Poem for Our Poppies
No one can compare to your brilliant brightness
Your wild expressiveness encourages me to live life with a reckless abandon
Your softness and how you way in the wind reminds me to live carefree
You are bold and yet gentle
Loud but peaceful
Beautiful yet purposeful
These are all the things you inspire me to be,
You are one of the first delights after a long winter's night and
A welcome and faithful friend in the spring seasons of life
It is no wonder you are crowned to be our State's flower.
Oh Poppy. you are a kind reminder to live and love a beautiful life.
For Poppy lovers out there = here is a list of great wildflower hikes in the Bay Area
Where to see wildflowers in the Bay Area:
- SCA Trail (Sausalito): You may still be able to catch wildflowers in bloom here including paintbrush, checkerbloom, blue dicks, and California poppy.
- Tennessee Valley (Marin): See California poppies on the hillside after a moderate short hike to the beach.
- Nike Missile Site (Marin Headlands): The “most fully-restored Nike missile site in the country” is surrounded by blooming wildflowers including sun cups and morning glory.
- Coastal Trail to Hill 88 (Marin Headlands): This 6-mile trail will be blooming throughout the spring with California poppies, paintbrush, butter cups, and checkerbloom.
- Crissy Field Beach dunes (San Francisco): You may still be able to catch flowers in bloom along the dunes here including pink sea thrift and seaside daisy.
- Mount Tamalpais (Marin): Look for wildflowers on the Bolinas Ridge Trail, Dipsea Trail, Coast View Trail, and Redwood Creek Trail.
- China Camp State Park (San Rafael): Look for clusters of wildflowers including California poppy, narrowleaf mule's ear, yellow mariposa lily, Ithuriel's spear, and Douglas iris.
- Ed R. Levin County Park (Milpitas): See large swathes of yellow wildflowers on the Monument Peak and Agua Caliente trails.
- Trione-Annadel State Park (near Santa Rosa): Take the Cobblestone Trail for a chance to glimpse mariposa lily, ookow, red larkspur, and purple Chinese houses.
- Sugarloaf Ridge State Park (Kenwood): Lower Bald Mountain Trail will bring bring whispering bells, popcorn flowers, Diogenes' lantern, blue dicks, lupine, and California poppy. Other trails to try are Creekside, Meadow, Meadow Hillside Loop, Vista Loop, Bald Mt and Goodspeed.
- Half Moon Bay State Beach (Half Moon Bay): Look for wildflowers blooming around the dunes at Half Moon Bay State Beach.
- Tilden Regional Park (Berkeley): This massive park in Berkeley has multiple fields of multicolored wildflowers on view.
- Edgewood Park and Nature Preserve (Redwood City): This park has sweeping serpentine grasslands that are known for large wildflower blooms every spring
- Wilder Ranch State Park (Santa Cruz): The bluffs at Wilder Ranch are blooming with wildflowers betwen 3-Mile and 4-Mile beaches on the Ohlone Bluff Trail.