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| Ocotillo in bloom |
Who hiked: Me, Hubby, Things 1 and 2
Where: Borrego Palm Canyon, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
When: 1300-1700
Distance: 5.5 miles (according to GPS)
Weather: sunny, clear, windy; temps in low/mid 80s
The Things had their spring break this week, so we decided to see the desert in the spring. Our destination? Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
The plan was to camp for three nights, spend two days hiking in the park, and one day bird-watching at the Salton Sea. You can read Hubby's blog about how reality did not meet our expectations.
Can I say at the outset that the California State Park website for Anza-Borrego Desert SP is awful? I found that the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association is a much better source of information.
We started this hike at the Visitor's Center (see this link for a picture), walking the concrete sidewalk between the VC and Borrego Palms campground. At the campground, we took the sand hiking path to the trailhead. All in all, this section is about a mile one-way.
The trail itself slopes gently uphill and is not particularly challenging, just over 3 miles roundtrip. I recommend that you wear sturdy shoes, bring plenty of water, wear sun protection (hat and sunscreen) -- it's not steep, but it's fairly long and there is no shade until you get to the oasis. At times you have to scrabble around and over boulders.
The oasis itself is lovely -- the palms make for a cool and shady stop-over. The Things had a fabulous time scurrying over rocks, jumping like desert bighorn sheep from boulder to boulder.
On the way back, we took the "alternate" trail, which was much less heavily travelled and therefore more enjoyable. It was tough to find exactly where the alternate trail met up with the main trail, even though we could see hikers along the main trail, so we just bushwacked it across the wash that separated the two.
Because of the number of people and the time of day, we didn't see many birds...
Birds seen: American kestrel, Red-tailed hawk, Turkey vulture, White-throated swifts, hummingbirds (not identified), Loggerhead shrike (singing in a creosote bush), Common raven, Phainopepla, Nashville warbler, Wilson's warbler, White-crowned sparrow, House finch, Lesser goldfinch
Lizards seen: Uta stansburiana, Collard lizard (Crotaphytus), desert iguana (Dipsosaurus)
We identified some of the blooming plants. I'm certain that our list is woefully incomplete and suspicious about some of our identifications, but here goes: Beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris), Sand verbena (Abronia villosa), Jimson weed (Datura wrightii), Ocotillo (Fouqeria splendens), Chuparosa (Justicia californica), Apricot mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua), Goldfields (Lasthenia gracilis), Desert indigo (Psorothamnus schottii), Barrel cacuts (Ferocactus cylindraceus), Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), Cholla cactus (Opuntia), Creosote (Larrea tridentata), Desert willow (Chiopsis linearis), Honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa), palo verde (Cercidium floridum)
*MAP will be posted later -- still figuring out how to download it from the GPS unit!
The plan was to camp for three nights, spend two days hiking in the park, and one day bird-watching at the Salton Sea. You can read Hubby's blog about how reality did not meet our expectations.
Can I say at the outset that the California State Park website for Anza-Borrego Desert SP is awful? I found that the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association is a much better source of information.
We started this hike at the Visitor's Center (see this link for a picture), walking the concrete sidewalk between the VC and Borrego Palms campground. At the campground, we took the sand hiking path to the trailhead. All in all, this section is about a mile one-way.
The trail itself slopes gently uphill and is not particularly challenging, just over 3 miles roundtrip. I recommend that you wear sturdy shoes, bring plenty of water, wear sun protection (hat and sunscreen) -- it's not steep, but it's fairly long and there is no shade until you get to the oasis. At times you have to scrabble around and over boulders.
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| Thing 2 holds onto his hat -- the winds were howling |
The trail is heavily travelled, so expect to meet a number of hikers moving in both directions. This is not the hike for you if you're looking for desert solitude. The heavy foot traffic also makes following the path a bit more difficult, as there are numerous side spurs along the way. Sometimes these rejoin the main trail and sometimes they don't.
The trail is part of an interpretive nature path; obtain a brochure on the nature trail at the trailhead to read about the sights along the way. We read the numbered entries, and it helped us to appreciate what we were seeing.
We passed morteros where Native Americans ground grains, logjams from old flash floods, plenty of flowering plants (see list below), and lots of lizards (also listed below).
We passed morteros where Native Americans ground grains, logjams from old flash floods, plenty of flowering plants (see list below), and lots of lizards (also listed below).
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| Borrego Palms Oasis |
On the way back, we took the "alternate" trail, which was much less heavily travelled and therefore more enjoyable. It was tough to find exactly where the alternate trail met up with the main trail, even though we could see hikers along the main trail, so we just bushwacked it across the wash that separated the two.
Because of the number of people and the time of day, we didn't see many birds...
Birds seen: American kestrel, Red-tailed hawk, Turkey vulture, White-throated swifts, hummingbirds (not identified), Loggerhead shrike (singing in a creosote bush), Common raven, Phainopepla, Nashville warbler, Wilson's warbler, White-crowned sparrow, House finch, Lesser goldfinch
Lizards seen: Uta stansburiana, Collard lizard (Crotaphytus), desert iguana (Dipsosaurus)
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| The Things relax on a boulder in the oasis. |
*MAP will be posted later -- still figuring out how to download it from the GPS unit!
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