Anza Borrego State Park

Anza Borrego State Park

South of Joshua Tree

East San Diego County

Second largest state park in the nation at over 600,000 acres

From our backyard up Palm Canyon out of Borrego Springs

Only two of the sites had these stone shaded enclosures with tables and fireplaces.  They were built by the CCC after WWII.

 

Our best hikes were from our camp up the canyons

 

This plant, the ocotillo dominates the driving landscapes.  It grows long stalks from the ground that can easily be 15-20 feet tall, with lazer lance projections more than every sq inch.

 The leaves come on the long stalk you saw above, and you can see the vicious thorn.   The leaves (attached directly to the long stalk) and buds (at the end of each long stalk) occur only after rain, then die back as it dries, related only to moisture and not to season.

 

 The ocotillo bud is 6-8 inches long and flowers luminous red/orange.

Bracing, exhilarating wind one day as the front moved in.  I had my hat tied on three ways from Sunday and still had to hang on a couple of times. 

The blue agave plant sends up a stalk the size of your forearm, flowers and then the base gives to yellowing.

Beautiful red barrel cactus everywhere, shimmering jewels in morning sun

  This desert gets less than 3 inches of rainfall annually.  Our storm front put down about ½ inch of rain, and again, we were in a campground alone.  If it looks like weather, the locals seem to disappear.  For us it was walking in a desert running water.  Palm Canyon consistently spring fed, ends in oasis.

   

Our last night in the park we camped in Blair Valley and morning walked into the site of a winter dwelling for the Kumayee tribe.  The village was here September thru May and summered in the mountains.

Like many of our hikes it ended in a scramble.  I’ve climbed over more rocks than I ever knew I could.  

The convivial community kitchen was a relatively flat opening in the trail with large rocks, many at cabinet level.  Women made and used indentations in rock to mortar roots, cactus, grains and berries into sustenance.  If we were tough enough, eating from this landscape would lend our cell structures resilience in the face of unrelenting heat and dry.   Probably rare to see the deeper indentations with rain water.