Fresno County Blossom Trail

H suggested going to Fresno County Blossom Trail to look at the spring blossoms. I was not previously aware of this attraction and eagerly agreed.

A few days before the trip, H received a tip about California poppies blooming in nearby Lake Kaweah. We decided to add poppies viewing to our itinerary.

The trail is about 2 1/2 hours drive from Bay area. Since we switched to DST on Sunday, we left Bay Area at 9am and reach Fresno at about 11:30am.

Our first stop was Simonian farm . According to a Via magazine article, Simonian farm offers a Blossom Trail Mix. The store does have a good selection of dried and fresh fruits, but we were a little disappointed when we did not see the trail mix as described in the article. H bought some dried apples for the trip and I bought dried persimmons. The dried apples tasted like they had been artificially sweeten:(

We drove further along the blossom trail and stopped along a peach farm. From her previous experience, H felt we were about a week late. The almond blossoms were mostly gone. The peach blossoms were not as closely packed as she had remembered.

Near the junction of Academy and Belmont, diagonally across the street from Blossom Trail Cafe, we found a patch of land, offering 3 orchards in one...plums, peaches and oranges. We walked a little in the each orchard, enjoying the flowers. The blossoms here were a little fuller compared to the first orchard. I really like the feeling of walking between 2 rows of trees. The orchard was big enough and for parts of the walk, we could not see where either ends of the rows of trees ended. It was like walking forever between the flowers.

It was almost 12:30pm when left the 3 orchard area and headed to our next destination: Cedar View Winery. According to the Via magazine article, the winery has a patio with good view and I had prepared sandwiches and salad for a simple picnic lunch.

And what a view it is! We were looking at the Serria, near Kings Canyon. There were 2 lusciously green hill in the foreground, and snow peaked mountain in the background. We ordered 2 glasses of chilled Viognier, which has a sweet nose and dry finish, to compliment our lunch. The weather was perfect and as the wind chime gently rings in the background, we thought we were in heaven.

After a leisure lunch, we tasted a lovely Alicante Bouschet. According to the winery, Alicante Bouschet is one of the few grapes whose juice is red. It tasted bold, but was not overly oaky. We enjoyed it very much. The tasting room was offering local brie cheese, which we enjoyed with crackers and pomegranate jelly. The brie and jelly was an excellent combination!

The winery is also a bed and breakfast whose guest can enjoy complimentary wine tasting. H suggested next year, we would go hiking in Kings Canyon on Saturday, then spend the night in the bed and breakfast, doing complimentary tasting wine. On Sunday, we would drive along the blossom trail for a fun-filled 2 day weekend:)

It was about 2:45pm when we set off from the winery. Since we had wanted to go to Lake Kaweah for poppies, we did not visit any more orchard. Near Reedley, there were more beautiful orchards with more dense pack flowers which we did not stop. On future visits, I would focus more on this part of the blossom trail.

From Reedley, it was another 45min drive to Lemon Cove near Lake Kaweah. As we drove along SR 198, we saw patches of orange on the side of the hill along the freeway. That's where we pulled over. The poppy patches were about 3/4 of the way up the hill. Feeling adventurous, we decided to hike up hill to the poppy patch.

It was a great decision! From far, the poppies patch look like a sea of orange, but their beauty really showed as we approached the flowers. The pedals were almost silk like in texture and sparkle like silk in the sun light. There were also beautiful lupines among the poppies, providing purple highlights amongst the orange poppies.

H took this picture of me 3/4 of the way up the hill. We were resting on a rock and playing with our camera when we found this wonderful photo angle with poppies in the foreground and lake Kaweah in the background. I have been showing off this pictures to all my friends:)

As we hike further and further up hill to step more deeply in the sea of poppies, we notice the hill top was not too far away. We decided to summit. The hill was fairly steep at this point and we had to climbed a small rock formation to reach the top. Doing indoor climbing really helped prepared me for this unscheduled hike.

Satisfied, we descended from the hill top and drove a little further along SR 198. Since most stores/resorts were not yet open for the season, so we decided to stop and turn around. Along the way, we stopped at Three River to wash our hands. Watching the river flow is one of my favorite outdoor activities:P

As the sun began to set, we headed back towards Fresno. Feeling a little hungry, I suggested stopping at Kingsburg for dinner. Kingsbury has a Swedish village and I thought we could get some Swedish food.

Turns out both Swedish restaurant in town serves mainly breakfast and lunch, and were not opened for dinner. My next choice was a Basque restaurant in Fresno. When we arrived at the restaurant, the kitchen had closed! It was only 8pm, but since we had 3 more hours of driving ahead of us, we simply ate some leftover sandwich and salad from lunch and called it dinner.

We reached Bay Area at ~11pm after an uneventful drive.

It was an awesome trip and I am glad H told me about it.