(Corona) Suspended in her harness 50 meters above the ground, Triana Montserrat zips down a zipline above a vibrant bed of wildflowers: orange, yellow, purple, white… the mountains of Corona’s Skull Canyon, in the back -country of Los Angeles, amaze him.
“It almost looks like a painting, with all these different colors”, blows the 29-year-old young woman, blown away by the intensity of the ” Superbloom », an exceptional flowering which is currently affecting California after several spring absences.
“It’s so intricate and beautiful,” she raves, flying over the patterns carved along the slopes by California poppies, encelia farinosa and lupins. “My mind couldn’t have imagined that on its own. »
The American West Coast had not seen a “super bloom” since 2019.
Rare, this phenomenon occurs only when heavy rains occur after several years of drought. The arid land, cleared of the weeds usually so quick to absorb the available nutrients, gave birth to wild flowers by the thousands, the seeds of which struggled to find a place.
The particularly harsh winter that hit California, with its series of storms and near-record rainfall, enabled this delicate alchemy to be achieved this year.
As a result, the Californian hills and some of its deserts are covered in an ocean of color visible from space.
“Nightmare” of overtourism
But the return of this impressionistic nature, which has long fascinated Spanish missionaries and great pens of American literature, resonates differently in a world dominated by Instagram and TikTok.
Three kilometers from the slopes where Triana hovers, a hiking trail is closed to the public because of over-tourism: the nearby town of Lake Elsinore bars access to Walker Canyon with gates, monitored by a patrol car.
The authorities refuse to relive the “apocalypse” of 2019. Tens of thousands of visitors then invaded this path and created monster traffic jams paralyzing the region. Worthy of Disneyland, the crowd of influencers and tourists obsessed with selfies didn’t hesitate to park on the side of the highway, to take down his photo in the middle of the wild flowers.
“It was a nightmare, […] they trampled everything and crushed a lot of the flowers,” Pete Liston, the owner of the Skull Canyon zip line, told AFP. Four years later, “nothing has grown back” on the anarchic traces left by the vandals.
Faced with the closure of the public trail, its adventure park is seeing its clientele increase this spring. Many nature lovers use its zip line to admire the 2023 vintage of the ” Superbloom without damaging the environment.
A hiking enthusiast, Triana wanted to be in the front row while minimizing her impact on the reproduction of flowers.
“I wanted to make sure that future generations could enjoy it,” explains this cook, who approves of the closure of the neighboring canyon as a “necessary” measure.
” Sensitization ”
As an alternative, the City of Lake Elsinore offers visitors the opportunity to observe the flowers of Walker Canyon on its website, thanks to a live camera. An intransigence far from being unanimous, even among the defenders of the flora.
Each ” Superbloom is a “moment of awareness that allows the public to connect with nature and generate enthusiasm for biodiversity”, points out Evan Meyer, director of the Theodore Payne Foundation, an organization which tries to divide the crowds with a toll-free number informing about the latest blooms. “By closing Walker Canyon, Lake Elsinore sends the exact opposite message. »
More worried about real estate development in the hills of the region than the irresponsibility of a minority of Instagrammers, this specialist calls for “developing an ethic to appreciate nature”.
An effort supported by the Skull Canyon guides. Between two lengths of zip line, they remind visitors that it is forbidden to pick the California poppy, whose bright orange inspired the nickname “the Golden State “. Just like other wildflowers.
Photo enthusiasts like Lisa Mayer are however welcome. After missing the Superbloom of 2019, this Los Angeles shopkeeper shoots the mountains from all angles with her smartphone.
The pictures will end up on Instagram, recognizes the forties. But she will accompany them with captions reminding us to “protect the flowers, not crush them and be careful where we walk. »