Departing the hustle and bustle of San Diego, our route took us back eastward into the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and area.

Leaving the cooling effect of the ocean also resulted in much warmer temperatures inland.

It was definitely back to the shorts and sandals here.

When traveling the back roads of Mexico, I always thought they could use more of these low-tech road maintenance devices to reduce the wonderful wash-board surfaces that develop.I was glad to see this one in California, utilizing a huge old tire. Note the chain to hook on to the tow vehicle. I was tempted to give it a drag myself, but did not have my trailer hitch installed!
Lots of dry lake beds here, that only get the occasional flooding.
This one must be in the park, as they don't permit driving on it?


I went for a hike up into Palm Canyon, right near the campground of the same name, and near the visitor center and the town of Borrego Springs.
At the head of the canyon, there is running water and a large grove of palm trees.
There must be some incredible flash floods in this area on occasion as there was large palm logs perched in big piles of boulders along the trail.
The cactus were blooming and the hummingbirds and insects were busy.
Click any image for a large view.


Apparently the ocotillo cactus are usually without leaves like these. Then, after a rainfall, they can sprout leaves in 5 days. Eventually, they dry and turn colour, and fall off. The whole process is repeated with the next rain!
Must be some airshow planes that live in Borrego Springs as there seemed to be impromptu airshow almost every day. Here are a couple at the gas pumps at the local airport.
Out in the desert, things get lively during the day as the ant colonies mobilize armies to go out in search of - food, I guess?


Camping options are limitless, so I rarely camped in the same spot twice, even if in the same area.
Just south of Borrego Springs, there are fields full of metallic sculptures.

Many of them are of horses, but there were elephants, eagles, sabre-toothed tigers, zebras, etc

The fine details are incredible. I did not see any information as to the sculptor or the origin, but lots of motorists driving by were doing double-takes, then pulling over to go for a walk among the many displays.

What's next?
A big fire in Blythe, Ca, sunset shots, warm temperatures, and ... a desert tortoise, my first!