The Antelope Valley California Poppy State Reserve is a state-protected reserve located in the west side of the Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County. In the late 1700s, Spanish sailors named the poppy fields La Sabanilla de San Pasqual, the Altar Cloth of St. Pasqual – a reference to the shepherd saint who knelt in a field of wild flowers to pray to God while tending his herds of sheep.