In early April 2023, we hiked among beautiful poppies and CA wildflowers at Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet. We drove 1.5 hour east of LA and northeast of Temecula to see these beautiful poppies and CA wildflowers at Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet. There were fields of orange, yellow, purple all over the hills overlooking a gorgeous blue lake. It was an easy 1.3 mile loop hike not too crowded the further up you hike. It's $9 parking per person. It was perfect 70 degree CA sunny weather and thank goodness for our abundant rainy season to create this super bloom display of wildflowers! We stayed on the pathways being very careful not to trample on any delicate poppies and their ecosystem. We saw lots of California poppies, deep blue arroyo lupines, purple Canterbury bells, yellow rancher’s fiddleneck, white popcorn flowers and yellow daisies. All the watercolor paintings of flowers and poppies I painted above were inspired by the wildflowers I saw at Diamond Valley Lake!