02-03-2020 to 02-08-2020 Desert Days

                 Unedited phone shot from a moving vehicle on HWY 58 for you, Erin.

Following our usual route from Orange Grove RV Park to Desert Hot Springs was uneventful.  The California foothills at the southern edge of the Sierra Nevada range were greening up, but as yet the flowers hadn’t appeared.  We have traveled this route over Highway 58 often enough that it ceases to hold any surprises for us, and I spent some of the time talking on the phone with some family and friends.  Mo drove and I didn’t even notice the long steep hills with slow trucks that are sometimes an issue on this popular route.

We purchased fuel south of Barstow at the Pilot on I-15, for 3.17 per gallon, and then continued back north to the Highway 247 exit that is our favorite approach to Desert Hot Springs.  Google Girl has no clue about this route, choosing instead to send people down the busy interstate into an even busier connection with I-10 and then east toward Palm Springs.  Yuk.

Our route is much more lovely, with wide open desert most of the way, and only a few steep hills as it approaches Yucca Valley.  One more big long hill can be a bit intimidating, from the Morongo Valley down to the left turn signal at Indian Canyon Road.  Indian Canyon is the main route through Palm Springs, but here in the northern edge of the Coachella Valley it is a long straight track across the desert, with views of Desert Hot Springs to the east and the big windmills of Palm Springs to the west.

Today the windmills were turning furiously, and we knew to expect high winds as we settled into our campsite at Catalina Spa and RV Resort.  After so many years returning to this favorite little winter spot, it is always a bit nerve wracking in the beginning as we approach.  Will it be the same?  How much has changed since last year?  Will they still keep the pools open all night?  That is always the biggest question, but thank goodness there was only one year where the powers that be decided that the pools had to close between 10PM and 6AM.  I am a rare person that loves swimming in the dark rather than being blinded by the sun while I am swimming. 

Without a hitch, we settled into site 90 in what is called the Lower Park.  We get what we feel is the luxury of the lower park because we only need 30amp.  The Upper Park is where big rigs that require 50 amp service must park.  The lower park still feels just a little bit funky, something we love, in spite of new work being done on the park, and all the building and remodeling going on. 

Site 90 is directly across from the dog park, where I can check out what dogs are there before taking Mattie over for some doggie play time.  Again, we are just steps away from the pool and spa, and have made good use of the location for our early morning, pre-sunrise swims.

I have written about our times at Catalina so many times that there isn’t much new to say.  We spend our days enjoying the sun, both inside the rig while catching up on computer business, and outside when we take Mattie for her walks.  Sometimes we will walk in the open desert area north of the park where Mattie can run off-leash.

desert sand verbena is just beginning to bloom

In the past we have hiked many fun trails in the Coachella Valley, some of which are dog friendly, and others not.  This year, our main entertainment of hiking has been reduced considerably due to this “thing”.  I have no clue how to talk about the thing, except to say that it makes my legs completely unreliable.  I can stumble easily, and the muscles of my thighs feel as though I have weights attached to them.  So far, it has been determined to be some kind of myopathy of the muscles, a myositis in the family of muscular dystrophies, but not hereditary. It can take months and even years to get a full diagnosis, and I am currently waiting for scheduling for diagnosis and treatment at Oregon Health Services Institute in Portland, Oregon.  There are not enough neuromuscular specialists  to handle these complex and rare diseases, so the waiting period for my next round of diagnostic tests is a long time.  Electromyography tests are scheduled for July.

I am coming to terms with it, grateful for the nearly 75 years I had to hike and work and be strong and active.  I am trying to adjust to the loss of my identity in this process, and remember that I am still me as I lose my ability to get out there and see the world on my own two feet.

Having explained more about this than I have on the blog until now, I want to brag about our walk yesterday.  There is a new trail in the Northern Coachella Valley, just dedicated last year, that is just a mile south of the park.  It is even dog friendly.  With the warm morning sunshine and no wind to contend with, we took off hiking around 11AM.  The Kim Nichol Trail is a 5.5 mile loop, however we planned to walk only as far as I knew I could manage and then turn around.

Only a few creosote shrubs were beginning to bloom

It was a lovely hike, and choosing to stay in the wash rather than climbing the steep hills was perfect.  We had a bit of shade to protect us from the hot desert sun and Mattie had a great time.  After an hour in the pool at dawn I felt pretty good about managing a 2.5 mile hike on the trail. I use two walking sticks now to keep upright properly and avoid steep stuff and steps.  Ah well, at least I can still walk!

Other important activities while in the Coachella Valley include visiting quilt shops, Quilter’s Faire and Monica’s Quilt and Bead Shop, and eating.  We went to the quilt shops our second day here, and I had an amazing time finding fabrics for the next big quilt I am making for one of my daughters.  Quilt fabric is crazy that way, with colors and styles coming and going faster than you can keep up.  I bought the original fabrics a couple of years ago, and now they are already out of date and I  am having a terrible time finding others to coordinate for the big queen sized quilt. 

Quilters know, if you love it, buy enough of it NOW, because otherwise it will disappear.  I found fabrics for Deb’s quilt and then some others that I have no idea what I will make with them.  I bought 2 yards each of the new fabrics, hoping that I have something to coordinate in that closet full of quilting fabrics at home.  No matter, I can just look at them and be happy.

The eating part of visiting the valley has been somewhat traditional for us as well.  We often make it down to Sherman’s Deli for their famous sandwiches, and spend Thursday evenings at the street fair in Palm Springs accompanied by a great Mexican meal.  Somehow neither of us wanted to repeat those experiences, no matter how great they were.  As we ate dinner in the MoHo on the evening that we would have been dining in Palm Springs, Mo asked, “Why in the world would be eat in restaurants when we have such great food at home?”

Still, it is nice to take a break now and then, and we decided that a nice breakfast out would be a treat and a change of pace.  I researched some breakfast restaurants in the valley and settled on a little place called Cups Cafe.

On Thursday, we planned to drive south to Anza Borrego to get some quality desert time and to visit an old/new friend.  The little cafe in Palm Desert was on our route and we looked forward to an interesting breakfast.  I think I was in the mood for something with lots of gravy, but this charming little place had only béarnaise sauce on the menu.  I ordered an interesting omelet, with brie, apples, mushrooms, onions, and cilantro. 

Sounded fun at the time, but even with the side of béarnaise, it was a bit weird.  The potatoes were good, and Mo’s regular breakfast with eggs and chorizo sausage was excellent.  Nice little extra for both of us was the perfectly balanced mimosas, just the right ratio of champagne and orange juice. The service was also excellent.

Notched Leaf Phaecelia or Sagebud

On our way by 9, we continued south along Highway 11 intercepting Highway 86 along the western edge of the Salton Sea toward Borrego Springs. That early in the morning, the skies were beautifully clear, but we could see the pall of smoggy air creeping north from the Imperial Valley.

No matter, heading west toward the state park on the western edge of the valley, we stopped for photos of the Salton Sea in the distance and the wild no man’s land of canyons and gullies that draw 4 wheelers like flies to honey.

Our new/old friend at Anza Borrego State Park is Kathie Overman Maxwell, a delightful lady that has been around awhile, both on my blog and on facebook.  Although we hadn’t met in the past, Kathie and I know many of the same people; some we have both met in person including Nina Fussing, and others that Kathie knows in person but I only know through the blog and facebook.  Hi, Lynda!

Kathie is working as a camp host, but was able to get a bit of time off for our visit and made arrangements with her supervisor to allow us to enter the campground without a fee and to park at her site.  Over a glass of something truly sparkly and delicious, we visited in the lovely sunshine. 

It is always a treat to meet someone in the flesh that you have only known through blogging, and the conversations are so satisfying.  Somehow you know enough about each other ahead of time that nothing feels contrived or awkward.  Thank you, Kathie, for your time and hospitality!

Sadly, Palm Canyon at Anza Borrego is closed due to a recent fire that destroyed the beautiful native palms that were the high point of a canyon hike.  We haven’t hiked that canyon in the past because we had Abby with us the last time we were here, and dogs are not allowed due to the stress they can create for the native animals, even with their scent. 

We stopped for a short visit at the wonderfully informative visitor center, and Mo stayed in the car with Mattie so I could check it out a bit.  Having been there before, I wasn’t too terribly disappointed when I found the place completely overrun by a busload of school kids. So nice that they can have day trips like this, but so nice that I could back out slowly and skip whatever I thought I needed at the center!

One score I made before I left was a map and directions to the Slot Canyon.  I have read about other bloggers visiting this canyon, and knowing I might not be able to manage the hike, I wanted to at least see where the trailhead was located for a maybe visit in the future.  Optimism reigns!

I so love the open desert, and this particular piece of desert was thick with ocotillo plants just ready to burst into bloom.  Most of them were thick with green leaves from the recent rains, but only a very few had an actual blossom. 

Ocotillo bloom

The views in all directions from the upland area near the canyon are gorgeous, wide open spaces without a sign of telephone poles or fences.  My kind of desert. We explored the trailhead, and watched people down in the canyon below, tracking their ascent as they returned to the parking area.  The trail is only a bit over a mile, and if Mattie hadn’t been with us I might have managed it. 

In all honesty, it didn’t look that great to me.  The ranger said in places it was narrow enough that a backpack would be too wide to fit.  Still, in my preconceived notions of slot canyons, colored by years traveling in Southern Utah, they need to have smooth walls.  This particular canyon is created in the highly erodible sandstones and mudstones of the Anza Borrego badlands, not a sign of anything even remotely approaching my beloved slickrock.

It seems that the biggest draw of Anza Borrego for me is the wide open space and the flowers.  We were just a bit early for the flowers, but there was plenty of wide open desert space to fill my heart with delight. 

As we drove north and then west back toward Desert Hot Springs, the clear skies were dimmed by a low smog bank approaching from the west, mixing with the Imperial Valley pollution coming up from the south.  It was as defined as a fogbank on the ocean, but more brown.  By the time we got back to the rig at Catalina, it seemed to be still a bit distant from us to the west, and the skies were still blue in Desert Hot Springs.

On this, our sixth day in the park, the skies are blue, the air is warm, the winds are gone.  The only little difference I have noticed  is that the stars are quite a bit dimmer than I remember in the past, perhaps from the smog layer that is blocking some of the light.

However, we did have a particularly magical moment in the pool on Thursday morning when we suddenly saw 13 bright lights flying over us as we swam.  The lights looked at first like airplanes flying in formation, but there was no sound, and they were so perfectly spaced that it seemed impossible they were planes.  A bit of research yielded some rather incredible information about the StarzX satellites that are being launched at lower altitudes than regular satellites in groups of 60.  Elon Musk is setting up a system of satellites that will eventually provide broadband internet access to people in every corner of the world.  As Sherry said, not a particularly nice thing for our night skies.  Astronomers are a bit disturbed about the satellites as well, worrying about their interference with their observations and photographs of the night sky.

In spite of the controversy, it was still rather amazing to see the bright train of perfectly spaced satellites moving slowly overhead as we did our backstroke laps in the pool .  Might not have even seen them otherwise.

From hard to soft, canyons to badlands

Wednesday was all about hard granite, steep canyons, rugged mountains and wide alluvial valleys formed on the western edge of the park in beautiful granite full of quartz, mica, and sparkling fools gold. Our extra day of exploration at Anza Borrego led us into an entirely different environment of barren dry lake beds, and badlands formed in soft sediments, riddled with complex arroyos, and washes, and sudden surprise overlooks.

The skies were clear when we left in the morning, with just a slight breeze in Borrego Springs.  Even with our 9am departure, we weren’t early enough to catch the early morning shadow light and by the time we rolled onto the Clark Lake area the winds were blowing hard.  Right away we found the oven Al mentioned last month and Laurie and Odel wrote about.  I had just started following Laurie’s blog when she wrote about camping here and building this oven, so it was with a special fondness that I took a photo of the well known boondock site.

We continued east on Highway S22 to find Font’s Point.  Even with the recent rain the wash was filled with deep sand, enough that we were glad for 4 wheel drive.  We wondered about the suggestion to come here for sunset, since driving back in the dark might be a bit challenging.  I think someday I might try sunrise instead. The view was worth every moment of the drive through the sandy wash.  Each of the geologic formations are immediately distinguishable and I wished for a good geology book to remind me of what I had read in the park visitor center.  “Hmm, bottom tier clams. Top tier mammals. Wonder if that one has the horses and camels?  Miocene?  Sure is lots of stuff around the west that is Miocene era formations…yadayadayada….”  Mo just said, “Pretty!”

The cliffs are extremely steep and the drop offs sudden on the soft barely coherent rock.  Abby was all excited, and since we were alone, we didn’t leash her up.  Next time we will.  She rarely unglues from Mo’s side, but for some reason the expansive views got her all excited and she kept getting way too close for my comfort. 

We continued along Fonts Wash to another turn east on Short Wash looking another  viewpoint ahead.  The map  I bought from the visitor center was excellent, and we were both impressed with the small and simple, but effective signage out there in the middle of nowhere.  In just a few more miles of sand, and one major drop off that required a bit of maneuvering, we were at Vista Del Malpais.  The view from here was a bit different, not quite as high, but more from a vantage point within the badlands rather than completely above them.  Here again I wished for a good geology book to ferret out the details of the formations.

Another examination of the map showed our wash continuing farther east to the 17 Palms Oasis. “Wanna try for it?” “Sure, lets go”  It would be an in and out trip, past the primitive campsite at Arroyo Salado, but who knows what we might find.  We haven’t seen an oasis palm yet. We hadn’t read anything about this site previously, and were surprised to find that it had a great little story.  It was an historic stopover for weary badland travelers, and sometimes people would leave glass jars of water sitting about since the spring wasn’t always reliable.

There was also the “Oasis Post Office”, a wooden barrel wedged between two palms, where travelers could leave communications and notes for each other, a tradition that has continued.  We found the “post office”, filled with journals and notes, and three bottles of water.  We added our own little note to the journal, and noted that Libya was exploding, Fukushima was radiating, and the palms were still here, safe in the desert.

We reversed our route to the highway and continued east on pavement to Salton City.  Ugh.  Salton City  was all the ugliness of the desert that we have seen too many times.  Dirty, brown, with some new housing developments of low flat ugly houses surrounded by telephone poles and wires and no vegetation.  It was the worst of the desert very close to the best of the desert.  We didn’t bother to go down to Salton Sea, since we knew about the smell and the dead fish lying around. 

All along the route south back to highway 78 the desert looked dry and barren, with no sign of flowers anywhere.  To the west of us, stretching all the way to Anza Borrego was the Ocotillo Wells recreation vehicle area.  Another word for 4-wheeler heaven.  I have nothing against 4 wheelers, in their place.  I have used them for soil survey, I totally get it, they are indispensable for farmers and ranchers with large acreage to manage and animals to care for.  Tearing up the wilderness with a vehicle is another story.  I am truly grateful for places like this huge area of Ocotillo Wells for 4-wheeler folks to play and have fun with their toys.  It’s great.  There should be more places like this, where I can stay out of their way and they can stay out of mine.  Perfect. 

As we continued south and then west, I noticed on the map that we were 175 feet below sea level.  Looking a bit closer I saw a fine line called “ancient beach line”.  38 feet.  A bit more research led to the fact that we were in what was once the Gulf of Mexico, the Sea of Cortez, extending all the way north, creating the Imperial Valley with all it’s rich alluvial soils.  Rich and fertile, but still ugly at the moment.  Once west of Ocotillo Wells, however, we breached the old beach line elevation and the landscape filled with gorgeous desert, unscarred by ORV tracks, and covered with the red haze of blooming ocotillo.  Anza Borrego State Park is huge.  We had only tapped the northern half and very little of the mountains.  What an amazing treasure this park is to the state, the country and to the world.  I’m so glad the powers that be haven’t let it be destroyed or lost to temporary budget troubles.

Once home, we were fairly worn out after all the bouncing around in washes, and just settled in early for a good spaghetti supper (from home again) and a movie.  We decided to dump the tanks and get ready to go for this morning’s departure so it would be quick and easy.

This morning we were up early enough to see a magnificent sunrise punctuated by rainbows over the mountains and we were on the road by 7:30, heading for Tucson.  A lucky break for us, however, that we didn’t leave earlier.  Just as we started around the Christmas Tree Circle, we noticed that the Farmers Market mentioned by Kelly had already begun.  It was so simple to pull over and park on the circle while we walked across the lush green grass to the vendors.  I had read about the 3 buck bags of grapefruit, and the farmer from just north on Borrego Springs road was happy to give us a taste of his sweetest. Of course we bought a bag, along with two kinds of hummus and some soft pitas from a Moroccan man, and some local orange blossom honey.  Yay for the Farmer’s Market!  On to Tucson and a new experience camping at one of the Military Family Camps at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on the northeastern heart of the city.  We have friends and family to visit in the Tucson area, so this should be a good central location, and cheap! 

At the moment we are crossing wide, open, rather boring land between Yuma and Tucson, and the air is thick with smog or smoke or what they try to pass off in the West as haze.  It could be dust from all the recent storms, or it could be the sad state of air quality around Phoenix, but either way, I am especially grateful for the extra time we spent in the pristine world of Anza Borrego.

Anza Borrego State Park and Coyote Canyon

As expected, I took nearly 200 photos, if you want to check them out here.

Our rig faces northeast, with an open view of the mountains past the low lying, almost invisible buildings of Borrego Springs.  Watching the morning sun stream in the windows, listening to all the birds, sipping morning tea in all that desert light was delightful.  The day stretched ahead, with predicted temperatures in the 70’s and clear skies until late afternoon, when a bit of wind and showers could appear. 

We knew that the park was huge, with miles and miles of dirt roads, some we could manage, and others maybe not.  We also knew hiking is something we love but not sure where we could go with Abby.  So first stop on the agenda was the main Anza Borrego State Park Visitor Center, just a hop up the road from where we are staying here at the Holiday Borrego Mobile Home Park.  After a couple of nights near freeways and truck stops, the silence and darkness of Borrego Springs makes for amazing restful sleeping.  In fact, Borrego Springs is listed as one of only two “dark sky” communities, and one of the ten best places for viewing the heavens in the United States. 

The visitor center is beautifully done, with interesting displays, excellent volunteers providing information about where flowers are blooming, what roads are passable, where the sheep are located, and yes, where we could walk with Abby.  All park roads, dirt or paved, but no trails.  I especially enjoyed the geologic maps and prehistory of the area.  There is so much to see here, and after buying a hat for Mo and a tee shirt for me, (oh my, will it end up in a quilt someday?  I just can’t seem to resist those gorgeous park tee shirts.), we walked around the lovely naturally landscaped grounds before embarking on our chosen journey.

Coyote Canyon seemed to be the best choice, with many flowers in bloom right now after the rains.  There were several people in the center, many of whom had only two wheel drive vehicles, but with our little Tracker we thought we could manage at least some of the 4 wheel drive routes.

The road north from Borrego into the park is straightforward, that is until the prehistoric animals start to appear.  I recently saw photos of these critters on another blog, but it still didn’t prepare me for the surprise.  With the sponsorship of Dennis Avery, a Borrego Springs philanthropist,  the Mexican artist Ricardo Arroyo Breceda has created amazingly intricate and detailed iron sculptures that appear as though they just emerged from the landscape as it was a couple of million years ago during the Pliocene, Pleistocene, and Miocene eras.  We hope to explore other areas of the park where fossils of this time period have been found, but today our journey was into the granite batholiths of the San Ysidro Mountains along Coyote Creek. 

When the park says 4x4, high clearance, they mean it.  Although that can mean two different things.  We saw sedans crawling along the sandy wash road with success, and then we saw them turn around at “first crossing”.  The Tracker made quick work of that one, and on to “2nd crossing” without a hitch.  Good little Tracker.  We saw a few Jeeps, real ones, not the SUV kind of Jeep, with explorers heading for the deeper reaches of the canyon, but when we reached “3rd crossing”, we decided it might be prudent to check it out and walk.  We wanted a good hike today anyway, and this was perfect. 

	Park volunteers warned of soft sand, but it wasn’t a bit of a problem for the Tracker
	This was second crossing, still no problem for the Tracker, even though there are some good sized rocks hidden in that foot deep water
	We started walking at third crossing, where the road followed the creek, but had no real clue just what was ahead of this part

Third Crossing was a bit of a surprise, since it followed the path of Coyote Creek, quite full after the recent rains.  As we walked (and Abby swam) along the road, we came upon a young man walking back checking for parts that might not be as deep as others.  He had driven across, but it was up to his tail pipes and he wanted to avoid an engine cutting out.  We watched him plow back through the water and thought, “Good Luck!”

Continuing on with our hike, we noticed a trail of oil running down the center of the road.  UhOh.  Wonder if he knows he broke something.  Then as we hiked up a couple of very steep very rocky grades, we knew that 4x4 definitely means something other than even a little 4 wheel drive Tracker in some parts of this park.  We hiked high enough above the Lower Willows area to look down into Collins Valley and up the wild open distance of Upper  Coyote Canyon.  We didn’t make it as far as the hike into Sheep Canyon or Salvador Canyon with it’s hidden palms.  In fact when we looked at our excellent purchased park map, it looked as though we just barely tapped into the wild distance of Coyote Canyon.  The best part about all this was the perfect hiking temperatures, and the fact that Abby could be with us, and enjoy the refreshing stream.  Not often you see and hear burbling water in the desert.

Once back to the car, and driving out, we saw many more vehicles, some parked having picnics, another big rough jeepy tour thing with six folks hanging on for dear life as he dropped down into third crossing.  We wondered just how it might feel for those folks bouncing around in the back of the open jeep when they started up the steep bouldery road into Collins Valley. 

This park whetted our appetite for a lot more.  Like many others who come here, we looked at each other and said, “This place calls for at least a month in the winter” .  We want to come back and explore so much more.  Before settling in to our home, we drove around some of the neighborhoods around town.  There is a stillness here, even in town, that is so rare in the desert any more.  It  reminds me of the California desert I knew as a kid, before the sprawling thing happened to Lancaster and Palmdale and Palm Springs.  The buildings are low, there are no stop lights, no big box stores, very few stores at all, although we did find the ice cream store on the way back to camp. We loved the way homes here are scattered about the desert in a pleasing manner, that feels as though they emerged naturally.

It’s much different than the overgrown trashy desert rat kind of desert that is becoming the rule rather than the exception.  Looking out over the landscape here, we saw no trash, none anywhere.  From the quiet dirt roads around town, the desert vistas expand all around in all directions, clean and clear and silent.  It is all that I dream of when I dream of desert in winter.  It’s a place to soothe the soul and quiet the spirit.

After putting together a great supper with some of that pulled pork I made before we left, we enjoyed sitting out behind our rig on the edge of the park watching the light play on the mountains.  Our plans were to leave for the Tucson area Thursday morning, but that just seemed silly.  “What is the rush, I said? Why don’t we stay here one more night and take some time tomorrow to go find some of the places we couldn’t see today?” Mo was up for that idea, and we went to bed with the great feeling that the next day would be relaxed and fun, and we would have time to go find all those “points of interest” that we saw on the park map.