Our trip took us first to Wind Wolves Preserve, which is an area west of I5 and Bakersfield. We took highway 166 west and arrived by late morning to be greeted by hillsides covered with lupine and owl's clover.
The preserve is very peaceful and open, with many hiking trails along grassy hillsides. We were not equipped for hiking, but did take a short stroll along a small creek and along a path that led to a hillside covered with fiddlenecks and phacelia.
The wildflower display at Wind Wolves was not what I'd call spectacular, but it had several satisfying displays that could be viewed from the car and it was a pleasant stop after 2 hrs on the freeway.
After Wind Wolves, we continued west on 166 then took the 33 toward Taft, a town built around oil. Not the most pleasant drive, although the road leading to Taft is flanked on both sides with citrus trees that smell wonderful when they are blossoming later in the year. Taft was a forest of oil pumps and strange pipes running along the ground. We were glad when we started climbing the hills on the other side of Taft, where the first signs of what would be endless fields of fiddlenecks began to make an appearance.
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