In mid March Nancy and I saddled up our Bolt EV and headed out to the Carrizo Plains National Monument for another dirt-road adventure in search of wildflower displays. Nancy loves photographing wildflowers and we both long for the vast expanses of open space that the Carrizo Plains offers. To treat ourselves after a full day in the field we planned to stay that night at the Buckhorn resort in New Cuyama.
Spring is a special time in this part of the world. It bursts with life and the hillsides can be ablaze with wildflowers. It’s such a contrast to the burnt brown of late summer that you don’t want to miss this brief respite.
For a state with 40 million people, vast urban agglomerations like the LA Basin, the San Joaquin Valley, where Bakersfield is located, or coastal Santa Barbara, few realize how remote the Carrizo Plains are. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere between the Great Central Valley and the coast. Cell phone service is spotty or non-existent. The roads are mostly dirt when they’re not wet. If they’re wet, they’re simply impassable. (The soils derived from marine shale turn to gumbo in any little bit of rain.) Of course, this is just the place we like to go in our Bolt—with a watchful eye on the weather.
This trip was a relaxed affair compared to our 2020 adventure climbing the Elkhorn Grade out of Maricopa, California. (See Climbing the Elkhorn Grade in a Chevy Bolt EV.) No, this was a “sedate” trip mostly on the sometimes graded Soda Lake Road northbound from Route 166.
Sedate is relative. Soda Lake Road was churned up and deeply rutted in places from the past weeks of rain. It was a bumpy, grinding, and occasional bottoming out ride for miles. But once we turned off onto the dirt tracks that led into the hills, the ride smoothed out. To the east was the “dragon’s back,” pressure ridges along the San Andreas Fault that marks the eastern border of the north-south valley. To the west were the Caliente Mountains and their bordering fault.
But it was worth it. We saw massive displays of hillside daisy, Monolopia lanceolata, for which the Carrizo Plains are famous.
And it was worth it to watch the very few big four-wheel drive trucks that also took the rarely traveled tracks we were on to look at us with the question, “What’s a Bolt doing out here?”
After a long day chasing flowers from one side of the plains to the other, we turned back, heading south the way we came in. We were headed for New Cuyama.
For those who don’t know, New Cuyama is the back of beyond. It’s on Route 166 that runs east and west, leading from the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley to the coast.
New Cuyama, as opposed to Cuyama just down the road, was built in the1950s and 1960s to house Atlantic Richfield workers in the then newly discovered oil fields.
This is drive through country. The oil is mostly gone, though there are a few pump jacks and tanks remaining. The area is now known for massive carrot farms, a few vineyards, and the Cuyama Buckhorn.
A few years ago investors bought the cafe, restaurant, bar, and motel and converted it into a boutique destination resort. We’d stopped for lunch or breakfast at the cafe a few times on trips to the coast and we were curious about the rest of the facility. So we decided to splurge for a night at the Buckhorn.
We’re glad we did. It’s been beautifully restored. It caters to sophisticated tastes and you can tell the designers knew what they were doing. It wasn’t cheap. We spent $570 for a room, breakfast and dinner, wine, and some items from the min-bar. That also included use of the pool, hot tub, and EV charging.
To their credit, the developers installed three Level 2 charging stations early in their remodeling project. There are two Tesla connectors and one Siemens J1772. The Siemens EVSE has been out of service for some time, but the Tesla destination chargers work, and the hotel desk has an adapter for us peons driving non-Tesla vehicles.
The restaurant menu is limited, but does include vegetarian options. They try to offer farm-to-table ingredients and feature local growers. They have an extensive wine collection, including a few local wines.
It was quiet on the Sunday night we were there, and the stars were brilliant. We slept well. It was a civilized end to our wildflower adventure on the Carrizo Plains.
We may have to save up for it, but we’d do it again.
Level 2 Charging in New Cuyama
- Cuyama Buckhorn, New Cuyama (for customers)
- Richardson Park, New Cuyama (public)
More on the Region
- Climbing the Elkhorn Grade in a Chevy Bolt EV
- New Solar-Powered Level 2 Station in New Cuyama—the Back of Beyond
