My daughter, Kiah, got some news that the wildflowers at Bartlett Lake were wild flowering! We made plans to leave at 6am to start our field trip, it was Feb 28th and while the rest of the world was unburying itself from snow, we were looking at temps in mid 90’s.
The drive from the west side is about an hour and a half, we snacked on beef sticks and engird drinks along the way. Somehow we missed the store that sold the park passes but luckily there was a kiosk on the side of the road close to the entrance. The cost for a day pass at that kiosk is 12 dollars for 1 car but at a store front they are 8 dollars.
After we parked, we were on the hunt for our trail – which I found using All Trails – it is a great app but the app is only as good as the user. I am not that great with maps, I could not find it anywhere so we improvised and just picked another trail.
This was a desert stroll, not a hike. We were on a mission to find these spectacular wild flowers! The actual Bartlett Reservoir trail is 4.5 miles but we only did an easy, light trail round trip was only 2.5 miles and only a 387 foot elevation gain.
The views were amazing but notice anything? Yea, I noticed too…no wild flowers to be found. Most specifically, we were looking for the poppies.
Along the way, we passed a couple of people walking their dog and also trying to wildflower hunting. They had an extra piece of cardboard, in the shape of a flower vase, it had holes so they could poke the stems of the flowers in it – super cute and they gave one to Kiah.
Eventually, we did run in to a teensy tiny display.
Moving right along, because you know..not much to see here. The trail led us to the “beach” where we took a moment to enjoy the sound of the water moving back and forth, there was a breeze that was perfect.
It wasn’t long before we started the walk back to the car
More flowers along the way and of course some fluffy cactus. The ride home was uneventful, thought about stopping for breakfast but ended up waiting until we got home ~ Alex, Kiah’s husband (that still sounds so weird LOL, my daughter has a husband..) brought us some egg bites and iced coffees instead.
It was a great ending to a beautiful morning.
kristilynk 