Kilted Desert Trip to Anza Borrego

[Alan H]

Joan and I did a trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park last week. This is one of our favorite places to go in the Spring, and I trotted around the park for three days in my X-Kilt. It's the kilt pictures that make this photo essay legit! At any rate, here's a little photo tour of our trip to the California Desert.

We stayed at the Borrego Valley Inn http://www.borregovalleyinn.com/, a very, very nice place...expensive but worth it... that we’ve come to really love. This is our fifth time back to the park, and we always stay here. Joan loves having her coffee in the morning on the patio





The Ocotillo was blooming! I love ocotillo.

[Alan H]

Day One: Grapevine Canyon, Sentenac Canyon, San Felipe Creek and STROMATOLITES

Stromatolites are strange forms of mineral deposits laid down by cyanobacteria....sometimes known as blue-green algae. Fossil stromatolites are among the most ancient fossils ever found, some dating back as far as nearly 600 million years. The amateur geologist in me just HAD to go see the stromatolites in San Felipe Creek, once I learned they were there, so off we went to search them out.






Being who I am, I had to get up close and personal with these incredible living fossils from the beginnings of life on this planet. Here I am, just under the bridge over San Felipe Creek, checking them out.





We tried to hike down the creek, but it was too thickly overgrown with brush, so we drove 2 miles down the road to the pull-off at Plum Canyon/Grapevine Canyon and hiked up the wash to find the water. It was full of filamentous green algae (scummy!) but there were birds everywhere and LOTS of stromatolites. We stopped for lunch, there. On the way back out I stopped to take pictures of cactus flowers, for those of you who think the desert is devoid of color and beauty.

[Alan H]

More Cactus Flowers, beavertail and cholla and barrel cactus...

[Alan H]

Day Two: Clark Valley The next day (Wednesday) we headed up the Clark Valley, behind Clark Dry Lake. Clark Dry Lake was the site of a well known radio observatory until the late 1980’s. The Army Air Force used it as a landing strip during WWII. I feel like it’s not “right” to go for a trip to the desert and not make it into real “desert”. It’s “no fair” staying in the places where there’s water, for the whole trip! So up Clark Canyon we went…. Up the valley, a little farther than we got (about 9 miles and a 3000 foot elevation gain) are ruins of a Cahuilla Indian village. We hiked about 5 miles past Coyote Mountain, up to the head of Harper Canyon and stopped for lunch, gazing at the pass into Rockhouse Valley and the trail to the Cahuilla homes. Next Year!!!

Me, laughing off the heat in my X-Kilt. Hey, it was only about 80 F.




Here’s a really nice Ocotillo, with Joan in there for “scale”


The view at lunch.

[Alan H]

Day Three: Borrego Palm Canyon On Thursday we headed up into the local “jewel”, Borrego Palm Canyon. This is a “must do” hike if you are in the area. The canyon sides are rocky, hot and barren, but the creek flows down through the canyon and supports an incredible array of life. We saw tons of birds, insects, reptiles and even frogs! The highlight of the trip was getting really close (they came to us, we didn’t chase them up the hill) with four Desert Bighorn Sheep. There were four rams on the hillside on the way back down, and they came down within 30-40 feet of us!

From the foot of the canyon, you wouldn’t know what’s up there!



Hiking up the canyon, it starts out dry, but it’s only half a mile before you find the stream.





You hike about a mile before you spot the palm grove up ahead.



And 20 minutes later, you’re there!

[Alan H]

Sphinx moth



We hiked another mile past the palm grove and stopped for lunch in a verdant…ahhh..”glen”.





…in which we found, to my great surprise….who’d a thunk it, in the desert?



After lunch we hiked back down the canyon, pausing above the Palm Grove to look at the view.



We scanned the canyon walls, and Joan spotted them! There were four of them, three full-grown rams and a younger fellow. We stared and stared for a good 45 minutes until they finally moved off on up the hill. These guys are an endangered species, there are only a few hundred desert bighorn left. Last year we had the UNBELIEVABLE experience of seeing twenty-one of them in this same canyon. However, that’s a once in a lifetime lucky break, and seeing four on this trip is still fantastic. We didn’t see any sheep at all the first three times we hiked up the canyon.

[Alan H]

After all that excitement, we hiked on down the canyon and back to the car, finishing up three truly wonderful days in the wonderful Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

[string]

I am very very jealous of your trip. It's lovely.

[Livingston]

Great pics Alan. One of these days Joyce and I are going to get a chance to travel over that way and visit the desert. Of course, until then we have the high desert here in Colorado.

[Cynthia]

Wonderful photos! Thanks so much for sharing them with us