A Walk in the Desert

This weekend, Susan, the dogs and I headed for the Anza-Borrego desert wilderness to hike and explore. The wildflowers were expected to be blooming and with only a few weeks left here, we jumped on the opportunity. Anza-Borrego is one of the largest state parks in California and offers intrepid explorers like us a wonderful, panorama in the desert.

Growing up in the desert, I have always held the desert high on my list of favorite places to be. "The desert?" one may say, "How could anyone like its barren, desolate landscape?" Well let me be the first to tell you that the desert is as alive as any other wilderness. The diversity of flora and fauna is incredible. You just need to have the fortitude to go out there and find it. And now (winter) is one of the best times to do this. The sun isn't as oppressive and this alone makes the desert tolerable. The desert comes alive in the early spring as winter rains give the wildflowers the energy they need to sprout and to bloom.


Saturday was cool and cloudy, even stormy at times. We drove down past the Salton Sea where we turned left into the Santa Rosa mountains, and into the state park. We drove past groves of Ocotillo with their red blossoms. We made our way to Borrego Springs and stopped at the visitor's center. The center is a "must see" for anyone traveling to the area. It is an interactive and interpretive center and makes for a good base camp for planning a hike or two.



We took off from there and headed over Yaqui Pass to hike Plum Canyon. Plumb Canyon is fairly steep and just loaded with Cholla cacti. We had to keep the pups on their leashes and even then, all of us got pricked. Ouch! But it was SO worth it, because getting off the roadway took us to another world, that is the desert. We saw blooming barrel cacti, yucca and ocotillo.

Then we made our way to mine wash to an Indian village site. After our sack lunch of avocado and cheddar cheese sandwiches, we explored the area that the Kumeyaay People made their seasonal camp. It was awesome to be walking in their village, seeing where they slept and ate.

We completed our loop by heading back to Borrego Springs and to the mouth of Coyote Canyon. This was the area of the fullest blooming of the wildflowers. We hiked into the desert field in search of the wide variety of flowers and were able to capture many of them on film. Susan and I had so much fun searching them out and got some great pictures. Be on the lookout over the next few days as we will get a web album together for everyone to see.

At the end of the day we had driven almost 200 miles and hiked a few more. Everyone was tired and hungry, but content after such a day's road trip. A beer, a glass of wine and a chewie later, we all settled in for a good night's sleep.