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Wildflowers in California just a short drive away: Here are nearby Instagram-worthy spots

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Wildflowers in California just a short drive away: Here are nearby Instagram-worthy spots


Spring, even in drought years, is the time for California wildflowers to burst forth in their finery.

We start our search with our local rivers and their tributaries, looking north to south: the American River, Cosumnes, Mokelumne, Calaveras and Stanislaus rivers. Follow those river valleys east into Sierra foothills, linking to Gold Rush sites, cute towns with mining and logging history, and restaurants and watering holes perfect for a midday layover.

Keep in mind the factors that lead to magnificent flower displays; adequate recent rainfall, elevation (Delta wildflowers will be blooming long before those in higher Sierra locations), daytime temperatures and exposure to sunlight (flowers on river valley sides facing south will bloom long before shadier locations).

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Let’s hit the trail, depending upon your destination and springtime temperatures, you will find California poppies, fiddleneck, lupine, Indian paintbrush, purple vetch, blue dick, western redbud and a host of other varieties.

How to take the best wildflower photos

Take tools for exploration, in addition to camera and binoculars. Download smartphone apps like AllTrails or TrailLink for finding hiking trails, and LeafSnap, a wonderful app that IDs wildflowers and trees; making you an instant botanical wizard. Follow the etiquette of explorers: don’t pick the flowers, stay on existing trails and don’t trample flower fields. It may be inviting to photograph your pals lounging in lovely flower displays, but don’t. Pack out all your trash, leaving only footprints and taking only memories.

For the fabled American River, where gold was discovered in 1848 in Coloma on the South Fork, start in Sacramento with the American River Parkway, a 35 mile paved biking and hiking trail, that heads upriver eastward into the Folsom Lake State recreation area. You’ll find wildflowers in many rocky places, including the immense piles of cobblestones that remain from the dredge mining that took place along the river until the mid-1900s.

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Fields of California poppies blooming near historic bridges

Perhaps our most spectacular discovery came one year ago, with the additional discovery of a grand historic suspension bridge. From Sacramento, we followed Interstate 80 almost to Colfax, and went east on Iowa Hill Road to the North Fork of the American where the new bridge parallels the old Iowa Hill suspension bridge, circa 1928, with hiking and flower-finding opportunities stretching along the river.

We found the mother lode of California poppies on the Windy Point Trail, 1½ miles up the other side of the valley. A two-mile hike took us into 20+ acres of California poppies just above the American, a spectacular golden blanket of color. A few miles further east is Iowa Hill, where over $20 million in gold was mined in the 30 years after 1853.

For the Cosumnes River, a natural place to start is the Cosumnes River Preserve, just north of Thornton, with 4 miles of easy walking trails along both the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers. Here you’ll find a large variety of waterfowl, as well as wildflowers including California poppies, Indian paintbrush, purple vetch and more. Pack a picnic lunch, take your binoculars and enjoy peaceful hours! 

The preserve’s trails lead you down to the Cosumnes and the Mokelumne Rivers, through riparian forest teaming with birds as well as wildflowers in season. Here in 1862, epic Valley floods wiped out San Joaquin County’s second largest city and port, Mokelumne City, washing all its wooden buildings miles downstream into the Delta (the city was never rebuilt).

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Further east along the Cosumnes, just above Rancho Murieta, follow the old Michigan Bar Road across the old bridge into gently-rolling foothills and turn east on S. Shingle Road (be forewarned, a road where high clearance is an asset); we found lots of wildflowers last spring.

Visiting California Gold Rush towns

Journey east to the upper Mokelumne River; at Pardee Reservoir; cross the old dam and follow the beautiful Stony Creek Road east up to Jackson. Stony Creek is a favorite, scenic in its own right, as you cross the creek on the new bridge — be very observant — and spot the old Jackson Creek Bridge, built 1880, abandoned in 1955.

It’s slowly moldering away just down the creek, hidden in foliage. Continue up the steep road, then descend into Jackson, a well-preserved gold rush town. Take in the old National Hotel and other historic sites on Water Street. Touring south on Highway 49, approaching the Mokelumne, go east on Electra Road, where fields of bright orange poppies grace south-facing hillsides.

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Don’t overlook our local Calaveras River; a fine place to start is the bike trail that runs from University of Pacific to Brookside, where a wide variety of wildflowers can be found. Hike the trail that runs down the Calaveras behind Brookside’s grand homes, and imagine the river as it was 150 years ago.

Finally, check out the Stanislaus River, and its historic Knights Ferry Covered Bridge. The town was founded when gold was discovered; in 1849, Dr. William Knight established a ferry. Soon after, a toll bridge was built but washed away in the huge flood of 1862. The new bridge was finished in 1864, higher and built to last, the longest covered bridge in the state at 333 feet. It’s now part of a lovely state park, its trails perfect for seeking wildflowers. Knights Ferry features a number of historic buildings; fun to walk the old gold rush-era remnant.

Remember that these rivers flow into the San Joaquin and Sacramento River Delta, and the Delta has many special places. A recent discovery, using the AllTrails app, is the Delta Meadows Trail between Locke and Walnut Grove, which take hikers several miles into Delta waterways much is they looked 150 years earlier.

For insight: historic bridges, bridgehunter.com hikes, AllTrails or TrailLink apps wildflowers, LeafSnap app.

Contact Tim, tviall@msn.com; happy travels in the west!

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Northern California’s House of Clocks has stood the test of time for 55 years

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Northern California’s House of Clocks has stood the test of time for 55 years


While we may lose an hour of sleep this coming weekend, one clock store in California is gearing up for one of its busiest times of the year: daylight savings.

It’s the House of Clocks, the largest clock company in Northern California, which was recently celebrating 55 years of business.

It’s a place frozen in time. Just visit the store’s 240-year-old grandfather clock. It’s got plenty of stories to tell, dating back to 1780.

“This is the oldest piece we have right now,” clocksmith Joey Hohn said.

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The House of Clocks is on the outskirts of Downtown Lodi in San Joaquin County.

“We have new, we have vintage, we have antique,” co-owner Sandy Hohn shared. “Honestly, it feels like not a day goes by that we don’t get a phone call or an email of somebody wanting to sell something for 100 different reasons.”

The clock store has been with the Hohn family for three generations. It’s all thanks to one family heirloom.

“When the first war started, [my grandparents] left everything and had to move,” Joey Hohn explained. “After the Second World War, my grandpa was stationed in Germany. They went back to the house that had been abandoned and the neighbor who they left the property to said, ‘As far as I’m concerned, everything in the house is still yours.’ They went back and got this, so this is my great-great-grandparents’ clock.”

You can find just about anything in the House of Clocks, from old grandfather clocks to clocks that can fit in the palm of your hand.

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What you can’t find anywhere else is the Hohns’ love for Lodi.

“We’ve made so many friends over the years out of customers,” Sandy Hohn said. “Friends that are just wonderful, that love collecting, and we keep them repaired for their families, which is awesome. They have sentimental value that’s passed down.”

That same love for the city and their community runs in the family.

“We had a customer that wanted to repaint their dial,” Joey Hohn explained. “We told them no because it was her father’s who had passed away. Every time he went to wind the clock, he placed his thumb in the same spot. When we told her that smudge there on the dial was her father, she said, ‘Back away, don’t you dare.’ It was just a good memory we have.”

While you can’t turn back time, what we can do is keep memories alive and treasure the present moment.

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“There’s so many personalities,” Sandy Hohn said. “We just try to find a good home for them.”



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Signs of spring blooming at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve after wet, warm winter

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Signs of spring blooming at Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve after wet, warm winter


It’s beginning to look a lot like spring!

The warm and wet weather this winter has led to the start of a dazzling super bloom at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve.

“We had an unseasonably warm winter as well, so there’s actually a lot of growth,” said Callista Turney with California State Parks. “We’re having early wildflowers that are already at the park. So if you look at the poppy live cam, it shows a lot of orange already.”

The rain has helped the early blooms, but it’s actually the heat that accelerated the growth of the flowers.

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“It will actually speed up the growth of the plants, so some of them were already blooming and that’s going to cause those blossoms to accelerate faster towards seed production. And the blossoms that are in the process of being formed, those are going to open up soon as well.”

We also sometimes see great super blooms in Death Valley National Park, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree and the Mojave National Preserve.

“It’s definitely a rare occurrence because we don’t always have the right conditions. It’s gotta be the weather, the wind, the rain, all coming together,” said Katie Tilford, Director of Development and Communications with the Theodore Payne Foundation.

If it continues to stay unseasonably warm, we’ll see a shorter bloom. The key to a longer season is milder weather.


Copyright © 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Republican governor candidate Chad Bianco says he’s the ‘antithesis to California state government’

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Republican governor candidate Chad Bianco says he’s the ‘antithesis to California state government’


We are counting down to the California governor’s race. Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County, is one of the two biggest names running on the Republican ticket.

In a one-on-one interview with Eyewitness News political reporter Josh Haskell, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said, “I am the antithesis to California state government because I am going to take a nuclear bomb into that building and absolutely destroy everything that they do to us behind closed doors.”

Although he’s been elected by the voters twice, Bianco says he’s not a politician — which is why he believes his campaign for California governor is resonating, as reflected in the polls.

“President Trump, in one year, from 2025 when he took over, until now, did absolutely nothing to harm California. What’s harming California is 30 years of Democrat one-party rule that have created an environment here that no one can live in anymore. They’ve only been successful here in California because we vote D no matter what. You vote D or die. I mean, that’s it. Charles Manson would be elected in California if he was the only Democrat on the ballot,” Bianco said.

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Bianco isn’t the only conservative Republican running for governor, and according to polling, he’s neck-and-neck with former Fox News host Steve Hilton.

SEE ALSO: CA governor candidate Steve Hilton says ‘everybody supports’ Trump’s immigration policies

Leading in some polls in the wide-open California Governor’s race as the June primary creeps closer is Republican and former Fox News host Steve Hilton.

“Steve has no chance of winning in November. The Democrats know that I’m going to win in November, and so they have to do everything they can to keep me out of that,” Bianco said.

When asked about the affordability crisis in the state, Bianco said, “Almost the entire issue of affordability in California is because of regulation, excessive regulation imposed by government. Every single regulation can be signed away with the governor’s signature.”

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“It is a drug and alcohol addiction problem that, and a mental health problem,” he said about the homelessness crisis. “Every single bit of money that is going to these nonprofits that say ‘homeless,’ zero money. You’re getting absolutely nothing. I can’t tell you that we would end what we see in the homeless situation within a year, but I guarantee you we would never see it again after two years.”

When challenged on that prediction, pointing to how the state doesn’t have the facilities to treat the number of people living on our streets, Bianco responded, “We have been conditioned to believe that buildings take five years to build. It takes 90 days or less to build a house, but in California, it takes three to five years because the government won’t allow it. The regulations that are destroying this state are going to be removed with me as the governor.”

Bianco also said California jails shouldn’t have to play the role of treatment facilities.

Although he says he supports the Trump administration and wants the president’s endorsement, Bianco has been traveling the state — meeting not just with Republicans, but Democrats and independents as well. He says all of our state government officials have failed.

The primary election is June 2.

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No clear front-runner in race for California governor, new poll shows

A new poll shows there’s still no clear front-runner in the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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