California ‘Daffodil Hill’ closes due to overtourism

Saturday, July 20, 2019

McLaughlin’s Daffodil Hill has announced that it will be closing indefinitely due to fallout from its unexpected popularity on social media. Daffodil Hill is a field of beautiful yellow and white flowers outside of California’s state capital of Sacramento.

The Ryan family, who manages the property, posted an announcement on Facebook on July 15 announcing the closure. The original plot of farmland was purchased in 1887 and has been handed down within the family since.

The post reads, “After the crush of visitors that descended upon our Hill this year, we came to realize that the limitation on the size of our parking areas and the inability of the local road infrastructure to handle the volume, created liability and safety concerns for everyone involved”. It is this overwhelming popularity that has led us to our decision to close.

Due to its rural location, the Daffodil Hill area was not prepared for the influx of visitors who poured in to photograph themselves among the flower-filled fields. Parking, traffic and environmental damage were all cited as issues.

California or Daffodil Hill are not the only place that are suffering the menace due to social media — specifically Instagram. Antelope Valley’s poppy “super bloom” in March 2019 was so popular that visitors started doing risky things — like illegally landing a helicopter into the field — in order to access the area and take pictures. Other examples are Maya Bay and Uluru.

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