The tiny California town of Lake Elsinore, population 60,000, has sprung to life as the vast desert landscape is covered in a bright orange hue of poppies. And to the southeast, the lovely Joshua Tree National Park is delighting tourists with a beautiful array of desert bluebells and Arizona Lupine. All thanks to an unusually wet winter, this years super bloom is one for the record books. So much so, that the stunning array can be seen from space.
Throughout Southern California fields of beautiful poppies and other wildflowers are blanketing the rolling hills making for some seriously Instagram-worthy shots. While the scene on the ground has become somewhat of a fiasco with an estimated 150,000 visitors descending on Lake Elsinore for the event and parts of Interstate 15 described as a "parking lot", by the Associated Press, the view from above looks incredibly serene. NASA's Landsat 8 satellite took shots of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park from orbit and the view is spectacular.
Comparing NASA's most recent shot of the super bloom and comparing it to a photo taken in November 2018, you can see just how much of the landscape is shrouded in wildflowers. While it's a stunning sight to take in, in person, sometimes it's a lot nicer to experience these types of events from the comfort of your own couch.
So, for those of us who aren't able to make it to California to see the spectacle, or those who just simply want to avoid the crowds, thanks to NASA we can all revel in the beauty of this years super bloom.
