Tens of thousands converge on California ‘poppy apocalypse’

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South California city of Lake Elsinore is being overwhelmed by the power of the poppies.

About 150,000 people over the weekend flocked to see this year's rain-fed flaming orange patches of poppies lighting up the hillsides near the city of about 60,000 residents, about a 90-minute drive from either San Diego or Los Angeles.

People pose for photos among poppies in bloom, California, U.S. /VCG Photo

Lake Elsinore had tried to prepare for the crush of people drawn by the super bloom, a rare occurrence that usually happens about once a decade because it requires a wet winter and warm temperatures that stay above freezing.

It offered a free shuttle service to the top viewing spots, but it wasn't enough.

Sunday traffic got so bad that Lake Elsinore officials requested law enforcement assistance from neighboring jurisdictions. At one point, the city pulled down the curtain and closed access to poppy-blanketed Walker Canyon.

By Monday the #poppyshutdown announced by the city on Twitter was over and the road to the canyon was re-opened.

People pose for photos among poppies in bloom, California, U.S. /VCG Photo

Young and old visitors to the Lake Elsinore area snapped selfies against the natural carpet of iridescent orange.

Artists propped canvasses on the side of the trail to paint the super bloom, while drones buzzed overhead.

Stephen Kim and his girlfriend got to Lake Elsinore even before sunrise Sunday to beat the crowds but there were already hundreds of people.

The two wedding photographers hiked on the designated trails with an engaged couple to do a photo shoot with the flowers in the background, but they were upset to see so many people going off-trail and so much garbage. They picked up as many discarded water bottles as they could carry.

“You see this beautiful pristine photo of nature but then you look to the left and there are plastic Starbucks cups and water bottles on the trail and selfie sticks and people having road rage because some people were walking slower,” said Kim, 24, of Carlsbad.

In 2017, a rain-fed super bloom brought in more than a half-million visitors to the town of 3,500. Restaurants ran out of food. Gas stations ran out of fuel. Traffic backed up on a single road for 20 miles (32 kilometers).

The city is again experiencing a super bloom.

The crowds are back. Hotels are full. More than 6,000 people on a recent Saturday stopped at the visitor's center at the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California's largest park with 1,000 square miles (2,590 sq. kilometers).

But it helps that the masses of blooms are appearing in several different areas this time, and some sections are fading, while others are lighting up with flowers, helping to disperse the crowds a bit.

Most importantly, the town's businesses prepared this time as if a major storm was about to hit.

Source(s): AP