My wife and I made a quick trip into the Merced River Canyon yesterday afternoon. We saw some dense but small patches of goldfields, and poppies beginning to emerge. The best poppy location right now is probably the beginning of the Hite’s Cove trail. The areas that burned in the summer of 2008 have some poppies as well, but so far not nearly as many as last year. This week is predicted to be warm and dry, so I would expect that more poppies and other flowers will emerge. It’s unlikely that the display will be as amazing as 2009, but it could still be good. On the other hand, the poppies may be confused by the intermittent wet weather we’ve seen over the past few weeks and never amount to much. I’ll keep you posted.