Searching for Arizona Wildflowers

Poppies and Lupine

Collared Lizard

Chparosa with Flat Iron in the distance

Brittlebush at Lost Dutchman

"Can you call to see if the wildflowers are out?" my husband asked as he rushed out the door for a meeting. "We will go hiking when I get home."

I called two rangers at two different state parks, asking for a wildflower report. They weren't very encouraging.

"The wildflowers are sporadic."

"The weather has been too warm. We might not get any poppies this year."

"If any flowers appear, we will post on the ranger cam. Check there."

If. A cautious word, lacking in commitment. A word spoken so hopes are not raised. A phrase to keep expectations in check. If.

With abundant winter rains, the rumors began early of a bumper crop of Arizona wildflowers.

"It'll be a super bloom year," was the prediction.

But February arrived like a bully breathing hot breath of over 80-degree temps, shriveling tender blooms and stomping with heavy feet on desert hillsides.

We almost didn't go.

I am glad we did, because we saw plenty of flowers and didn't think the desert was sparse at all. The trail to Siphon Draw at Lost Dutchman State Park was splashed with red chuparosa, slender blue dicks, yellow brittlebush and orange globemallows. We even found a few poppies and several fragile lupine shoots.

I wondered at the ranger's words, but I realized the ranger thought I was a tourist expecting to arrive to a blooming Midwest Garden. He spoke words of caution to spare me disappointment. He didn't understand I was a seasoned desert dweller who hikes nine months of the year in unending brown.

Brown dust. Tan rocks. Beige trail. Terra-cotta ridgelines.

On the trail, we positioned our cameras to capture the best angle of the blooming. We were especially thrilled to capture a collared lizard sunbathing on a boulder.

When we got home, others responded to the photos of Arizona wildflowers we posted on social media.

"We went hiking on the same trail and saw nothing," wrote a friend.

 "I just saw a few brittlebush. Nothing spectacular," another posted.

It is true what they say about beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

As a child, I did a lot of lake swimming. My friends and I enjoyed running in a full sprint to the end of the dock and cannonballing into the water. We often had a contest to see who could make the biggest splash. In calmer moments, we also liked to stand on the shore and throw flat stones, seeing who could get the most skips across the water's surface.

This year the wildflowers didn't come with a cannonball display of color, boldly splashing in a wave of blooms. Instead, the creator picked up a stone and skipped it across the sea of brown, leaving a drop here and a drop there. From where I stood, I could see the color ripple throughout the desert.

The Arizona wildflowers are here. Let spring begin.