Finding the Perfect Sunflower Field: Where to Go in CA

Are you looking for the beautiful sunflower fields of California? Well, here is when they are blooming and how you can find them.

On our recent road trip to Northern California we stopped in some sunflower fields we found along the road. They were in perfect bloom and there were just so many of them, that it was beyond the reach of our eyes.

We have seen some of these fields before too but this was the first time we decided to stop and snap some photos with the flowers. There is just no way that the pictures taken at these sunflower fields wouldn’t turn out amazing!

History of sunflowers

Sunflowers were originally grown in North America, at least in Peru and Mexico. Many Inca temples for example, have pictures of sunflowers in them.

Spanish explorers took some sunflowers seeds to Europe in 1500s, and growing them became extremely popular for example in Russia. So popular in fact, that they made it the national flower of the country. It is also the state flower of Kansas, in the United States.

There are 52 species of sunflowers growing native in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. However, these big fields that we just visited are planted in farms.

Sunflowers have been used for many different purposes in the past. Native Americans used to make flour out of them, and used them for decorations or medicine. They were also used as animal feed. Today, sunflower oil is used widely and the seeds can be eaten as a snack or in different foods.

HOW TO FIND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNFLOWER FIELDS IN CALIFORNIA?

Sunflower fields can be found in Northern California in many different towns. If you are visiting the Bay Area, the closest ones are between San Francisco and Sacramento in Davis. It will be along the way if you are going to Lake Tahoe for example.

That might be the most popular place to stop, since they are the first ones you will see along the roadside. This time too, there were multiple cars parked along the road and many people taking photos of the flowers.

If you want something little less crowded, just continue on Interstate 5 towards the north, and you will soon see many sunflower fields with nobody in them. The last field we saw was in Williams. That is where we stopped to take these photos since were on our way back form the north.

Some of the flower fields might be a little difficult to access. First you have to exit the freeway and find an access road that will take you to the flowers. We waited until we saw a field that had a little gravel road going along it before we went down sunflower hunting.

Some of these fields can be huge and sometimes the access road is at the other side of the field. You definitely don’t want to drive that far. But it didn’t take us too long to find one field which had a little road leading to the flowers.

SMALL, BIG AND EVEN BIGGER FLOWERS

The best bloom for sunflowers is between June and July. You might still find some in the beginning of August though.

Along our drive we saw many different kinds of sunflowers. Small, medium, big… and all in different shapes. So if you don’t for some reason like the first ones you see, just keep going and you are likely to see some different species of them.

Most sunflowers here seemed to be smaller but I really wanted to find flowers that were tall as people. And they weren’t difficult to find either.

Sunflower fields are usually on a private property so don’t forget to be respectful and mindful while you are there. Somebody really owns these amazing plants.

The farmers usually don’t care if people stop there to take view photos, as long as you don’t pick the flowers or destroy them in other ways. Walking all the way to the middle of the field might not be a good idea.

If you plan to do a professional photoshoot though, I would definitely contact the farmers first and I doubt that they would have a problem with that.

Another thing that is good to know, is that the sunflowers consume a lot of water so the fields are often wet and muddy. Don’t wear your best shoes when heading to the sunflower field. We had to jump over a small ditch to able to stand next to the flowers, and even then it was quite muddy.

There were also a lot of little bugs buzzing around. Our oldest daughter got few bug bites on her face that I didn’t notice before we got home. Her cheek got all swollen and red for several days. We had no idea what bit her but where there are a lot of flowers, there are also a lot bees and other bugs.

We also saw couple of beautiful red dragonflies flying around. If you look closely the photo below, you can see one of them photobombing my picture. Too bad I didn’t notice it while I was taking these pictures because I would have loved to get a better picture of it.

American Indians believe that seeing a red dragonfly will bring you tranquility and hope on desperate times. That would be just what we need right now as this year has really been so crazy!

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If you don’t mind the bugs or muddy shoes, you should definitely do a quick stop at a sunflower field when you see one. We really enjoyed seeing the flowers so close and I love the photos we got!

Other amazing places to see flower blooms in California are the ranunculus flower fields in Carlsbad, the almond trees in Central Valley and the cherry trees in San Ramon.

Have you seen similar fields somewhere else?