Arvin Wildflower Festival

April 26-28, 2024, 2-10 p.m.

Smotherman Park
800 Walnut Drive
Arvin, Ca
 $5 admission approx.
facebook.com/ArvinChamber

Arvin Wildflower Festival 

The hills of Arvin will soon be alive with the sound of music. Return of the Arvin Wildflower Festival may feature a carnival Thursday and Friday as well as food and entertainment

Over 35 years ago after a dust storm swept away the wildflowers and dirt on Bear Mountain people were dismayed. Bear Mountain bare, so they decided to do something. The festival was started as a way to reseed Bear Mountain. Local flower lovers helped by dropping seeds as they walked, Combs said. After several years, the wildflowers made a comeback, triumphantly pushing their way back to the surface.

Arvin Wildflower Festival

Thursday and Friday a carnival is usually held from 5 to 10 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday the carnival will continue with the festival running from noon to 10 p.m. each day. Entertainment will start at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Where: Smothermon Park, 800 Walnut Drive in Arvin. Cost: $small fee.

Hot lines and Web pages to check for wildflower sightings:

Kern County Wildflower Hot line, 322-WILD

Alison Sheehey's Wildflower Report, www.natureali.org

California Wildflower Hotsheet, www.calphoto.com/wflower.htm

1. Lake Isabella Visitor Center Baby blue eyes, blue dicks, cream cups, cushion catseye, fiddleneck, goldfields, hill sun cup, owl's clover, popcorn flower, red maids, spreading fleabane, filaree, slender keel fruit

2. Sierra Way between Kernville and Weldon Bird's eye gilia, blue dicks, brown-eyed evening primrose, California poppy, caterpillar phacelia, chia, coreopsis, deer vetch, encelia, evening snow, fiddleneck, globe gilia, goldenbush, goldfields, Kernville poppy, miniature lupine, mustards, owl's clover, popcorn flower, stick leaf, filaree, thistle sage, slender keel fruit, white fiesta flower, deer vetch

3. Kernville to Wofford Heights Bird's eye gilia, Coulter's jewelflower, rock cress, Indian paintbrush, wild hyacinth, popcorn flower, and deer vetch

4. Walker Pass Road to Highway 14 Joshua tree, phacelia, Mojave sun cup, brittlebush

5. Highway 14 to Short Canyon Desert chicory, desert dandelions, phacelia, desert mallow

6. Short Canyon 1 Alyssum, arroyo lupine, bajada lupine, bird's eye gilia, birds foot evening primrose, bladder pod, blazing star, blue dicks, brittlebush, brown-eyed primrose, California poppy, caterpillar phacelia, Charlotte's phacelia, chia, coreopsis, cream cups, desert chicory, desert dandelion, desert mallow, desert paintbrush, desert primrose, elegant lupine, fiddleneck, four-wing saltbush, goldenbush, golden poppy, golden linanthus, goldfields, grape soda lupine, Indian paint brush, inflated buckwheat, iodine bush, Joshua tree, jewelflower, lacy phacelia, miniature lupine, Mojave evening primrose, Mojave sun cups, nude buckwheat, Parry's larkspur, pepper grass, pincushion, purple mat, popcorn flower, sage thistle, sand verbena, spectacle pod, tansy phacelia, yellowthroats, white fiesta flower

7. Red Rock Canyon State Park Coreopsis, sun cups, primrose, goldfields

8. Death Valley National Park Panamint catseye, brown-eyed evening primrose, desert gold, creosote, and sand verbena

9. Kelso Creek Bigelow's monkeyflower, bird's eye gilia, desert dandelion, desert star, Fremont's phacelia, goldfields, Joshua tree, Kelso Creek monkeyflower, Mojave sun cup, Pringle's wooly sunflower, purple mat, pygmy poppy, sandblossoms, silver cholla, sinuate gilia, filaree, white layia, white tidy tips, 10. Jawbone Canyon (east slope of the Piute Mountains) Baby blue eyes, California poppy, locoweed, miniature lupine, popcorn flower.

11. Hwy 178 (Kern Canyon) Baby blue eyes, bindweed, bladderpod, California poppy, coreopsis, Coulter's jewelflower, fiddleneck, gilia, lupine, miner's lettuce, mustard, owl's clover, popcorn flower, Bermuda buttercup

12. Mtn 99 (north of Kernville-Kern and Tulare Counties) Bajada lupine, bush monkeyflower, California Yerba Santa, common monkeyflower, death camas, dudleya, fiesta flower, fleabane, golden violets, golden poppies, granite monkeyflower, grape soda lupine, Ithuriel's spear, Kern County larkspur, phacelia, popcorn flower, red maids, western wallflower, wooly pod

13. Hwy. 99 Stone fruit orchards

14. Rancheria Road Blue dicks, California poppy, fiddleneck, lupines, popcorn flower

15. Northeast Bakersfield Blue dicks, owl's clover, phacelia

16. Bena Road Bladder pod, California poppy, chia, fiddleneck, locoweed, lupine, owl's clover, phacelia, popcorn flower, white tidy tips

17. Caliente Creek Road Lupine, fiddleneck

18. Carrizo Plain National Monument Fiddleneck, filaree, tidy tips, thistle sage, owl's clover, encelia, eriophyllum, parry's mallow, unexpected larkspur

19. Shell Creek Road Lupine, owl's clover, gilia, yellow blazing star, common tidy tips, sierra tidy tips, pale yellow layia, desert dandelion, goldfields, grassland suncup, California evening primrose, Parry's mallow, scarlet buglar, branched Indian clover, whitetipped clover, tomcat clover, cows clover, yellow sweetclover, bur clover, bishop's lotus, redstem filaree, broad-leaf filaree, chaparral nightshade, fiddleneck, popcorn flower, forget-me-not, chia, thistle sage, Indian paint brush, linear leaved goldenbush, yellow yarrow, divaricate phacelia, blue dicks, California poppy, freckled milkvetch, baby blue eyes, desert pincushion, yellow pincushion

20. Sherman Pass Road Blue dicks, columbine, death camas, golden ear drops, Monardellas, shooting stars

21. Nine-mile Canyon Road Grape soda lupine, pink gilia

22. Cherry Hill Road Butterfly mariposa lily, lupine, mountain collomia, harlequin monkeyflower, pink gilia, phacelia, monkeyflower, Indian paintbrush, clover, lotus, tinctureplant, snow plant, crimson columbine, mountain blue bells, Parry's larkspur, cinquefoil, shooting stars, wild onions, blue-eyed marys, knotweed

23. Piute Mountains Brodiaea, desert calico, Horkelias, mariposa lily, monkeyflowers, milkweeds, Monardellas, Palmer's mariposa lily, penstemon, phacelia, Spanish bayonet, vetch 24. Antelope Valley Poppy California poppy, coreopsis, cream cups, Davy gilia, fiddleneck, globe gilia, golden carpet, goldfields, paintbrush, lupine, phacelia, thistle sage, yellow throats

Events are not guaranteed. It is your responsibility to confirm before going.