Redbud along the Merced River, Merced River Canyon, March 2013

February has been exceptionally warm, so I probably shouldn’t be surprised to see signs of spring already. But redbuds? In February? Apparently so. Claudia drove up to Yosemite Valley on Saturday, and reported seeing redbuds and a few poppies blooming in the Merced River Canyon west of the park. It’s not unusual to see poppies in late February, but the redbuds are a month early. Claudia said that only a couple of them were in full bloom, but many more were starting.

Temperatures dropped significantly over the weekend, and I’m not sure how that will affect the redbuds, or the poppies. Under normal circumstances the redbuds would continue to progress, and reach peak in perhaps a week or so. But these aren’t normal circumstances, so all bets are off.

I’m not expecting a great poppy year in the Merced River Canyon. First, it’s rare to have two good years in a row, and last year was great. Second, we had some substantial early-winter rains in December, which got the grasses growing, and when that happens the grasses usually crowd out the poppies. But there’s never any certainty about these things, so we’ll see.

Down in Antelope Valley, however, they’re expecting a good poppy bloom this year. Ideally they need another dose of rain within the next couple of weeks, but even without that they still sound optimistic.

In Horsetail Fall news, Sunday’s weather system brought some substantial rain and snow to many places in the southern Sierra, but completely missed Yosemite. Yosemite Valley received no measurable precipitation from that system, so Horsetail didn’t get any help, and is still essentially dry. There’s more precipitation in the forecast for this weekend, but that will come too late for Horsetail, as the window of best light has passed. There is, however, a chance that Yosemite Valley could get some snow out of this next system, which would be novel, as there hasn’t been a significant snowfall in Yosemite Valley all winter. We’ve seen many predicted storms fizzle over the last few years, so I’m not counting on anything until it happens, but at least there’s some hope of getting more precipitation, and snow would be great!

— Michael Frye

Related Posts: More Birds, and a Horsetail Update; After the Storm

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Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author or principal photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, Yosemite Meditations for Women, Yosemite Meditations for Adventurers, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters. He has also written three eBooks: Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, and Landscapes in Lightroom 5: The Essential Step-by-Step Guide. Michael has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.