California's Last Great Grassland

An explosion of color, an untouched landscape, and the horrifying scars that threaten its borders.

If you’ve never stood on a ridge at Carrizo Plain during a superbloom, feeling the wind stir fields of golden poppies while the hillsides pulse with color like something straight out of a Van Gogh painting, you’re missing one of California’s greatest hidden wonders.

For most of the year, this place is a quiet, sunbaked grassland—California’s largest still-intact native prairie. But when the conditions align, when the winter rains soak the soil just right, Carrizo Plain becomes something else entirely. Hillsides glow with yellow coreopsis. Vast fields of California poppies, baby blue eyes, and purple phacelia blanket the landscape. Even the cracked salt flats of Soda Lake seem to shimmer under the weight of it all.

And the best part? Unlike the wildflower hotspots in Anza-Borrego or Antelope Valley, you don’t have to fight through lines of traffic to see it.

When to Go

Wildflower season at Carrizo Plain typically peaks between March and April, but timing is everything. Some years, the bloom is fleeting. Other years—like the legendary superbloom of 2017—the hills are so saturated with color they can be seen from space. The secret? Rain. If the winter brings enough precipitation (and this year is shaping up to be promising), the show could be spectacular.

We visited in 2017, witnessing the epic bloom firsthand with our dad. That trip left a lot of memories, but one moment in particular still makes us laugh. The morning before sunrise, we were in the hotel lobby when we spotted a photographer gearing up for the day. He reached the coffee machine—only to discover it was out. He stood there, frozen, then started to visibly shake before unleashing one of the loudest public F-bombs I’ve ever heard. Then, just as dramatically, he stormed out.

Hours later, we saw him again—this time, gleefully frolicking through the wildflower meadows. The sight was apparently enough to turn even his mood around. That, or a stop at Starbucks along the way. We’ll never know.

What Makes Carrizo Plain So Special?

Carrizo Plain National Monument is one of the last great undeveloped grasslands in California—a 246,000-acre expanse of rolling hills, alkali flats, and dramatic ridgelines. It’s one of those places that, in any other state, would be on the welcome billboards, featured in glossy travel ads, or stamped onto the license plate. But California has so much natural splendor that places like Carrizo Plain somehow end up overlooked.

That might be why so many people have never heard of it.

But step into it, and you won’t forget it. When the bloom is on, waves of color stretch unbroken to the horizon—oranges, yellows, and purples carpeting the hills in a display so vivid it feels like a mirage. Some of the wildflowers here—like the California jewelflower and the San Joaquin woolly threads—are found almost nowhere else on Earth. The Temblor Range, which frames the monument to the northeast, lights up in brilliant neon bands of color, the hills streaked in yellow and purple. All that’s missing is Julie Andrews twirling around with a picnic blanket and a song.

And then there’s the silence.

Carrizo Plain isn’t just a feast for the eyes—it’s a treat for the ears as one of the quietest places in the state. Stand anywhere in the vastness of it, and you might hear nothing but the wind moving through the grass. No traffic. No hum of distant civilization. Just space.

Until, of course, you leave the monument’s boundaries.

Where the Bloom Ends and the Hellscape Begins

Carrizo Plain feels like a glimpse of what California once was—before the highways, before the subdivisions, before the oil fields. And nothing makes that contrast clearer than the drive down the eastern side of the monument toward the town of Reward—a name that feels like some oilman’s cruel joke.

One moment, you’re surrounded by rolling green hills bursting with wildflowers, the land preserved and protected. Then you crest the ridge—and it’s gone. The hillsides are stripped to sand and dust. The green fades to a barren wasteland of oil derricks, rusted pipes, and pools of toxic waste stretching to the horizon. No flowers. No wildlife. Just the relentless machinery of extraction, carving away at what was once a part of the same untouched landscape.

We sat in silence, taking it in—the stark, violent contrast between the magnificently cared-for monument and the wanton destruction just beyond its borders. It was the kind of thing you can’t unsee.

And then, as if to make the whole experience even more surreal, we checked into our hotel that night to find the walls adorned with artwork celebrating the region’s proud oil heritage. There we were, fresh from the high of witnessing one of the most spectacular natural events in the world, staring at framed images glorifying the very industry that had stripped so much of the land bare.

It was a strange, jarring reminder of just how fragile places like Carrizo Plain really are.

The Fight to Keep Carrizo Wild

Carrizo Plain might feel untouched, but that’s only because people have fought to keep it that way. For years, oil companies have tried to stake their claim here, with active drilling operations just beyond the monument’s borders. In 2020, the Center for Biological Diversity and Los Padres ForestWatch filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to stop new drilling projects within the monument. After a long legal battle, a settlement was reached in August 2022, requiring the permanent closure and removal of 11 long-dormant oil wells and the restoration of damaged habitats. In August 2023, the BLM formally ordered the oil company to close and decommission the wells, marking a significant victory for conservationists.

But it was a close call, and the fight isn’t over. Without continued protections, places like this don’t stay wild forever. That’s the reality of public lands—they’re only safe as long as we care enough to fight for them.

If you want to help keep Carrizo wild, consider supporting the organizations working on the front lines. Groups like Los Padres ForestWatch, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Carrizo Plain Conservancy are actively advocating for stronger protections. Whether through donations, signing petitions, or simply spreading the word, every effort counts. Because if there’s one thing Carrizo Plain proves, it’s that some landscapes are worth fighting for.

Getting There

Carrizo Plain isn’t the kind of place you stumble upon. It sits about 100 miles from Bakersfield and 75 miles from San Luis Obispo, with no gas stations, food, or water inside the monument. Dirt roads turn impassable after rain, so check conditions before heading out. But if you come prepared—with a full tank, plenty of water, and a sense of adventure—you’ll be rewarded with one of California’s last truly wild landscapes.

And if you time it right this spring, you won’t just see wildflowers—you’ll step into a fleeting, once-in-a-decade moment where the land explodes with life. A reminder that some of the best things in nature can’t be scheduled, only experienced.

— Will

P.S. If you’ve experienced a superbloom at Carrizo before, I’d love to hear about it. These moments don’t happen often, but when they do, they stay with you.