That is a great question. If you go ahead and Google, "Sunflower Fields Near Me" you will be inundated with GLORIOUS photos of epic sunflowers and endless fields of beauty! Golden meadows of dreamlike blossoms dancing in the breeze.
But... Where are they? The answer: Few and far between.
Not to mention, that sunflowers are quite the temperamental little buggers and only bloom in full for around 3 weeks every summer. AND THEN when they get too big they start to droop over and look sad :( So it requires perfect timing AND perfect weather, which in the midwest is a pretty laughable scenario!
It can depend on when they were planted, how wet and sunny the summer has been, if the planet Mercury is in retrograde (joking) and a whole bevy of other unforeseen circumstances.
The first field that we had planned on visiting is located near the always stunning Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Park's located near Ottawa in central Illinois.
The day before our engagement session, I got a call from Katelin. After scrolling the state park's instagram feed, she discovered that the sunflowers were in fact, sad. So we needed an alternative. After frantically searching hashtags and travel blogs we found one in what a city slicker might describe as, "the middle of nowhere."
Upon arriving we were ecstatic! Sitting on the opposite side of a little wire fence was the beauty we had come for. After squeezing through the gate it was on. These are the amazing photos that followed:
BOOM!
POW!
KABANG!
KAWOWIE!
AND OTHER APPROPRIATE ONAMONAPIAS!
So... to answer the question: How do you even find a sunflower field?
Your best bet is to get on social media and check up to date photos of the different locations. You might be driving a couple hours from Chicago, but you will not be disappointed! Here are a few locations that are still in bloom for a couple more weeks this summer:
Safe Travels!!!