The Reserve
The intense blooming season for the California poppy falls usually within late winter to early spring, during the months of mid-February through mid-May. Blooming seasons are dependent on the amount of rainfall during the winter to early spring seasons. Within the reserve, there are 7 miles (11 km) of trails, including a paved section for wheelchair access, which traverse through the poppy fields.
In order to keep the fields in a strictly natural state, California State Parks does not water or stimulate the flowers. The park service also excludes sheep and cattle from grazing the hillsides. Until the early 1970s sheep once grazed the buttes in the western Antelope Valley. Pronghorn grazed long before then, until the railroad first arrived in 1876. With the exception of service dogs, pets are prohibited from the reserve. Under California state law, visitors are also prohibited from taking flowers away from the reserve.
Since 1994, controlled fires are used to regulate dead brush, exotic species and litter within the reserve.
The reserve is located 7 miles (11 km) east of Arthur B. Ripley Desert Woodland State Park.
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Entrance to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
Read more about this topic: Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
Famous quotes containing the word reserve:
“We must reserve a back shop all our own, entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are cheques drawn on insufficient funds.”
—René Daumal (1908–1944)