Southwestern U S Wildflowers

[Bob_Roller]

With all of the rain that the western and southwestern US has received in the last month, it's forecast to be a great year for wildflowers.

So if you have any plans to be in this area, late February, March and April sould be spectacular.

The view from work yesterday at Phoenix Skyharbor Airport ( after the rain had moved out), showed that South Mountain Park in Phoenix, was a faint shade of green already. It's usually just varying shades of brown.

South Mountain is the largest city park in the US, at a little over 16,000 acres (6500 hectares), has about 60 hiking and mountain bike trails, and you can drive to the top, about 1,000 ft ( 330 meters) above the surounding area, and on a clear day visibility is over 100 miles.

Just in case you happen to be the area before the hot season kicks in !

[msbuck]

My sister always wanted me to come visit her in Big Bend, Texas in April when the Blue Bonnets were in bloom.  Never did make it there before she moved back east to Atlanta.  Sounds like it'll be a great year for the flower viewing!

[Ed Miller]

Catch it before it's covered in solar panels!

I love the desert.  My mean parents moved me over here from Eastern Oregon when I was 8.  I'm still waiting to acclimate.

[Bob_Roller]

Ed,

It's pretty amazing how the landscape changes drastically as you travel east over the Cascade mountain range in Oregon.

I bet most people don't realize that a large part of Oregon, Washington and Idaho are high desert regions.

[msbuck]

Yeah, we were very surprised by that when we came out to the Pacific Northwest in 2004!  Although we traveled through the northern portion on the way out to the coast, we came through the desert regions on the way back.  Graham's bike lost his transmission spline in Prospect, Oregon and we U-hauled it back to Montana.  We were VERY glad for the air conditioned truck at that point!!  

Now we need to go back and finish up the trip we had to cut short.  

[Bob_Roller]

Prospect, Oregon, you could'nt have broken down more in the middle of no where if you tried !!

I went through there on a road trip in a cage in October, 1998, Crater Lake was quite a sight, and recommend it to anyone going through the area !

I met a rider on a K75 from New York in the visitors center there, wasn't overly happy with the weather conditions, it was 29 F, and he still had close to 3,000 miles to get back home !!!

[Bob_Roller]

Just recieved a monthly newsletter from the Furnace Creek Inn and Resort in Furnace Creek, CA., that's in Death Valley, they are expecting a great wild flower season, and if you plan ahead rooms aren't too bad price wise, $105-149 a night, so if you find yourself in Las Vegas in the next month or two,may be a side trip to take.

[suecanada]

Another good tip as David and I are intending to go through Oregon this summer after our travels to Gillette and Paonia and who knows where else. I would like to see the Pacific Ocean this summer and maybe do the PCH. But I hope to see Ed and take his advice on best routes. The west so far in our plans is one big empty travel map to be marked with red roads wherever any one suggests is great to ride! I have read that the Ouray, Telleride etc Hwy 550 in NM near the four corners is beautiful and really high up. Ya see I want to see real mountains and ride on roads amongst them.

[Bob_Roller]

There are so many great roads out here in the western US, it's hard to choose which ones to take.

You almost have too choose a 'region', and concentrate on the roads there, or the distances you have to travel, can get quite large.

[MrRiden]

Sue,
I can't recommend the PCH enough! Did it over a year ago and can't wait to run it again. You will have no regrets if you decide to take it. I'm so jealous of Melina living so close.
rich