Off We Go Again: Anza Borrego Desert State Park

It's the weekend and you know what that means! Another trip to one of our favorite places: Anza Borrego Desert Sate Park.

We met up with the usual crowd and a few others on Saturday and set off on another day's adventure.

At about 10:20am our tires were hitting the soft sands of Anza Borrego Desert. We stopped briefly so the men could air down the tires and the ladies could take a quick bathroom break (you never know when you'll come across another restroom area in the middle of the desert) and then we were cruising down Arroyo Salado towards 17 Palms Oasis and 5 Palms. Temp: 77-degrees.

Robert walking through 17 Palms

5 Plams

After wandering around a bit we headed down Tule Wash to the Pumpkin Patch. It's always an interesting place to go, not only to see the "pumpkins", but the crowd that often gathers. This time there were about a dozen Humvee H1s. Robert spent most of his time talking to the drivers. Finally, I was able to pull him away, but as we traveled down Basin Wash and stopped for lunch, Robert was still talking about the Humvees. One guy had spent $60,000 revamping his and wow, it sure was nice!

About 1pm we found a nice shady spot along Basin Wash for lunch. The temperature was 82-degrees, so the cool shade and slight breeze was nice. As always, lunch included a delicious piece of Apple-Mountain Berry pie from the Julian Pie Company and good conversation.

After lunch we made our way to Vista Del Malpais Overlook. Last year this area was full of Desert Lillies, but there was none this time. I don't know if we were a bit early for wildflowers or the lack of rain hindered their blooming. We did, however, see some Orcutt's Aster along Basin Wash and some Ocotillo in bloom, but that was about it.

Along Short Wash we found some tiny hoodoo rock things. I'm not sure what they are called, but they are very cool. There were so many, but most were only about an inch or two tall. I think the tallest one I saw was maybe three or four inches.

From there we visited Fonts Point, another beautiful scenic viewpoint overlooking Carrizo Badlands.

From there we headed down Fonts Wash until we hit blacktop. After airing up our tires we headed home, but not before a quick stop at Galeta Meadows to see the big iron sea serpent sculpture.

As always it was another great day spent traversing Anza Borrego Desert.

Total mileage: 208 miles