Yesterday’s rain gave way to crystal-clear skies with big puffy clouds but the wind was still quite brisk. It seemed a perfect day to take a spin through Anza-Borrego State Park. Our initial wandering was southeast along S-2, a county road that skirts the eastern edge of the Laguna Mountains. We continued for about 20 miles until we arrived at Vallecitos County Park and Stage Station where I, my spouse, our kids and some friends went camping about 25 years ago. It was the camping trip from Hell. We tried to cook a Thanksgiving meal and have a spiffy celebration but the weather turned viciously cold, the Weber failed on the cooking and one of the dogs got into the cholla cactus and ended up looking like a pincushion. Our cheap air beds failed and we ended up trying to sleep on the nearly frozen ground. We did have a good game of cold-on-one-side charades with everyone just about as close to the fire as possible and turning regularly to keep the other side from being like the dark side of the moon.
At the county park we turned around and headed for Borrego Springs, an interesting but weird community right next to the Anza-Borrego State Park visitor center and Borrego Palm Canyon campground. On the way but quite close to Borrego Springs, there is a section of road with wildlife sculptures dotted around the stark landscape. We spotted metal mammoths, horses, saber-toothed cats, some big hawks and a small collection of T. Rex guys in the distance. The campground is very nice and the views therefrom are stunning. The visitor center is built underground and is quite appealing with good exhibits about the local wildlife, plants and geology. They even have a little theater with some neat movies about the park, one of which shows quick time-lapse clips with the desert vegetation putting on a year’s worth of show in about 15 seconds.
By the time we had lingered too long in the park, we headed back over Yaqui Pass toward our campground in Shelter Valley, getting back to our trailer just before it went black. The scenery out here in the Borrego area is magnificent and spectacularly varied as the sun moves and the light changes. We intend to go fool around and ogle in this area again tomorrow.
There are pix. Click here