Move over, SoCal — this NorCal county's wildflowers are dazzling

A dazzling array of flowers have been blooming in Butte County. Click through the gallery to see more. Via @johnnychien.photo A dazzling array of flowers have been blooming in Butte County. Click through the gallery to see more. Via @johnnychien.photo Photo: Johnny Chien Photo: Johnny Chien Image 1 of / 73 Caption Close Move over, SoCal — this NorCal county's wildflowers are dazzling 1 / 73 Back to Gallery

If social media is any indication, North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve in Butte County is becoming a popular destination for people who want to see some spectacular flowers without slogging through Southern California traffic of the kind that choked I-15 as Instagram-happy tourists swarm the superbloom east of Lake Elsinore.

As a rule, Northern California doesn't get actual superblooms in the same way Southern California does, because the wetter climate allows for the survival of non-native grasses that crowd out the wildflowers, botanists explained to SFGATE in March.

MORE: Thousands overwhelm California town to see superbloom

But the explosion of flowers in Butte County is a spectacular sight, regardless of its technical classification.

Click through the gallery above to see photos of Butte County's stunning wildflowers

"Hikers are basking in the beauty of a super bloom along the 2-mile trail to the always popular Phantom Falls." wrote KCRA earlier this month. "The vibrant green hillsides have been painted in shades of yellow, pink, orange and purple as wildflowers thrive in the moist soil."

"Wildflowers go on and on," KCRA's Mark Finan said in late April. "Add in some waterfalls, and you have a must visit spring location."

Down south, there's been a dark side to the superbloom, which has seen a rise in the number of people loving the flowers to death and just generally behaving badly -- trampling flowers, ignoring road closures only to drive their cars straight into patches of mud, and, in one eyebrow-raising case, even landing a helicopter on top of a patch of plants.

One popular wildflower-spotting blog has stopped reporting the location of flowers, because they don't want to be responsible for people destroying them.

ALSO: Massive swarm of butterflies reaches Northern California

Luckily, there haven't been many reports of these types of destructive behavior out of Butte County so far — just people enjoying the beautiful landscape.

Visitors who'd like to see the flowers and waterfalls of the North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve should buy a lands pass from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Daily passes are $4.58 and annual passes are $25.93.