Anza-Borrego Desert

Based on the recommendation of an acquaintance, i decided to try and fit in a look at Anza-Borrego State Park, just west of the Salton Sea. I had never heard of it, but it turns out it's the largest state park in California and the third largest state park in the country after Wood Tikchick in Alaska and the ridiculously huge Adirondack Park in New York.

As usual, i spent far more time barely scratching the surface of the Salton Sea than i had planned, and by the time we arrived in Borrego Springs it was almost 5pm. We were famished. Busting down the doors of the visitor center just as they were reaching for the lock we took another recommendation and went to this place called the Palms Hotel, where it was said existed very good hamburgers.

The Palms Hotel, built in 1958, had it's own private runway and catered to groups of movie stars who wanted a secluded location where they could partake in debauchery.

Borrego Springs is an awesome little town with no trafficlights. Located in the middle of Anza Borrego Desert Park, the town rests at the bottom of some sizable mountains.

The town has an old connection to Hollywood, and a number of movies have been filmed in the surrounding desert, including Serenity and the finale season of the X-Files. For the X-files they built an Anasazi Village, then blew it up with sidewinder missiles.

Walking onto the isolated property is like stepping back into another time.

There was nobody at the hotel, i don't know what day of the week it was. The hamburgers were great, and i'm not even a fan of burgers. The shade was great too (but i enjoyed the heavy desert heat in the sun), and the warm evening breeze coming down from the shaded canyons brought back all kinds of memories of my distant desert life.

Maree sips on cherry coke. It was REAL, that carafe is full of cherries.

Next to the dining area was a large grassy lawn full of squirrels. The squirrels were grazing on the grass and steadily following the line of the sun, always looking through the newly shaded blades but never crossing the threshold into direct sunlight. It was fun to watch.

The Olympic Pool was very inviting.

In no time at all i had scarfed down a 1lb burger and we wasted no light in trying to do a little hike. Behind the hotel is a trail that lead to a real oasis, covered in tall palms, the namesake of the town. The hike is just a couple of miles up a large alluvial fan and into a canyon. The advantage of being late was that the entire hike was in the shade.

On the trail to the oasis looking down valley towards town. On the left is a large log, part of a desert Palm.

The Red Ocotillo, pictured at the top of the blog is a famous desert plant that blooms with bright red flowers a few days after a rain. I had never seen one before, we just happened to show up when the desert was in full bloom. There was more wildlife in the area than i've ever seen in the desert. There were little quail look birds running around all over the place, bunnies hopping around, bees and birds were looking into the flowers, and of course reptiles.

I just put this on here as example of how either digital sensors or computer monitors cannot display some colors. This it not the color this flower is supposed to be and i don't think the sensor was able to render the detail and variations of the petals. On the screen it's just a burned out magenta. I took a picture with my phone first, which looked terrible, then my 5dm2, which looks only slightly better as far as color is concerned.

The entrance to the canyon, which actually stretches towards the left.

Near the entrance of the canyon the stream finally started flowing and we couldn't help notice the parade of large dead palms scattered all over the ground, with no standing palms in sight for miles around. Apparently there are some powerful floods that come out of the canyon on occasion.

Unfortunately i could tell we simply did not have enough time to get to the oasis and back before nightfall, so i called the hike off early. I wanted to use the sunlight to see what else might be down the road, like some big sculptures of prehistoric beasts build on the site where the creatures were found.

After a long twisty ascent we made it to the top of the mountains. That area down there is some mid level plateau. It was very cold on top and quite windy. Snow seemed possible and was visible on some of the peaks.

I liked Borrego Springs, and the Anza-Borrego Desert was truly unique in my experience of American deserts. I'd assumed it would be just like the Mojave desert, but there is definitely a different ecology in the area. Technically, it's part of the Colorado Desert, i think, and then the Sonoran Desert is East of that. The Mojave is to the North. There's a lot to see in all that land.