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 stil…