If you’ve been keeping your eyes peeled on the trails for wildflowers lately, you know the views aren’t as great as they’ve been in past years – another year of below-average winter rainfall – but that doesn’t mean that you can’t see some nice color once in a while.

During the spring, it’s always worth bookmarking the Theodore Payne Foundation and What’s Blooming – both sites offer frequently updated, well-written descriptions of blooms in and around Southern California – sometimes going so far as to pinpoint specific trails where petal-peepers can get a bit of color in their lives.

Right now sites are recommending visits to the Circle X Ranch and Verdugo Mountains – and potentially a trip up to Figueroa Mountain in the Los Padres National Forest if you’re up for more than a mini day trip.

If you’ve got an iOS device with some extra storage, you can download the free What’s Blooming team’s Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains App, which just added 40 new species and 800 photos to its enormous and comprehensive database of plant life.

Tags: Hiking, Los Angeles, Santa Monica Mountains, wildflowers