Wildflower wonderlands

Best places for a beautiful bluebonnet pilgrimage across Texas in 2024

Early morning sunlight skims a field of bluebonnets at Inks Lake State Park near Burnet. (Note: Not taken in 2024.)

Getty Images

Texas' beloved bluebonnets are putting on their annual spring show across the state, and - as predicted - they're looking superb. As calendars flip from March to April, freeway embankments, landscapes, and fields all across Texas are awash in blue.

They're a little past prime in the Houston area, but it's not too late for a bluebonnet pilgrimage to top wildflower spots in the Hill Country and beyond.

Following are popular areas across Texas where people have reported gorgeous 2024 bluebonnets, or where they're looking reliable for pretty photos further into April. Happy wildflower hunting!

Southeast Texas
Between Houston and Austin, wildflowers are already starting to go to seed in late March, so you'll have to get there fast to still catch some blue beauties. Here are some recommendations:

Brenham/Chappell Hill/Industry, Washington County
Brenham is a town that prides itself on its wildflowers (and on being the home of Blue Bell Ice Cream). A March 27 post on the Visit Brenham website warns, "Bluebonnets are at peak all throughout the county! We've had lots of rain lately so weeds are going to start shooting up faster than the flowers. If you haven't made your way to Brenham & Washington County, now's the time!" Using "Flower Watch," visitors can check in almost daily on the Visit Brenham website to see what is blooming; there's even a handy driving map.

Washington County as a whole thrives with bluebonnets. Prime viewing spots typically are along Highway 290 east and west as you drive into Brenham; FM 1155 to 2679 in Chappell Hill; and FM 2447 and Highway 290 at First Baptist Church of Chappell Hill (the church typically welcomes visitors, but requests that the parking lot remain open to members of its congregation).

Chappell Hill hosts the “Official State of Texas Bluebonnet Festival” on April 13-14 in downtown historic Chappell Hill. Although it might happen past prime wildflower time, it still is expected to attract thousands to the area.

Industry-Fayetteville
One of the most iconic photo spots in Texas has both bluebonnets and zebras - yes, zebras. About 80 miles east of Austin and 90 miles from Houston is a field where zebras roam, along with cows. Occasionally, they'll graze among the bluebonnets and up to the fence line, photographers say. The address is 5411 TX-159, Fayetteville (between Industry and Fayetteville).

Texas Hill Country
Wildflowers in the state's most famous bluebonnet region are expected to peak by early-to-mid April, so don't delay in making plans. Here are some top places to go. (Note that the Hill Country is in the April 8 eclipse's path of totality, so avoiding travel that day is advised.)

Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg is synonymous with bluebonnets in Texas. A March 20 report on the Visit Fredericksburg website says, "The 2024 wildflower season is underway and is predicted to continue through mid-May. Experts are saying that with recent and predicted rains, the season will be exceptional through April. If no additional rain is received, the season will remain strong." While you'll see the blooms all over the region, a good first stop is always Wildseed Farms, the largest working wildflower farm in the country, which will be in full bloom in April. Other recommended spots include Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park, Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park and LBJ State Park and Historic Site (Stonewall), and the Luckenbach area. The Fredericksburg Bluebonnet Festival will take place Saturday, April 20.

While you're in the area, don't miss the ...

Willow City Loop
One of the best bluebonnet drives in Texas is the 13-mile, two-lane Willow City Loop. A lot of people start in Fredericksburg, take State Highway 16 north about 13 miles and turn east on Ranch Road 1323 to Willow City. It's a pretty drive through wildflower wonderlands, traversing hills and creeks, offering gorgeous views of meadows and valleys. Late-March reports say the "last half" of the Willow City Loop is the prettiest. Warning: Roadside property along this route is private, so no wandering into the fields.

Muleshoe Bend Recreation Area, Spicewood
One of the hottest bluebonnet spots in Texas in spring 2024, Muleshoe Bend has the lush flower fields that look like purple-blue oceans. They are peaking in late March, social media reports say. The bluebonnet fields at this public park northwest of Austin are more abundant than they have been in the past, although some discriminating spotters say they're not quite as good as they were in 2023. There usually are large patches of flowers on the riverbank, and it's easy to drive around and park a car to set up and take time for photo shoots (rather than pulling over on the side of the road). Find it at 2820 County Road 414, Spicewood.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin
No Central Texas bluebonnet pilgrimage would be complete without a visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, roughly 12 miles southwest of downtown Austin. Open for entry daily, 9 am-4 pm (reservations are encouraged), the center has 284 acres of scenic gardens and trails, including native gardens, wild meadows, and experts who can tell you what you’re looking at. They also have a gift shop and gallery, a cafe, host special events, and offer various resources on plants and flowers around Texas. They offer a wildflower report and ideas for bluebonnet excursions here. Find it at 4801 La Crosse Ave., Austin.

Burnet
Known as the "Bluebonnet Capital of Texas," this town off S.H. 281 is known for its abundant spring blooms. The stretch of Highway 29 from Burnet to Llano was described as "amazing" in late March. Take Ranch Road 2341 from S.H. 29 to Canyon of the Eagles Nature Park, where some of its many miles of trails wind among wildflowers. Another good spot is Inks Lake State Park (specifically the Pecan Flats area), which typically has gorgeous bluebonnets and fragrant mountain laurel. The beloved Burnet Bluebonnet Festival, April 12-14, includes live music, a carnival, food, races, birding and, of course, flowers.

Mason County
This county west of Burnet and Llano, on 29, is in the heart of bluebonnet country, and recent reports say it's a sea of color. Great for meandering on backroads (but stay off personal property, of course).

Marble Falls
Bluebonnets are painting the landscape all over this popular Hill Country town (and home to the famous Blue Bonnet Cafe). Look for bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, yuccas, and many other wildflowers flourishing all over the area. Turkey Bend Recreation Area is always a specific hot spot. An old house off SH 281 called, simply, "The Bluebonnet House," is the setting for many picturesque photo shoots; read about it here. Check out the guide to this year’s best flower fields here. They even have scenic wildflower drive recommendations, here.

North Texas
The Dallas-Fort Worth area typically blooms about two weeks behind the Hill Country. The bluebonnets are revving up now. If you're heading to Dallas-Fort Worth, CultureMap Dallas has some more specific recommendations for the best places to see them.

The Ennis Bluebonnet Trails, North Texas’ No. 1 spot for bluebonnet spotting, opens April 1 and runs through April 30. The trails wind visitors through 40 miles of picturesque wildflowers in a spectacular setting that includes rolling hills and pastures with grazing horses, longhorns, even swans on a pond. Not all flowers bloom at the same time; be sure to stop at the Welcome Center for a map and expert guidance.

The flowers are expected to peak around April 18-21, coinciding with the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Festival. There typically are gorgeous fields along Sugar Ridge Road on the North Loop Trail. Those interested in making the trek about 40 miles south of Dallas can check out maps and updates on the website and social media channels. Download the Ennis Y’all mobile app to get all the information on your smartphone. Be warned: Ennis will be a hot spot for eclipse tourists on April 8, so traffic will be especially heavy that day.

The Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park, a 15-acre urban park on the grounds of George W. Bush Presidential Center at SMU in Dallas, features a one-mile network of trails that walks visitors through native Texas environments, including spring wildflowers. Besides bluebonnets, the mix typically includes Winecup, Pink Evening Primrose, Plains Coreopsis, Engelman Daisy, Foxglove, Prairie Spiderwort, White Prairie Clover, Prairie Verbana, Texas Yellowstar, and more. Guided tours are available, and you can download a guide to the flowers here.

Bluebonnet Trail Greenbelt in Plano was filling up with bluebonnets by the last week of March, with many more to come. Bluebonnet Trail runs from Central Expressway to Midway Road, following an Oncor power line easement and along Spring Creek Parkway and Chase Oaks Boulevard; it intersects with the Chisholm Trail in the middle of Plano and connects with the Preston Ridge Trail at Carpenter Park. View maps of the trails here and here. While in Plano, also check out the Arbor Hills Nature Preserve (6701 W. Parker Rd.) and Russell Creek Park (3500 McDermott Rd.), known to have some beautiful wildflowers, too.

DFW Airport area-freeways
Stopping beside a highway or posing for photos on the side of the road is never advised, but the lush fields along the freeway embankments near DFW Airport are always a thrill for visitors arriving in the Metroplex or local drivers happy to call Texas home. By the last week of March, bluebonnets were filling both sides of SH 183/121, SH 161, I-635 near the airport, and along S.H. 114 from Grapevine toward Irving.

Fort Worth Botanic Garden/BRIT has thousands of spring flowers blooming, but you'll see some bluebonnets, too. "As the weather warms, beloved Texas bluebonnets will cover the South Vista," says the website. Other colorful spring blooms that typically dot their landscape in March and April: Pansies, Dianthus, Snapdragons, Alyssum, Narcissus (daffodils), Summer snowflake, Mexican plum, Redbud trees, Lady Banks’ Rose, daisies, Hardy gladiolus, Coral honeysuckle, and more. BRIT has an informative article on "the botany of bluebonnets" here.

2024 bluebonnet festivals

Burnet Bluebonnet Festival: April 12-14, Burnet
Chappell Hill Bluebonnet Festival: April 13-14, Chappell Hill
Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Festival: April 19-21, Ennis
Fredericksburg Bluebonnet Festival: April 20, Fredericksburg

Resources to keep up with wildflower season

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center regularly updates information about the season on their website and social media channels. Here is a handy chart of some common Texas native plants and when they bloom.
Texas Bluebonnets and Wildflowers and Bluebonnets of Texas are Facebook groups in which members regularly post updates about what they're seeing around the state.
Texas Wildflower Report is a Facebook page that posts helpful update and the author has even published an ebook called Hunting Texas Wildflowers 2024, available on Kindle for $9.99.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Flickr page and social media accounts usually get populated with wildflower sightings from state parks and wildlife management areas.
The iNaturalist app will allow you to see what’s in bloom in different regions.
Search Instagram using #txwildflowers2024 to find pretty photos and updates from all around the state.

Rules of the road

Pulling over on the side of a highway for photos is never recommended. Find a nearby parking lot. For everyone's safety, do not pose for photos near a roadway, and never on a median.
Remember that while it isn’t illegal to pick the blooms, it is bad form. Leave them for others to enjoy and so the flowers can go to seed and make more for next year.
By the same token, minimize trampling of the plants, as crushing them repeatedly (by, say, sitting on them) can destroy the flowers. Try to walk in other people's footprints in a field.
Be aware that fields can also contain fire ants and the occasional snake. Be careful if walking through grass where it’s not possible to see where you’re stepping.
Also, remember the "groups" rule. If you approach a pretty patch and another family is taking photos, ride on by.
Finally, be respectful of private property — no climbing fences, going through gates, or driving up driveways to get that photo. You might get a less-than-warm welcome.

bluebonnet festival ennis hill country texas texas bluebonnets wildflowers fredericksburg bluebonnets nature

Notes from a chef

Globe-trotting Houston chef reviews Noma's $1,500 Los Angeles pop-up

Courtesy of David Skinner

Pink pepper Dungeness crab.

[Editor’s note: When David Skinner, chef and owner of Kemah’s celebrated eculent and Ishtia restaurants, offered to share his experience eating at one of the world’s best restaurants, we said, of course. Read on for his experience at Copenhagen restaurant Noma’s pop-up in Los Angeles that took place this summer. Take it away, David.]

The crab was alive a few minutes before I ate it.

Just before service, the kitchen broke down a Dungeness crab and set it over open charcoal, the downtown Los Angeles skyline behind the smoke. It came to the table wreathed in dried pink pepper branches, with a butter sauce built on the same pepper. I've eaten crab all over the world — this was maybe the best crab ever.

That was the first of 17 courses at Noma LA, and the best bite of the afternoon. Leading with your best shot is either confidence or a statement. By the end of lunch, I'd decided it was both.

The residency had begun in turmoil. Founder René Redzepi stepped away from the residency the day it opened, following a news investigation into allegations of demeaning treatment of staff — conduct that had been discussed in industry circles for years. Protesters gathered at the gate that day. The kitchen, led by Pablo Soto, carried on through the residency's close on June 26.

I went for lunch at the Paramour Estate, the 1920s Mediterranean mansion in Silver Lake that Noma called home for 16 weeks. For more than 30 years, I've traveled the world in search of culture, a little mystery, and always food, eating everywhere from strangers' kitchen tables to three-Michelin-star dining rooms.

As the chef behind eculent and Ishtia in Kemah, I also eat with a cook's eye — which means I'll tell you what was brilliant and what was oversalted. Noma LA had a little of both, but after a half dozen meals at Noma over the past 10 years, I can say this one was a standout.

The setup

The logistics alone are remarkable. Noma relocated roughly 130 staff members and their families to Los Angeles and built a pantry sourced within 300 miles of the mansion. Lunch ran 17 courses over about four hours at $1,500 per person, including beverages and gratuity.

Chef Soto greeted us at the entrance with the full kitchen staff, a Noma tradition. By the time I arrived, the protesters were long gone, and the brigade seemed to be cooking with a sense of relief.

Rather than choose between the wine pairing and the nonalcoholic program, we asked our server, Mara, to mix the two course by course. She nailed it, moving from a sparkling rose-and-pink-pepper drink to a bright cherimoya lemonade to a 25-year-old Tony Coturri zinfandel from Glen Ellen that became the table's favorite pour.

The standouts

The crab. It opened the meal, and nothing that followed topped it. The pink pepper did double duty with the dried branches perfuming the shell, the butter sauce carrying a gentle heat — the sweet, smoky meat needed nothing else. Alongside came a 2022 Phelan Farm chardonnay from Rajat Parr's Cambria operation: white Burgundy in spirit, California in its bones.

The cactus. Pickled tacinga cactus, marinated in Oaxacan mezcal and citrus and crowned with honeypot ants, arrived beneath a live cactus paddle with a eucalyptus handle.

The acorn. A single braised acorn, glazed with black pepper, sat atop an uni custard made with Santa Barbara sea urchin and caviar in hoja santa oil. The server described it as a nod to California's Indigenous peoples. As a Choctaw, whose ancestors relied on acorns for thousands of years, I felt that one. It was also the most technically accomplished savory course of the meal.

The seaweed and clams. Six varieties of Southern California seaweed with butter-kissed clams tasted like the coast itself. This is Noma at its best: not interpreting California so much as listening to it.

The tuna eye. I've eaten cod eye at Noma in Copenhagen, but this version was way better. The kitchen removed the tough cornea, replaced it with a thin disk of kumquat, and served the eye chilled inside a ruby-red banana flower bract. Rich and gelatinous, it's eaten in one bite. When our table wondered aloud where the rest of all that tuna goes, Mara had the answer: family meal for the staff.

The kelp mole. Grilled greens, a squash blossom stuffed with huitlacoche, and an artichoke on its stalk arrived with tortillas from Komal, one of Los Angeles's top heirloom molinos, paired with a mole built on kelp.

Between the acorn, the cactus, and the mole, a question kept surfacing: what does it mean for a Danish kitchen to arrive in someone else's pantry and cook as though it has always been there? Some of these ingredients have fed Indigenous and Mexican cooks for centuries. Noma handled them with obvious respect and real curiosity. Sometimes, though, the line between homage and borrowing comes down to whether you're willing to say the name out loud.

Dessert kept the surprises coming, including a macadamia custard served in a sunflower whose base turned out to be beeswax. The finale arrived as a bundle of ferns tied with string. Diners snip it open with tiny scissors to find a chocolate cookie and a fortune inside. Mine quoted Nietzsche: You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.

Nietzsche, at $1,500 a head, in a Silver Lake mansion, from a kitchen whose founder walked away on opening day while protesters stood at the gate. The kitchen knew exactly what it was doing.

The full menu, course by course

For those keeping score, here's the complete lineup.

Pink pepper Dungeness crab
Daylily crab dumpling — The rest of the crab, tucked inside a trumpet-shaped daylily with buds plumped in crustacean liquor. The flower dominated; the crab was the reason to eat it.
Chilled lobster broth — Spiny lobster stock, dashi, and elderflower oil served chilled in the lobster's own coral-colored shell. A palate reset dressed as a course.
Spot prawn with matcha — Served in real seaweed, the head filled with smoked pumpkin paste for sucking, the tail painted with matcha. Paired with the 2024 Verso from Caleb Leisure in Sebastopol.
Sea urchin custard and braised acorn
Cactus with mezcal
Ragout of California botanicals — Seasonal greens, peas, and herbs in a warm, quiet preparation, tied together by a hint of horseradish.
SoCal seaweed and clam
Tuna neck — Minced tuna neck in a koji-inoculated steamed bun with the texture of suede, topped with translucent shards of dried chicken-stock skin. Paired with the 2000 Estate Zinfandel from Tony Coturri.
Tuna eye
Black pearl rice steamed in avocado leaf — Ringed with pistachio oil and scattered with dime-sized macadamia slices. Humble ingredients in the spirit of California great Jeremiah Tower.
Morels with habanero and yuzu — Sierra Nevada morels on turkey-tail mushrooms over hot stones. Bright and spicy, but heavy on the salt.
Greens and grilled artichoke in spiced kelp mole
Cherimoya and lemongrass — A green cocoa butter shell shaped like a cactus, hiding a smooth cherimoya ice cream. A California fruit most California menus ignore.
Macadamia milk custard and pistachio — Topped with heirloom Hong Kong kumquats from a handful of research trees that fruit four weeks a year, served in a beeswax-lined sunflower.
Silver Lake fortune cookie — A Chiapas chocolate mousse cookie garnished with insects, hidden in a bundle of ferns you cut open with tiny scissors. Fortune included.

The misses

Not every course landed. Morels with habanero and yuzu were oversalted, and some presentations were delivered too quietly to catch the full story. At $1,500 a seat, the storytelling should be as confident as the cooking.

The verdict

Having now eaten Noma's traveling editions in Tulum and Los Angeles, I'll offer an opinion that may be unpopular in certain circles: the pop-ups are better than Copenhagen. Maybe it's the hunt for new ingredients, or the urgency of a 16-week run in a borrowed house. Whatever the reason, the results are hard to argue with. I put that theory to the test in August, when I returned to Noma on my birthday, three days after it reopened with Soto at the helm. More on that meal soon.

Noma LA wasn't really a restaurant. It was an argument about a place, made in food, by people who flew 6,000 miles to make it. The argument was frequently brilliant, occasionally presumptuous, and closed with Nietzsche in a fortune cookie. On balance, it won.

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David Skinner is a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas and the owner of eculent and Ishtia in Kemah. He also writes the culinary travel journal Destination Eater on Substack.

Courtesy of David Skinner

Pink pepper Dungeness crab.

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