Saturday, March 31, 2012

Anza Borrego Desert Sans Wildflowers



Last Saturday we headed out to Anza Borrego Desert with The Usual Suspects. I probably shouldn't have gone, because I was sick (and still am), but we had a great time as always. The weather was perfect - in the low 80's - and with clouds sweeping across the sky, it made for some great photography. Unfortunately, it will most likely be one of our last trips to the desert, unless there is a cooling trend, because it got rather warm early in the day and it will only get hotter as we near Summer.

We were also disappointed with the wildflowers this season. Not much rain meant little to no wildflowers in bloom. There were some Ocotillo in bloom as well as Yucca, but not as much color as past seasons. It's always hard to predict what will bloom, but even with no wildflowers, the desert is always a fun place to explore, especially when we're with good friends.

Lunch time in the shade of some trees, which happened to be near the dump! As always, we had stopped at the Julian Pie Company and picked up a delicious apple pie to be shared at lunch. Yummy.


Our lovely little Jeep, Blanca.  She loves hitting the trails.




Robert catches all our fun on video.


This was interesting to see. Glad it was dry when we came through or we would have gotten bogged down for sure.


This beautiful Ocotillo was well over 15-feet tall! Took a picture of our friend Mark standing next to it and it dwarfed him.



At the end of the day when we stop and the men-folk air up the tires for the ride home, I like to wander about and take advantage of the fading light. This blooming yucca and stunning desert view was my reward.


While driving through Borrego Springs on our way home, we saw a bunch of people with cameras and binoculars aimed at the sky. Since we couldn't see anything, we stopped to ask what they were doing. Eventually we saw it. Close to 400 (that's 4-0-0!) Swanson's Hawks migrating across the sky. Simply AMAZING! Unfortunately my photo doesn't do it justice, but yeah, like I said, AMAZING! A perfect ending for a perfect day.



Saturday, March 3, 2012

Robert's Videos

Robert captures our latest outing to Anza Borrego on video! Fun times.