-There is a small chance of rain on Sunday, so please come prepared with a rain coat or poncho. Light rain won't derail the trip, but thunder and lightning will and you don't know where you will be when this happens so just be prepared.

-Wear hiking boots preferably, if you don't have them wear comfortable close toed shoes.

-Bring sun block, bug spray, and a hat. The mosquitos are present this time of year, especially in Yosemite Valley, think about wearing long sleeves and long pants.

-Carry your water and lunch with you on the trail. You won't be returning to the campsites to make a lunch or stopping anywhere to pick anything up.

-Plan to share vehicles and carpool to the trailheads from the campgrounds. Many of the trailheads don't have a ton of parking.

-Be prepared for driving in the park to take longer than you expect because visitation numbers are way up this year. Weekend traffic on the South Side Drive in Yosemite Valley has been bumper to bumper in recent weekends. I tell people to think like the anti-visitor, stay ahead of the crowds by being early to everything and visit the "unpopular" parts of the park to avoid crowds.

-Bring a notebook and pen if you want to remember the plants you see.

-Bring your smartphone with iNaturalist on it, and join the Yosemite Bloom Blitz project.

You have found our Bloom Blitz webpage! Congratulations and thank you for visiting. The following is some general sign-up information so you can start planning your trip today! We are registering participants on a first come first served basis, so please email me to reserve your spot today. My contact information is below.

The Yosemite Bloom Blitz will be held on May 22, 2016 in Yosemite National Park. This celebration of biodiversity and discovery is one of over a hundred bioblitzes, each with their own theme and focus, occurring in national parks across the country that will commemorate the National Park Service’s Centennial. At Yosemite, we will conduct botanical surveys with a specific focus on flowering plants in recently burned areas. These surveys will document the floral diversity that follows fires in various elevations, habitats, and times since the last fire, and we will share those findings online.

We will be breaking into groups of 10 and surveying 10 trails from 8-4:30pm, likely with a gathering in the Valley afterward to share our findings. The trail leaders will be NPS Vegetation staff, Yosemite Conservancy Naturalists, Sierra Nevada specific botanists, and interested University biology professors.

We'll be collecting data using the iNaturalist app and after upload it will be displayed on this webpage. Please have all participants in your group download the app to their smartphone, create a profile, and join the Yosemite's Bloom Blitz project so all your observations end up on the website. If you don’t have a smartphone we will partner you up with someone who does.

If you haven’t signed up and received your paperwork yet (Volunteer Agreement, campsite assignment, and gate pass) then please email Molly Downer at Molly_Downer@nps.gov. Hope to see you on the trail!