Category: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

During the afternoon of January 20, I joined a band of fellow board and staff members of the Anza-Borrego Foundation, as well as a few of their kids, on a visit to two popular sites in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The first was Vista del Malpais and the other was Coyote Canyon, to check out where the “road” had been washed out there by water brought by recent rains.

We needed four-wheel off-road vehicles and Paulette Donnellon and Sergey Kushch provided two of the better ones. Paulette had her Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and Sergey had the redesigned Ford Bronco and the appropriately named “Badlands” model. Here they are pre-excursion.

Also in the group were board member Stephanie DiPalma and her husband, Tom, in their Jeep Wrangler Sport, and ABF executive director Bri Fordem and board member Maris Brancheau.

The Vista del Malpais is, as the words themselves convey, where you have a “view of the bad country,” or as commonly used in the West, the badlands. To get there, you have to go through some “not-so-great” lands, in terms of easy travel, anyway. That’s Sergey’s and my view from the Bronco at the top of this post.

We did finally get to the view point and it was definitely worth the trip.

We also saw a few desert lilies, a potential harbringer of what might be widespread flowering of the desert in the spring.

The Coyote Canyon area of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is about 75,000 acres in size, about a sixth of the Park. It is a deep cut between mountain ranges extending about 10 miles northwest of Borrego Springs. A section of the San Jacinto Fault runs right through the area and it is considered an active seismic zone.

Coyote Canyon is closed to the public June 1-September 30 each year to allow Peninsular Bighorn Sheep access to the creek that runs through the canyon.

When we went, access was closed at the “Third Crossing,” so named because it was the third occasion on the trail where the Coyote Creek could flow over it during the wet season. And it was flowing.

Just off to the side of the “road” and creek was possible evidence of prior and historic seismic activity — a dramatic collection of huge boulders. An adult human would be less than half the height of most of these.

That evening in Borrego Springs, we joined other ABF board and staff members, along with friends and family, at a “Sip & Savor Soirée” wine-tasting event at the Borrego Springs home of Jimmy and Judy Smith. Refined conclusion to a rugged (in a good way) day.

I’ve spent more time than usual out in the desert, enjoying a wildflower bloom that is the best in more than a decade and, in a small way, helping out with serving the large numbers of visitors. I’ve posted earlier about it and have some more to share.

The weekend of April 1, I was in Borrego Springs for an Anza-Borrego Foundation board meeting and to celebrate ABF’s 50th anniversary. I arrived on March 31 and stayed the night, having my first opportunity to see the dark sky without a full moon to “interfere.” This is a shot from around 9 pm. I hope to return in the summer when the Milky Way is visible.

The morning of April 1, ABF President Ernie Cowan – noted birder, outdoorsman, photographer, and writer – took me out to Plum Canyon for flowers and to Tamarisk Grove to see a nocturnal bird of prey, which was still up but a bit secluded. Here’s a brief (< 3 minutes) video of the morning.

Spent a couple of days recently again out in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, leading a group of local BC alumni on a tour March 18 and later, on Friday, to help out serving all the visitors coming to the Park for the best wildflower blooms this century – a “flowergeddon.”

This is a brief video of some of the highlights of the tour with BC alumni.

We spent the morning traipsing about and got together for lunch at a Borrego Springs roadhouse.

Returning last week to help out, I was chagrined when a visitor arrived at my wildflower info table and said he was already fully satisfied with his visit, because he had seen bighorn sheep. Hmmmph! In all the times I had been out to the desert, I had not seen the sheep for whom the Park is partially named (borrego in Spanish means lamb). He mentioned he had seen them while he was driving down the Montezuma grade, a dramatic ride (to which Larry Kenah, Ed Hattauer, and others can attest) from 4,000-feet elevation to the desert floor, switchback road all the way.

A hour or so later, I was driving up the Montezuma grad heading home when I noticed a number of cars pulled to the side of the road and people looking up into the hillside. Borrego? I joined them and, for my first time, saw the bighorn sheep. I immediately regretted that I had not brought my Nikon camera or Sony camcorder to capture the images. What you see is what my iPhone caught, grainy because of the sheep’s distance from me. When I get better images, I will provide.

This one sheep was captured taking a pose majestically on a rock. Two others later joined the first and, rather than try for a photo I knew would also be blurry, I just enjoyed their perambling.

To my left, I saw another borrego and then a companion to the first. They’re on the ridgeline.

Made the day!

I had the pleasure Saturday to visit an oasis in the badlands of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Anza-Borrego Foundation sponsored a tour for members of the ABF’s Century Circle, major donors to the foundation, and I was able to join the tour.

In a caravan of four-wheel-drive vehicles, the two dozen+ participants first visited 17 Palms Oasis, 15-20 miles east of “downtown” Borrego Springs, near the eastern edge of the park. This is a naturally occurring collection of California fan palms, the only palm tree native to the western United States. The name is based on the number of palm trees present, though that number has fluctuated through the years. At least a couple of people counted 18 palms. Other oases in the park are called 5 Palms and Una Palma.

The palms exist there because conditions permit it. They are close to a wash, so water from occasional and sometimes heavy rains can nourish them. Water as well exists in aquifers beneath them.

These oases are the proverbial water holes that sustain animal life and, in years and millenia past, humans. Attracting travelers, the oasis also was a variant of a post office. A “desert mailbox” has been located at 17 Palms since the late 1800s. People could leave letters and messages in it, requesting that someone passing through carry it to its destination or to a closer “desert mailbox.” The current such mailbox, wedged between two palms, holds journals in which visitors to the oasis can leave comments and thoughts.

Later, we moved on to Vista del Malpais. “Mailpais” is Spanish for “badland.” From this vantage point, one can look out for miles over the badlands. Here are two such views.

Of course, even near the badlands, there can be vegetation. These ocotillos were at Vista del Malpais.

There are expectations for a great desert wildflower season in the spring. Crossing our fingers!

There is a natural rock formation in Warner Springs, about 90 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, that looks a little like an eagle. Actually, as you can see above, the rather large natural rock formation looks like nothing else than a big eagle.

In early April (I’m way behind on posts), 10 alumni and friends (and a young daughter) made the trek to Eagle Rock, which is located on the Pacific Crest Trail. In a pretty weird connection, we accessed the area where Eagle Rock is located from Camino San Ignacio in Warner Springs. That’s “St. Ignatius Road.” !?

And a few miles down the road on State Route 79 is a street with another Jesuit-related name (see photo at right). Anyone know about any Jesuit presence in northeast San Diego County?

We also went further initially than Warner Springs, over the mountainsides to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Desert flowers are somewhat past peak (earlier and briefer than expected in this El Niño year), but there is still some color not seen the rest of the year.

Our flower guide was Christina St. John from the Anza-Borrego Foundation. About to pursue a master’s degree in botany, Christina was an invaluable guide to the desert flora, as well as a friendly companion. With her guidance, we visited Glorietta Canyon, one of the most accessible areas of the Park (though over a couple of miles of dirt road) and location of many flowering plants in the spring.

It was pretty much a day-long excursion, also including lunch in Borrego Springs, and a visit to a rather unusual piece of “public art.” Below is a short (<5 minutes) video of the day, including the desert flowers, etc. You’ll see that we were able to visit Eagle Rock and park our cars inside the gate that warns “No Trespassing.” That’s because we had received official permission from the Vista Irrigation District to do so, after filling out various waivers, and were on the property for only about a half-hour. We had some unexpected companions on our visit to Eagle Rock, examples of the “wildlife” in the area . . . but that’s for you to see. (Click on “BCSD @ Eagle Rock” at upper left of graphic below to watch on YouTube. Much better viewing.)

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.