A particularly wet winter has spawned a super bloom in California, defined as “an explosion of wildflowers that exceeds typical spring blooms,” according to Sarah Gibbens, a writer for National Geographic. Picturesque poppies have bloomed all throughout the state and their splendor has attracted visitors to wherever they grow-from Hemet to Chino Hills to Lake Elsinore, the latter of which has experienced the most attention.

Leyna Hoang, a junior at ERHS, went to go see the poppies herself a few weeks ago. She went to Lake Elsinore with her family, reporting that the traffic to get there was “worse than usual” due to the large numbers of visitors.

She got there before the height of the excitement, though-since then, traffic in the area has gotten exponentially worse as more and more people rushed to see this phenomenon. As many as 150,000 people are estimated to have come to Lake Elsinore last weekend alone, according to Matthew Schwartz of NPR.

Hoang went to see the flowers because she wanted to see the beauty of  so many “flowers bloom[ing] in one place that’s accessible to the public.”Despite the madness, Hoang “got a lot of nice pictures and it was a great… experience.”

Due to the sudden severity of the situation, local government of these cities have been playing it by ear, figuring out shuttle prices and hours so as to keep everything under control and preserve the flowers.

The blooms wont’t be going away any time soon, so there’s still plenty of time for you to go see them yourself! Just remember not to pick the flowers and stay on the marked paths in order to maintain the health of the plants so others can see them, too.