Peak bloom for Anza-Borrego wildflowers is occurring right now, from mid-March until late March, and the bloom will likely last through early April.

At present, some of the most beautiful wildflower fields are right along the side of the road, making it really easy for tourists to see the flowers without a hike through hot conditions.

As such, finding the wildflower fields in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is simple. The best spot is along Henderson Canyon Road just outside of the town of Borrego Springs. On this map provided by the State Park, it’s location #2. We visited other locations on the map, but this was by far the best.

Another piece of advice we’d offer is to avoid both the Visitor Center and the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground. As the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park wildflower super bloom has been a regular fixture on Los Angeles and San Diego local news (I’ve seen multiple segments on it the last couple of weeks) and even made the national news, the park is currently overrun with visitors.

The result of this could be called a “parking catastrophe.” Both the Visitor Center and Campground close their parking at various times (BPC Campground is worse than the Visitor Center–it usually fills up by 8 a.m.), and it’s a real pain finding a spot.

In any case, these locations are not going to offer any information beyond that map I’ve linked to above, and they both charge for parking.

In addition to location #2, I’d also recommend #3. This is also easy to access alongside the road (no 4WD necessary), but it’s not nearly as good as location #2. Location #1 is not all that impressive, but the drive is pretty out there, and easy to access. (You’ll also see cool cactus along the way.) Locations #4 and #5 are both pretty, but access is difficult and I don’t think are worth the effort. Perhaps in the morning on a weekday they’d be easier. We did not try seeing #6 and #7, so you’re on your own with those.

Ultimately, #2 is the best bet, and is incredibly easy to find. No mile markers or anything are necessary…you will know you’re there when you see the flowers–it’s obvious. Other tips we’d offer would be bringing plenty of water and leaving pets at home.

Oh, and be sure to pack your patience. This has become a “thing” on Instagram, and not just with dorky photographers like me. Rather, it’s gone mainstream with “models” (those are most definitely air quotes) in the Los Angeles area. During our visit, we saw a team setting up a makeup station, multiple women wearing nothing but pasties, someone wearing butterfly wings, and a number of other oddities that I wouldn’t believe unless I saw them.

I have nothing against a good ole fashioned naked butterfly modeling photoshoot in the desert (wait–actually, yes, I do), but some of these people were also incredibly obnoxious, repeatedly shouting and just generally carrying on. Some of the behavior I witnessed was stuff I’ve seen in movies that I assumed was a caricature of modeling…but I guess not.

On the other hand, the number of other respectful photographers, painters, and just regular tourists far outweighed the obnoxious wannabe Instagram “celebrities,” so don’t let that dissuade you from visiting. It’s only marginally annoying, and if you walk far enough into the wildflower fields, you avoid all of this. (I’m mostly just sharing this because I found it so bizarre.)

Finally, some photography tips. I’ll start with a mistake I made: photographing the flowers exclusively with a wide angle lens. This does not convey the dense, flower-packed fields you’ll see with the naked eye. The wide angle does work well for combining up close photos of the wildflowers with dramatic desert and mountainous backdrops, such as with the photo above. For that and several other shots in this post, I also used focus stacking to achieve front-to-back sharpness in the image.