This year’s winter rains brought a large amount of germination followed by localized heavy blooming.

I’ve been bloom-chasing since around 2016 and while 2019 featured a wider area of blooms this year’s was certainly nothing to scoff at.

The main 3 flowers comprising this year’s bloom are:

• Desert Sand Verbena (Abronia villosa)
• Dune Evening Primrose (Oenothera deltoides)
• Desert Sunflower (Geraea canescens)

The best bloom for this season was centered in Borrego Springs off Henderson Canyon Road.

These first images were taken on March 3rd, 2024.

A vibrant carpet of wildflowers stretches towards the mist-shrouded mountains of Borrego Springs. (c) Joey Babcock March 2024 – Borrego Springs, CA

It’s hard to explain just how cool it is to see a normally bleak landscape awash in this much color. These pictures are not color-corrected or edited in any way, they are straight out of my Canon SL2 camera.

Desert sand verbena blankets the Borrego Springs landscape in shades of purple, punctuated by bursts of yellow from desert sunflowers. (c) Joey Babcock March 2024 – Borrego Springs, CA

The weather began taking a turn for the worse, so I headed back home ready to return the following weekend.

The next visit was much warmer and the flowers had even grown in a bit more. There were already signs of drooping serving as reminders of how ephemeral this event is.

These next images were taken on March 9th, 2024.

A couple hikes through the fields of desert sunflowers. (c) Joey Babcock March 2024 – Borrego Springs, CA

Parking was easy though a little more packed.

Flowers were abundant on both sides of the road.

The flowers stretched to the foothills of the mountains. (c) Joey Babcock March 2024 – Borrego Springs, CA

With this much coverage, despite the increase in visitors it was still possible to be completely alone amongst the blooms.

Flowers stretching in 360 degrees. (c) Joey Babcock March 2024 – Borrego Springs, CA

This years bloom overall was absolutely worth visiting, despite many articles whining about it not being a “superbloom”.