Author: cdrbill34@gmail.com

This past weekend, I went to a board meeting and planning retreat of the Anza-Borrego Foundation. It was the first time I spent the night in Borrego Springs and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. I hoped to take advantage of the “dark sky” available there, in which one can see the Milky Way. Luck would have it that the evening featured a full moon, which pretty much obliterated the possibility of dark sky, but offered its own visual reward.

The photo above is a view to the east from Font’s Point, a promontory in the Park about four miles off-highway that overlooks the Borrego Badlands. Several attendees went there to enjoy some food, Stone beer (Stone supplies the foundation with beer), and the moonrise. This terrain helps explain why it took so long for San Diego to be settled. No wagon train, trying to traverse these badlands, was going to get to it.

The point is named after Padre Font, the missionary who accompanied Juan Batista de Anza, the Spanish explorer who led the expedition that “discovered” the area in 1775-6. Anza provided one part of the name for the state park. Borrego is the Spanish word for lamb, as Anza-Borrego Desert State Park has one of the largest concentrations of Bighorn Sheep in the country. .

Here are some other photos from Font’s Point. (Click on photos individually. This gallery feature doesn’t work well and I need to find a replacement. 🙁 )

I stayed overnight at the Steele-Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center, run by UC Irvine in partnership with the Park and Foundation, which was also the site of the board and planning meeting. The facility is a renovation and expansion of a mid-20th century clubhouse. As you can see at right, it once was the “Desert Club” (not the most creative moniker) and provided live music for a buck or less. (Wonder what the drinks cost.) Considering that I joined colleagues for dinner Saturday night at a Borrego Springs resort that closed at 9 pm (Saturday night!), the Desert Club both was a different time and was from a different time.

One of the great features of the Desert Club retained in the renovation (to the applause of most) is the sunken, curved vinyl bar in the main room.

Preserved also was what might well be the original cash register.

The living quarters at the research center are on the spare end of the spectrum, but are comfortable. There are four units provided for researchers and dorm-like facilities for grad students.

My room, named the Palo Verde (one of my favorite desert plants), had a double bed and a single bed, no television or other media, and a drought-sensitive shower (not effusive). The industrial strength air-conditioning, set at 80, was “active” throughout the night.

Here is a more general shot of the research center grounds.

Hope to get out to the desert again soon for an over-night, next time with a less brilliant moon, so I can see the stars.

I joined some folks Wednesday morning for a two-hour walk in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We were there to see something that had not been in the desert for a number of years and that would soon be gone — wildflowers. It was a lesson in how briefly some things in nature can be around and in the value of the difference beauty can make in small amounts and often subtle ways.

The day was unusual weatherwise — cloudy and relatively cool (75-80). Great weather for a walk in the desert, and the morning clouds made for a beautiful introduction to Borrego Valley.

The walk was in Little Surprise Canyon, a quite easy and short hike. But we took our time as our guide would stop and point out different flora. At the risk of brevity (something I don’t usually suffer from), here is a gallery of photos of some of the flowers and other vegetation. (Click thumbnails to enlarge. Identification of plants was aided by friends at Anza Borrego Foundation, but any errors are mine alone [and I know nothing about desert plants].)

According to our guide, the Little Surprise Canyon has the name because it keeps on going, surprisingly long.

Of course, wildflowers are throughout the desert, thanks to a fortunate combination of longer daylight and rain. Some of the more “verdant” spots I saw were on the ride back up the mountains that form a western border to the valley.

Those of you who’ve been to the desert, at least with me, have seen much more muted colors than even these. This is pretty spectacular in desert terms.

Much of the vegetation will succumb to lack of moisture and heat. Many of them are sprouting now from seeds dropped by ancestors years ago in their brief time abloom. In the usual way nature works, however, they also supply food for other life forms, including the very numerous sphinx moth caterpillars.

These guys — voracious and tireless — can wipe out wide areas of plants quickly.

And, as we say farewell to Borrego Valley (I always remember how many of the old Disney nature films would conclude :)), a parting view.