On our longest day of driving (10 hours) we drove from Palm Springs to Taft via Big Bear Lake. It was quite a contrast to go from hot, dry desert to torrential rain, near-freezing temperatures, and even sleet and snow at the higher elevations in just a couple of hours!
! There was only ONE kind of flower blooming there, a type of cream-colored locoweed. In a good rain year this would have been carpeted in wildflowers!
We came across this damaged Tangerine crop on the highway going into Taft. There were thousands of tangerines on the ground. A hard freeze in February caused a tremendous amount of damage.