The southern California superbloom may get all the glory —and the superbloom-stomping, selfie-snapping crowds— but northern California’s wildflowers are truly something special. For the second year in a row Juno and I visited Phantom Falls at Table Mountain Ecological Reserve (near Oroville, California) to catch the spectacular show.

Table Mountain’s main attraction (besides the wildflowers) is Phantom Falls, an ephemeral spring waterspout that shoots over a balcony of basalt like something out of Game of Thrones. We picked the best week to go, when the falls and blooms were both in full force.

Oboz hiking boots / Darn Tough socks / Alizé’s red REI rain shell / My Arc’teryx blue rain shell

The best part, though, was visiting my good friend Alizé (1/3 of the Parsley Crew that summited Mount Whitney last year!), her sister Maéva, and our friend Tisha. We fueled up with coffee and breakfast burritos at the Chico Farmer’s Market before heading on our hike. Farmer’s markets, friends, and flowers — what more do you need?!

There’s no real trail to Phantom Falls, so we picked our way through the showy lupines and goldfields, poppies and blue dicks, clover and cowpies to get to the viewpoint. I’d recommend downloading the AllTrails map before leaving town, as there’s no signage or cell service to help you find the falls.

You can also hike down to the base of the falls, but all that flower photography made us hungry and we turned towards lunch instead. 🙂

Thanks to Alizé, Maéva, and Tisha for a fun visit to Chico. Next stop, Portland!