We took the kids up to Figueroa Mountain yesterday for a picnic. While the coastline was buried under a heavy marine layer as we left town, the mountains were warm and sunny. It’s a relatively sparse poppy and lupine bloom this year, the hills already looking withered despite the green grass. Zaca Ridge wasn’t looking like it had too many flowers so we didn’t even venture over there. Grass Mountain had no visible poppies, but looked like it might have had a thin patch of lupine.
Compare this photo to one I shot from the same general area in March of 2010 in the thumbnail link below.
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Jack Elliott's Santa Barbara Adventure 
Good Morning Jack, glad to see you made it to the mountains. I am sorry to hear the blooms were somewhat disappointing but not surprising based on this years rainfall. I am still fighting my calendar but plan to get up there when I can find some daylight. Thanks for sharing your photos. Richard
Looked like a few lupine and what not were getting set to start blooming along the Sierra Madre Potreros over this last weekend. Lots of lupine, a few poppies, some buttercups, Indian Paintbrush, etc. along upper Buckhorn Rd and along Camuesa Rd. Nothing too extraordinary but still some nice color.
That’s amazing to see all those beautiful spreads of flowers in your mountains – ours tend to have either very, very small flowers and few of them, or none at all. Would be lovely if we had all that lovely colour 🙂
Carol.