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(CNN) – Why wait like everyone else in traffic to see the spectacular California bloom? A pair of brass decided to jump the lines and went by helicopter to the popular Antelope Valley poppy reserve in California.
Officials pointed out that it was illegal to land helicopters in the poppy reserve.
A helicopter is spotted Monday in California's Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve.
Visitor in Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve
Southern California park officials are trying to protect the delicate wildflowers from being trampled by overzealous visitors this season.
The helicopter landed Monday around noon, said Jorge Moreno, an information officer at California State Parks. When a forest ranger arrived to talk to them, the two people took off in the helicopter.
When asked if there would be any fines or consequences for the duo, Gloria Sandoval, assistant director of public affairs at California State Parks, said: "At this point, the investigation is in progress".
This WorldView-2 satellite photo shows a long line of cars along the roads leading to the start of Walker Canyon Trail.
DigitalGlobe
The superflowering wildflower is so popular that it is invaded and trampled by visitors. Confronted with traffic jams, crushed flowers and overflowing public toilets, the authorities temporarily closed this month the Walker Canyon, located at Lake Elsinore, to the swarms of tourists who gathered there for take the perfect Instagram picture of these bright orange poppies.
People are visiting a "super bloom" of wild poppies covering the Walker Canyon Hills on March 12, 2019 near Lake Elsinore, California. The winter rains more abundant than normal in California caused a "super flowering" of wildflowers in various parts of the state.
Mario Tama / Getty Images
The California poppy reserve Antelope Valley has also seen a large crowd of visitors wait between 30 minutes and over an hour to enter.
National park officials have asked hordes of visitors to stay on the designated trails and stop picking and treading the flowers to get a picture. They focused on social media rules using the hashtag #DontDoomTheBloom. Authorities say that people even enter the park illegally through barbed wire fencing and crushing the flowers. "It only takes a few to destroy the habitat in the years to come," he said on Twitter.
"You can see the damage done to the part of the path where people went down," said Moreno. "People take selfies with the flowers or lay flowers and that's where the flowers do not grow back because a lot of people leave the track."
CNN's Gianluca Mezzofiore contributed to this report.
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