Borrego Springs and the state park is certainly an area worthy of a lot of further investigation.

But, vacation time lines are tough as we all know :-) so I had to head back up to the Palm Springs area again, as my friend who winters there was packing up to head north, and I wanted to visit again, and meet his lady -friend before they headed out.The area is pretty windy sometimes, but it seems to be because of all the big fans they have on the hills around there! Maybe they are just trying to keep the L.A. smog at bay?


I'm sure it would not be so windy if they would only turn them off!

I don't think it is a sign of the economic downturn because it has been this way for several years, but I guess the Eldorado Resort is looking for more investors? Or ... anything?
Why would I say that?


Well, I climbed up the sign/wall in the previous photo, and here is what is behind the wall!
From the Desert Hot Springs area, I picked out a route south along the eastern side of the Salton Sea, intending to check out the much blogged area known as the 'Slabs', the remnants of an old military installation, now inhabited by both short and long-term RV'ers. But I guess I was blind, or had not done my homework, as I drove right down and didn't see it!

I guess that was before I downloaded Google Earth to my iPhone!
That is a pretty incredible combo, I must say, because of the built in GPS in the iPhone!
The only down-side (at least here in the US) is that AT&T really rips off Canadian customers on their data roaming fees. Fees that are included or charged at $3/Gb at home for overages are charged at $3/Mb (!) in the US. So, to afford fuel and food, I have to leave the data system turned off till I cross the border, but I can still use the features whenever I can find some wi-fi!

But at any rate, in one tiny hand-held unit, I have all the maps and terrain info I need, with my present location highlighted. And of course, it automatically updates the map at the start of the blog - whenever it can find that elusive wi-fi!

Ah, yes, we were traveling south down the side of the Salton Sea when I spotted these large flocks of pelicans soaring in the thermals. You may have to click the image for a larger view to actually see them?
The Salton Sea State Park let me drive in for a look around without charge. That was nice of them!After missing the 'Slabs' and ending up in Brawley, it was onto #78 headed up through the northern portion of the Imperial Dunes Recreation area, and on toward Blythe, Ca.

I have a question for you. In certain areas of California at least, there are signs like the one below, usually when departing the area of an overpass or intersection.

Why oh why would I care to be informed of the end of landscaping, and why would they put up a sign?
The sand dunes are pretty impressive here; some are likely hundreds of feet high, and forever moving and changing!
I went for a short bare-foot hike in this beautiful, fine, hot sand.For likely 40 miles south of Blythe, I could see this big column of black smoke billowing skyward.
I assumed it was just some fields being burnt off or some sort of controlled burn; at least until I got close enough to Blythe to see that it was actually in the middle of town.
I took these shots as I drove by on the Interstate.
A short time later, after returning from buying some cheaper fuel across the Arizona state line, I came back into town for some groceries and got these relative close-ups.
The next day, in Quartzsite I bought a newspaper that carried the story. Click on the photo, and you may be able to read the story.
I don't think there was enough smoke to affect the sunset, but it was well worth taking a break from happy hour to snap some shots!




The next day, it was off to Quartzsite.



When I saw a couple guys on the outskirts of Quartzsite taking extraordinary care when moving a 'rock' off the road, I took a closer look!
Sure enough, my first ever desert tortoise!

Carefully, I took a couple of portraits of the little guy, as he (she?) motored along at a breakneck pace.I keep forgetting to share some of the shots taken out my front window at home with my web cam. Here's the shot from April 1st. No joke - that is still deep snow.