Feb 21, 2014 Anza Borrego, Palm Canyon

The day started out cloudy, which made it difficult to take photos. However, I just can’t help myself when I have a camera in my hand and I see bees nearby.

 

 Today, we took a 6 mile hike from the visitor center to Palm Canyon Oasis. We started out across the flat sandy dessert floor before climbing into Palm Canyon.

Suddenly, the canyon became amazingly lush.

 

On the way out I noticed a stand of ocotillos.

Feb 20, 2014 Anza Borrego, Canyon Hike

 

Today we hiked into another beautiful canyon. 
The canyon started wide but then began to narrow.

 

 

 

Along the way we noticed Beaver Tail Cactus, Ocotillo, and a tenacious tree.

 

 

Feb 19, 2014 Anza Borrego State Park, Culp Valley

The road into our campsite and the road to the trailhead were sandy, rutted and studded with rocks. Both required a 4WD vehicle to access.

 

This is our primitive campsite. Although Spartan, it protected us from the wind.

 

On the way to the trailhead we noticed a Coyote as well as something called coyote melons. According to the signage, this softball size melon was used by ancestral people as food and medicine. I tasted it and thought it was dry and incredibly bitter.

 

 

We spent the day hiking through the area pictured below. You can see evidence of a wildfire started by an illegal campfire 3 years ago.

Feb 18, 2014 Desert Shores

Heading south, on our way to Anza Borrego State Park, we took a detour through Desert Shores. It seems that this community has fallen into a sorry condition.

By late afternoon we reached Anza Borrego. This was our first view from the visitor center.

 

Feb 17, 2014 Indio Date Festival

Eighty-five percent of the dates eaten in the USA are grown around the town of Indio. Each year the growers put on the Date Festival and county fair. However, we found precious little to do with dates. Here is what we saw.   

 

 

Feb 16, 2014 Joshua Tree National Park

The northern part of the park is in the Mohave Desert, which has a different feel from the Colorado Desert in the southern part of the park. Today we went north to hike. Our first trail was Split Rock.

photo by Ann R.

There’s a side trail to “Face Rock”

 

I call this one “Sleeping Fish Face Rock”

Ann spotted a couple of climbers working a crack.

Here’s an enlarged telephoto shot.

After lunch we hiked the Pine City trail.

When you are hiking in the desert, be careful where you step.

 

These little guys are everywhere!

 

Feb 15, 2014 Joshua Tree National Park

Today, I felt like taking a day off from hiking. So I just hung around the trailer and worked on images and read a novel most of the day. But by nightfall, I got antsy and decided to take a walk around the campground. I had my pocket point-and-shoot camera with the ISO set at 3200. Here is what it saw:

First, there was a woman in a nearby campsite, using a hula hoop filled with LEDs.

 

Not far from our trailer was a large pile of rocks behind a Joshua Tree

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In the last image, can you see most of the constellation Orion?