Wildflowers at Mojave National Preserve

Roadside Flowers

Some of the easiest flowers to see are right along the paved roads in April and May. Flowers can be seen on Cima Road, Morning Star Mine Road, Kelbaker Road, and Kelso Cima Road.

 

Desert five-spot, desert paintbrush, desert mariposa lily and beaver-tail cactus blooms.

Benjamin Chemel

 

While the magical Mojave wildflower show is by no means an annual event, a few well-timed soaking storms will produce a memorable spring wildflower bloom. Wildflower blooms are reported at Joshua Tree, and Death Valley National Park.

Find out what's blooming and where throughout the desert, by going to Desert Wildflower Reports and/or The Theodore Payne Wildflower hotline Wild Flowers | Theodore Payne Foundation.

Check the chart below to help plan your wildflower viewing trip. Due to variations in temperature caused by increasing altitude, peak wildflower viewing advances upslope at the rate of about 1,000 feet every two weeks.

 

Wildflowers Elevation Blooming Chart

NPS

 

Wildflower Viewing Locations

The following are excellent wildflower-viewing locations in the preserve, with estimated peak-flowering periods. These estimates vary from year to year.

Location	Time	Flowers
Cima Cinder Cones	Mid to late March	Annuals: purple mat, Wallace daisy, Bigelow mimulus, brown-eyed primrose, desert dandelion, fiddleneck, lilac sunbonnet, little gold poppy, desert sunflower; Perennials/Shrubs: Anderson lycium, ratany, bladderpod, desert mallow, desert trumpet, Mojave aster, hedgehog cactus, and desert willow.
Cima Dome and Mid Hills Campground	Mid to late April	Annuals: desert marigold, yellow throats, white tidy tips, groundsel, chia, locoweed, rattlesnake weed; Perennials/Shrubs: turpentine broom, palmer penstemon, Mojave yucca, Joshua tree, linear-leaved goldenbush, indian paintbrush, and Mojave sage.
High Peaks	Early May	Annuals: hoary aster, groundsel, California chicory, Pringle eriophyllum, golden gilia; Perennials/Shrubs: Apache plume, serviceberry, heliotrope, long-leaf phlox, piñon aster, yellow cut-leaf, banana yucca, and giant four-o’clock.
Hole-in-the-Wall	Late March to early April	Annuals: desert tobacco, forget-me-not, Fremont pincushion, white-stemmed stick-leaf; Perennials/Shrubs: Mojave horsebrush, desert alyssum, windmills, and prince’s plume.
Kelso Dunes	Late March to early Apri	Annuals: Borrego locoweed, dune primrose, sand verbena, wooly marigold, silk dalea, spectaclepod; Perennials/Shrubs: dune lily, big galleta grass, indian rice grass, sandpaper plant, and dune panic grass.
Von Trigger Hills and Piute Range	Late March to early April	Annuals: Canterbury bells, notch-leaved phacelia, stellate gilia, sand blazing star; Perennials/Shrubs: beavertail cactus, Mojave mound cactus, Mariposa lily, and desert senna.

 

Wildflower Viewing Tips

Here is some enduring advice for seekers of wildflowers:
 

• When conditions are right, the sandy foothills near Kelso Dunes will produce carpets of desert sand Hairy sand verbina and dunes evening primrose can sometimes be found at Kelso Dunes. verbena and dunes evening primrose.
• Explore the washes for flowers, and then scramble to the top of the dunes for a spectacular view. As you descend, listen for the famous “booming” sound that moving sands here produce when weather conditions are right.
• If rain has fallen on the cinder cones and lava beds, hundreds of tiny Biglow monkey flowers lend a purple cast to the dark volcanic soil. Locals call these “belly flowers,” as they are best photographed lying down! With a high-clearance vehicle, you can also visit a lava tube cave. Bring a flashlight for this activity.
• To see the snowball-like blooms of the Joshua tree, try hiking Teutonia Peak Trail where this signature plant of the Mojave grows in profusion. The climb to the peak lifts you off the desert floor and affords a view of Joshua trees stretching as far as the eye can see.
• If you are looking for flowers in late April and May, visit Hole-in-the-Wall. A profusion of desert globe mallow and verbena often covers an area that burned in a massive wildfire in 2005. This is the best area for hikers, with trails leading past petroglyphs, through cactus and yucca gardens, and into Banshee Canyon, where you’ll discover the holes of Hole-in-the Wall.
• Report what you see to rangers at Kelso Depot Visitor Center, Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor Center, or through our social media pages.

 

In ordinary years when winter and early spring rains are scanty, the annual flowering plants are few; inasmuch as they are in no particular way adapted to endure shortage of water, they wilt and die a few weeks after they have sprung, as if by magic, from the barren earth. As though trying to make up for this poor showing, every few years comes an abundance of rain and there results such a wealth of blossoms that almost every foot of sand or gravelly soil is hidden beneath a blanket of flowers.

Edmund Jaeger