Poppy Apocalypse

Tom Mackie heads out to Southern California to shoot a beautiful explosion of colourful poppies at one of their most impressive blooms yet.

We live in strange times. I’ve just seen a small town in Southern California brought to a grinding halt by wildflowers. Well, it was actually 50,000 selfie stick-wielding tourists that descended upon the area to see the superbloom that brought the chaos. With a population of only 66,000, Lake Elsinore is just off Interstate 15 and the hills on the other side of the motorway are covered this year with orange, yellow and purple flowers after one of the heaviest winter rainfalls in years – ending a five-year drought. When I shot this area two years ago I thought it was great, but this is off the scale. It’s so intense it can be seen from space! Before, only the canyons were covered in carpets of California poppies, but as you approach by motorway you can see splashes of orange and yellow flowers on the hills. During the weekend, travellers passing through to San Diego or Los Angeles parked on the motorway, as traffic stopped to look at the flowers.