Superbloom painting rural eastern San Luis Obispo County landscape with stunning array of colors

CARRIZO PLAIN, Calif. -- The superbloom has returned back to the Central Coast, with its wide variety of flowers turning many of the hillsides and fields in rural eastern San Luis Obispo County into an amazing kaleidoscope of colors.

"The hills are completely painted with flowers and I really love that," said Santa Cruz resident Donna Karolchik while visiting Soda Lake lookout area on Friday morning. "The shadows on the hills and then all bright fields of flowers on the hills. You could paint, but it's hard to believe nature does that."

With the recent change of seasons, moving from an unusually wet winter into a typical spring, with warmer temperatures and drier conditions, has created ideal conditions for an explosion of wildflowers in the region, which is also known as a "superbloom."

"We had to endure some rain here, which was a huge benefit," said Justin Jang of San Luis Obispo, while visiting the Carrizo Plain on Friday. "We definitely needed the rain, but to also see the glory of everything here, everything blooming, the sun is shining down today and it's absolutely gorgeous."

All throughout the Carrizo Plain area, hillsides and fields have been temporarily turned into natural murals, with a stunning arrays of different flowers.

"It's absolutely gorgeous," said Jang. "Blues, purples and all the shades in between. It's really cool to see the variety, not just all the quantity of the flowers as well."

As word is beginning to spread the wildflowers are in blooming en masse, word is spreading near and far, which is attracting visitors to this typically very remote location.

"They are beautiful. We drove out this way specifically to be able to see the flower bloom and they are beautiful," said Audrey Hunter of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, who visited the Carrizo Plain on Friday. "I think a lot of people want to come out and see something that's unusual and not in their area and there are a quite a few people out here looking at the flowers and enjoying the beauty and the birds and the quiet."

While the roads out to the Carrizo Plain area were quiet on early Friday morning, by late morning and into the afternoon, many vehicles could be seen traveling Highway 58 and some of the area roadways, as hundreds of visitors traveled out to view the colorful landscape.

"It's just beautiful, the flowers and it's peaceful," said Karolchik. "There's crowds out here, but you can get away from the crowds easily and the birds are lovely."

As visitors come out to see the flowers, there are concerns about those getting a little bit too close, so the hope is that people will respectful and look on from a distance.

"It's hard for people to resist walking out in the flowers, but you can enjoy them so much from the paths and the road," said Karolchik. "Walking out in them just tramples them for everybody else, so it's easy to just enjoy them from the roadside."

Karolchik, who has been out to the area during previous superblooms, urged anyone interested to make sure they come out and plan a trip sometime soon.

"It's nature at its best and it's very transient," said Karolchik. "It will be here and as soon as it warms up, it will be gone, so you have to seize the moment while it's here and go look at it."

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