Flower power

Laura Cohen pulls out a tiny composition book and scribbles madly as we meander through Laguna Canyon Wilderness Park.

She is busily, energetically, joyfully chronicling the triumphant return of the spring wildflowers that practically disappeared from the canyon — and much of Southern California’s other parched wild spaces — in the past few years.

What a difference a few inches of gentle rain makes. This spring the hills are different. Better. Wetter. So lush that Laguna Canyon looks like someone rolled out the green carpet. The blooms seem to multiply overnight and Cohen’s flower journal grows daily with them, the park naturalist’s excitement palpable with each new speck of color bursting amid the grasslands and coastal sage scrub.

Cohen leads the way as we savor stands of willowy coast sunflowers swaying in the afternoon breeze near a couple of inviting picnic tables. Another flash of sweet yellow catches the sun and our attention: small violets called Johnny-Jump-Ups. We stop to watch a hummingbird gorge on flaming orange monkey flowers, then we roam past fuchsia-flowered gooseberry plants, white popcorn flowers, tangles of prickly wild cucumbers, and purple phacelia poking out between the rocks. Farther up along the trails, bright ruby poppies dance along Serrano Ridge. In all, Cohen catalogs more than twenty different wildflowers. Her prized discovery: delicate pink clumps of owl’s clover. “It’s very rare,” she says, “one of my favorite plants.”

Across Southern California, from coastal fields and hillsides to the desert’s sprawling wild lands, botanists and park rangers and flower lovers of all species are reveling in the best wildflower season in recent memory. It’s a great time of year to pack a picnic lunch and just wander.

I wrote about Southern California’s wildflowers for the Los Angeles Times Magazine this weekend and you can read the story here.

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, of course, is a magical place any time of year. Other wildflower spots include the California Poppy Reserve in the Antelope Valley; Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; and Joshua Tree National Park. The wildflower season is expected to last into May.

Coolest place off-the-beaten path?

Journalist (and poker buddy) Michelle Nicolosi is getting reading for a cross-country adventure and poses this question at LinkedIn: What’s the coolest off-the-beaten-path place in the U.S.?

Check out the responses (including mine) and add your two cents here.

*The photo above comes from a remote corner of SoCal that also would make a fine addition to Michelle’s list — the Rankin Ranch. It’s so far off-the-beaten path that rush hour consists of your car and a herd of cows.

Weekend Cowboy

The drive up the mountain to Rankin Ranch is just nine miles long. Yet it seems a much longer trek as you slowly climb the narrow, winding highway with its hairpin turns, stunning sunset views, and army of fearless cattle that snack along the slopes and regularly amble into the middle of the road.

Cows far outnumber humans in this pristine corner of Southern California’s Tehachapi Mountains, just two and a half hours—and another universe entirely—from Los Angeles. It takes a good 30 minutes to reach the top of the mountain, where the two-lane highway twists through a final set of curves, then spills into a lush green valley. Just up ahead you’ll find Quarter Circle U Rankin Ranch, a 31,000-acre slice of old California heaven.

They’ve raised cattle on the ranch since Walter Rankin imported the first herd of white-faced Herefords in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War, and cattle is still the family business. For the past four decades, the Rankin clan also opens the ranch six months of the year to weekend cowboys and nature-lovers.

Ranch Ranch starts its new season in mid-March. It’s one of the destinations featured in my book, Great Escapes: Southern California. Here’s a story I wrote about the ranch for the Los Angeles Times Travel Section a while back.