A profusion of poppies: Spectacular ‘superbloom’
Southern California canyon and city overwhelmed by flower fanatics
One day after Lake Elsinore announced it was closing access to the popular poppy fields in Walker Canyon, city officials on Monday reopened the entrance to the fields, which have been overrun during this year’s “superbloom.”
Officials estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people visited the canyon each day over the weekend, causing gridlock and traffic jams that overwhelmed the city.
The rare profusion of orange poppies in Walker Canyon, set in the Temescal Mountains and accessible on foot via a trail, owes thanks to above-average rainfall in the arid region. The profusion of tourists in Lake Elsinore, located about 70 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles, apparently owes thanks to the popularity of Instagram.
The hashtag #superbloom had been used over 100,000 times on Instagram as of Monday.
Lake Elsinore has never seen such a huge influx of visitors or such an enormous bloom, Mayor Steve Manos said.
“We don’t have the infrastructure to support those numbers,” he said. “We’re going to be changing our plan of attack.”
Before the flowers bloomed, the city had anticipated large crowds and opened parking lots to accommodate visitors. But the reality was
“This year’s is substantially larger than we’ve ever seen in terms of the numbers of flowers and the numbers of visitors.”
— Nicole Dailey, Lake Elsinore City Hall spokeswoman
far worse than they imagined, Manos said.
The city of 63,300 has seen 50,000 tourists from around the country and as far away as Europe come to the 3.5-mile trail in Walker Canyon over the last two weeks to take in the orange flowers carpeting the surrounding hills.
The crowds have been so overwhelming that the city of Lake Elsinore shut Walker Canyon for a day Sunday to staunch the tourist flood and declared a public safety crisis. The city reopened Walker Canyon on Monday.
“This year's is substantially larger than we've ever seen in terms of the numbers of flowers and the numbers of visitors,” Lake Elsinore City Hall spokeswoman Nicole Dailey said. The previous superbloom occurred in 2017.
Over the weekend, the city began offering a shuttle service to Walker Canyon from the Outlets at Lake Elsinore for $5 per person in an attempt to alleviate traffic on Interstate 15 and surrounding surface streets.
Officials closed some roads to residents and designated a shuttle-only lane on the freeway. But by 2 p.m., traffic overload had stymied efforts to smooth the way for visitors, who were subject to hourslong waits.
By 4 p.m., it became clear the city had to call it quits. Access to Walker Canyon was shut down about 5 p.m.
The city is now re-evaluating how best to handle all the sightseers. In a Facebook post with a hashtag advising residents to “hang in there,” officials say Lake Elsinore is working on a new plan for the coming weekend.
“At this time, it is not feasible for us to keep visitors away from #WalkerCanyon,” the post said.
Some local residents have expressed outrage at the crowds and resulting gridlock, dubbing the superbloom season the “Poppy Apocalypse.” The hashtags #PoppyNightmare and #IsitOverYet have also popped up on social media.
Lake Elsinore has enlisted the help of the California Highway Patrol, the Riverside County sheriff's office, neighboring cities and private contractors to manage traffic around Walker Canyon, which has no designated public parking.
Rain in the forecast this week might deter some tourists from coming — or it could cause even more poppies to bloom and attract even more tourists. Dailey said she hoped wet weather would bring some relief for locals.
“We did not expect the crowds that we saw,” she said. “Our freeways and our cities are not designed for crowds that you see in L.A.”