Instagram has created many monsters. But this winter there's a California town that is broadcasting an emphatic 'Go away!' to all selfie-taking tourists who want to make pilgrimages there all for the 'gram.

A quickly moving snowball effect happened in March 2019 after an especially wet winter came after a dry one, producing a superbloom of California poppies in Walker Canyon, near Lake Elsinore in Riverside County. Word spread quickly, and so did the Instagram posts, and suddenly this small town and the roads around it were swarmed with selfie-stick-toting, picture-taking tourists of all stripes.

These were "Disneyland-size crowds," the city's Facebook page said.

"Interstate 15 was a parking lot," the Associated Press reported at the time.  

"Wildflower-seekers slid and fell down the side of Walker Canyon that was never meant to be hiked on, though some managed to do so anyways — even in very chic wedge heels," wrote the Palm Springs Desert Sun.

SFist was among the media outlets directing people toward Lake Elsinore, as well as Joshua Tree and other desert areas where these superblooms occur. (Here in Northern California, the rains also feed invasive grasses that drown out the wildflowers, or at least keep them flourishing in mad quantities all in one place.) And superblooms only happen about once a decade, so people thought they'd better grab their chance.

But this year, even if no major superbloom occurs, Lake Elsinore is taking more precautions to keep people away. As Bay Area News Group reports, these include blocking all public access to Walker Canyon, closing parking lots, and shutting down all trails and roads leading to the hillsides in question, for several weeks.

Lake Elsinore Mayor Natasha Johnson said at a Tuesday press conference that this year's bloom isn't so super, and really there's nothing much to see — and if you try you'll be arrested. The Los Angeles Times has some lovely photos, though, showing the bloom in progress, and noting that the poppies are coming out early after last month's rain.

Also, this Insta is from January 30:

Referring to 2019's morass of cars and people, Johnson said, "You couldn’t park or exit at any of our five exits up and down the I-15 corridor. You couldn’t go to the grocery store. Some people could not even go to work."

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco also spoke at the press conference, saying, "Your warning is right now," and "We will have a zero-tolerance policy," and, "We don’t want anyone thinking, oh, that’s worth it, I’ll pay the fine and be good with it." Sheriff Bianco said that offending Instagrammers could be facing "an afternoon in jail" and a towed vehicle if they try to get that poppy photo.

At least one Lake Elsinore resident told KTLA that this is all a shame and unnecessary. "I think it should be open to the public,” resident Peter Kiriakos says. "This is a disservice to the public."

This will no doubt be a lovely spring all over the state, thanks to the rain. And we have our own heavily Instagrammed blooms here in the Bay Area — the mustard flowers have already begun blooming up in Sonoma and Napa counties, in and around vineyards where they act as a cover crop while the grapevines are dormant.