elevating a beige-ish desert landscape-coyotes, dirt, tumbleweeds-into technicolor.

It would be nice if we could simply collectively enjoy one of nature’s most spectacular displays without endeavoring to kill it, but unfortunately, there is something about the pollen and saturated colors and lure of Instagram clout that makes people forget how to act. For the past several years, Instagram influencers, in particular, have prompted tens of thousands to seek whimsical profile pics of drowning in poppies. Just out of the frame: the mangled swaths of all the flowers they’ve uprooted and crushed, and the hordes of other tourists doing the exact same thing.

In 2019, two enterprising and depraved visitors landed an actual helicopter in the fields, but don’t think it takes something that extreme to cause serious damage. Flowers are delicate! The damage you-just you, one single individual person-inflict from not sticking to the trail can mar the growth for years.Antelope Valley is home to Southern California‘s most consistent, vibrant, concentrated wildflower blooms, and therefore perhaps the most concentrated incidents of tourists being jerks. As early as 2008, the reserve was the site of a brawl between tourists going off-trail and tourists trying to stop them. Since 2017, it’s been under increasing threat from hordes of visitors under the influence of social media, who hamstring the poppies’ growth for years by going off-trail and trampling them. While the road of vigilante justice is perhaps not for everyone, at the very least make sure that you yourself are not contributing to the reserve’s destruction when you visit.

This should go without saying, but it apparently bears repeating over and over: Stay on the trails. Don’t pick flowers. Don’t smush them with your tripod. Don’t hop fences to get in (we know the line can be long! It’s worth it!). Please don’t lie down on top of them to make poppy angels. Please do not re-enact The Wizard of Oz. Why are you letting your dog off-leash here??Frustrated with the increased traffic and clogged parking options, many visitors have taken to simply abandoning their cars in the middle of the road to stop for pictures. This creates further traffic jams and can block, you know, emergency services for locals whose emergencies stem beyond “gotta get that selfie.”

“People are idiots,” said one LA resident who owns a ranch a few miles from the bloom. “They see the bloom and it’s like drivers in LA when it rains. They have no idea what’s going on. Remember your manners. I see people out there doing these photoshoots for Instagram… It’s such a fragile and fleeting ecosystem. If you’re not gentle, you ruin it for everybody else.”

It’s a happier approach to know that by abstaining from being an asshole this season, you’re part of the movement that will let the most people-including you-enjoy the flowers the longest. And keep in mind that stepping off the trails can get you a fine of several hundred dollars and that extra park rangers post up during peak season to ensure you are on your best behavior.

It’s not you, reader, whom we don’t trust; it’s everyone else. Now that that’s out of the way, here are some handy tips for how to see this corner of the world properly.

Photo: Getty; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist
Photo: Getty; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist
Photo: Getty; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist

Where to go to experience the bloom

Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is in northeast Los Angeles County, located about 70 miles north of LA (it’s a huge county) in the peacefully desolate countryside outside of Lancaster. In the reserve, you’ll find about eight miles of trails, the most popular parts of which are the North and South Loop trails.

Your first stop should be the visitor center, where you can get the latest updates about which parts of the reserve should be putting on the best show that day. You can download a trail map of the reserve here. You can also get updates from the Poppy Reserve Wildflower Hotline (661-724-1180) or get notifications-along with all the text and audio features of a good walking tour-on your smartphone from PoppyReserve.oncell.com. It’s easy to join a free walking tour IRL, too, though if you’re going with a big group you might want to reserve in advance by calling (661) 946-6092.

FYI, there’s a $10 dollar day-use fee, and thanks to COVID, parking and restrooms are limited.

Photo: Getty; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist
Photo: Getty; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist
Photo: Getty; Illustration: Emily Carpenter for Thrillist

When to visit the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve

The first of this season’s poppies started blooming in February around the North Loop Trail. Peak season varies but should fall sometime between the middle of March and the beginning of May. This year looks to be a modest bloom-there hasn’t been a ton of rain (thanks, climate change), and future precipitation and heat will determine just how much orange will blanket the fields this spring, and for how long.

Sometimes the peak blooms are there and gone in just two weeks before the valley begins reverting to its standard color palette (brown). The safest bet is to aim for early April-but, if you’re gonna make the trip, you do have to accept that whether it’ll be timed right or not is slightly out of your hands. Embrace nature’s inability to be governed by the desires of man (and yet so affected). That said, you can monitor the blooms on the reserve’s live stream, and you’ll probably have a good time regardless at the annual California Poppy Festival, which this year runs April 22–24. You might try to avoid St. Patrick’s Day weekend, which in the past has seen up to 100,000 people competing to get in.

Time of day is just as important as time of year. Poppies close up when it’s not sufficiently sunny and warm, or when the breeze gets too strong, so late morning is generally the window that gives you the best odds of the best blooms. By late afternoon, they’ll be starting to hunker back down for the night. Let them rest. They’ve had a long day of being sat on.Want more Thrillist? Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Kastalia Medrano is a New York-based journalist and avid traveler. Follow her @kastaliamedrano.

Travel

Ditch your Phone for ‘Dome Life’ in this Pastoral Paradise Outside Port Macquarie 

A responsible, sustainable travel choice for escaping big city life for a few days.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

The urge to get as far away as possible from the incessant noise and pressures of ‘big city life’ has witnessed increasingly more of us turn to off-grid adventures for our holidays: Booking.com polled travellers at the start of 2023 and 55% of us wanted to spend our holidays ‘off-grid’.  Achieving total disconnection from the unyielding demands of our digitised lives via some kind of off-grid nature time—soft or adventurous—is positioned not only as a holiday but, indeed, a necessity for our mental health. 

Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, an accommodation collection of geodesic domes dotted across a lush rural property in Greater Port Macquarie (a few hours’ drive from Sydney, NSW), offers a travel experience that is truly ‘off-grid’. In the figurative ‘wellness travel’ sense of the word, and literally, they run on their own independent power supply—bolstered by solar—and rely not on the town grid. 

Ten minutes before you arrive at the gates for a stay at Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, your phone goes into ‘SOS ONLY’. Apple Maps gives up, and you’re pushed out of your comfort zone, driving down unsealed roads in the dark, dodging dozens of dozing cows. Then, you must ditch your car altogether and hoist yourself into an open-air, all-terrain 4WD with gargantuan wheels. It’s great fun being driven through muddy gullies in this buggy; you feel like Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park.  As your buggy pulls in front of your personal Nature Dome, it’s not far off that “Welcome…to Jurassic Park” jaw-dropping moment—your futuristic-looking home is completely engulfed by thriving native bushland; beyond the outdoor campfire lie expansive hills and valleys of green farmland, dotted with sheep and trees. You’re almost waiting to see a roaming brachiosaurus glide past, munching on a towering gum tree…instead, a few inquisitive llamas trot past your Dome to check out their new visitor. 

To fully capture the awe of inhabiting a geodesic dome for a few days, a little history of these futuristic-looking spherical structures helps. Consisting of interlocking triangular skeletal struts supported by (often transparent) light walls, geodesic domes were developed in the 20th century by American engineer and architect R. Buckminster Fuller, and were used for arenas. Smaller incarnations have evolved into a ‘future-proof’ form of modern housing: domes are able to withstand harsh elements due to the stability provided by the durable materials of their construction and their large surface area to volume ratio (which helps minimize wind impact and prevents the structure from collapsing). As housing, they’re also hugely energy efficient – their curved shape helps to conserve heat and reduce energy costs, making them less susceptible to temperature changes outside. The ample light let in by their panels further reduces the need for artificial power. 

Due to their low environmental impact, they’re an ideal sustainable travel choice. Of course, Tom’s Creek Nature Domes’ owner-operators, Cardia and Lee Forsyth, know all this, which is why they have set up their one-of-a-kind Nature Domes experience for the modern traveller. It’s also no surprise to learn that owner Lee is an electrical engineer—experienced in renewable energy—and that he designed the whole set-up. As well as the off-grid power supply, rainwater tanks are used, and the outdoor hot tub is heated by a wood fire—your campfire heats up your tub water via a large metal coil. Like most places in regional Australia, the nights get cold – but rather than blast a heater, the Domes provide you with hot water bottles, warm blankets, lush robes and heavy curtains to ward off the chill.

nature domes port macquarie
Photo: Nature Domes

You’ll need to be self-sufficient during your stay at the Domes, bringing your own food. Support local businesses and stock up in the town of Wauchope on your drive-in (and grab some pastries and coffee at Baked Culture while you’re at it). There’s a stovetop, fridge (stocked as per a mini bar), BBQs, lanterns and mozzie coils, and you can even order DIY S’More packs for fireside fun. The interiors of the Domes have a cosy, stylish fit-out, with a modern bathroom (and a proper flushing toilet—none of that drop bush toilet stuff). As there’s no mobile reception, pack a good book or make the most of treasures that lie waiting to be discovered at every turn: a bed chest full of board games, a cupboard crammed with retro DVDs, a stargazing telescope (the skies are ablaze come night time). Many of these activities are ideal for couples, but there’s plenty on offer for solo travellers, such as yoga mats, locally-made face masks and bath bombs for hot tub soaks. 

It’s these thoughtful human touches that reinforce the benefit of making a responsible travel choice by booking local and giving your money to a tourism operator in the Greater Port Macquarie Region, such as Tom’s Creek Nature Domes. The owners are still working on the property following the setbacks of COVID-19, and flooding in the region —a new series of Domes designed with families and groups in mind is under construction, along with an open-air, barn-style dining hall and garden stage. Once ready, the venue will be ideal for wedding celebrations, with wedding parties able to book out the property. They’ve already got one couple—who honeymooned at the Domes—ready and waiting. Just need to train up the llamas for ring-bearer duties! 

An abundance of favourite moments come to mind from my two-night stay at Tom’s Creek: sipping champagne and gourmet picnicking at the top of a hill on a giant swing under a tree, with a bird’s eye view of the entire property (the ‘Mountain Top picnic’ is a must-do activity add on during your stay), lying on a deckchair at night wrapped in a blanket gazing up at starry constellations and eating hot melted marshmallows, to revelling in the joys of travellers before me, scrawled on notes in a jar of wishes left by the telescope (you’re encouraged to write your own to add to the jar). But I’ll leave you with a gratitude journal entry I made while staying there. I will preface this by saying that I don’t actually keep a gratitude journal, but Tom’s Creek Nature Domes is just the kind of place that makes you want to start one. And so, waking up on my second morning at Tom’s —lacking any 4G bars to facilitate my bad habit of a morning Instagram scroll—I finally opened up a notebook and made my first journal entry:

‘I am grateful to wake up after a deep sleep and breathe in the biggest breaths of this clean air, purified by nature and scented with eucalyptus and rain. I am grateful for this steaming hot coffee brewed on a fire. I feel accomplished at having made myself. I am grateful for the skittish sheep that made me laugh as I enjoyed a long nature walk at dawn and the animated billy goats and friendly llamas overlooking my shoulder as I write this: agreeable company for any solo traveller. I’m grateful for total peace, absolute stillness.” 

Off-grid holiday status: unlocked.

Where: Tom’s Creek Nature Domes, Port Macquarie, 2001 Toms Creek Rd
Price: $450 per night, book at the Natura Domes website.

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