To get to Anza Borrego I drove down coastal San Diego County to Oceanside, then headed inland to the mountains. Oceanside has grown quite a bit over the years, and even more so recently. It took a long time to get beyond the developed areas, which stretch all the way out to Fallbrook and beyond - Fallbrook is actually "greater Oceanside" these days. Beyond Fallbrook is the Pala, home to Mission San Antonio de Pala and also the Pala Casino, a monolith jutting out of a small, no longer rural valley. Once past the casino things settle down a bit. Fruit orchards and nurseries dominate the little valleys. There is one more casino in Pauma Valley but this one seems to not want very much to be found; I never saw an entrance to it, only the signs saying "Pauma Casino 1/2 mile back."
Coming up out of the Pauma Valley I arrived at a plateau where Lake Henshaw is located. Lake Henshaw is a man-made lake.
After Lake Henshaw I proceeded through the Montezuma Valley, in the mountains above Anza Borrego. Farther south, these mountains burned in the fall of 2003, during our horrendous firestorm. I could see plenty of scorched oak trees and burnt pines, but these are from an earlier, less devastating fire. At the top of this valley is the little village of Ranchita, and then begins the State Park.
It is amazing, crossing into the parkland, to see the sudden profusion of plant life, most notably cacti. The drive down is steep and spectacular. I couldnt resist stopping at the first glimpse of color to take a few plant photos.
Once on the desert floor, we gathered at the visitor's center and explored the garden of native plants that surrounds it. In addition to the plants, I saw a dragonfly
(left) and also the amazing
desert pupfish
(right) that
live where no fish should be able to live.
From the nature center we convoyed over to the Palm Canyon trailhead. The trail leads up from the desert into a wash. There was quite a bit of water running because it had rained a few days before. There was more and more water as the canyon narrowed. We were climbing up over huge boulders that had been left by recent and not-so-recent floods. In fact, this past summer there was a major flood in the canyon, which changed the course of the river, washed out the pedestrian bridges, and made it necessary to re-create the hiking train based on the revised terrain.
After a while we arrived at this oasis, with waterfalls, and palm trees growing everywhere. It was as cool as walking into an air conditioned room, after being in the hot desert sun!
