If you think the desert is just a barren wasteland of sand and rock, you’d be wrong. I have a special love of the desert, especially the Mohave and Joshua Tree area, and I know the desert is home to a vast diversity of beautiful plants that happen to also be extremely water efficient. Most of the year these plants hunker down and survive, having access to very little water, but in the spring after winter rains, the desert blooms like a many hued carpet. I have never seen the desert bloom: it’s hard to time, since it doesn’t happen at the same time every year. And with a child in school, it’s hard to drop everything and head out.

That said, if you do have time and are close to southern California, you can go now and experience one of the most spectacular blooms, being called a super bloom, in a long time. We’ve had a lot of rain this winter, considerably more than the last 10 years, and it’s resulting in a explosion of life in the normally driest areas.

http://www.abdnha.org/pages/03flora/reports/current.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/california-desert-anza-borrego-super-bloom/

http://www.scpr.org/news/2017/03/10/69782/catch-southern-california-s-wildflower-super-bloom.amp