Out and About to 2/6/26

Greetings from Catalina Spa and RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs, CA.  Jimmy and I left our home in Nevada City, roughly 600 miles north, on Friday, 1/30, making our usual overnight stop at Minter Field Air Museum, a Harvest Host site, in Shafter.  Our original arrival date was a week earlier, but Jimmy's hernia flared up again before Christmas (remember Madeira two years ago?), and he needed surgery. The surgeon's first opening (heh, sorry) wasn't till Jan 14th.  So, he's been on the "sick list" for a while, and what could be better than recovering in the desert with those wonderful mineral swimming pools?

Since he's been healing from not one, but two hernia incisions, we've been taking life easier than usual. Taking easy walks and spending quality time in the pools.  He's now three-plus weeks post-op, and Nurse Ratched (me) is officially declaring him on the "almost as good as new" list.

This will be our home for the month of February.

We are snug-as-bugs in our site. 

Our friends, Sue and "Mo" from Oregon are also here at the RV park, fun for all of us.  On Wednesday the 4th, we tried a new-to-us Mexican restaurant in Desert Hot Springs (DHS from now on) named Delicias, which we all enjoyed.  Thursday, they wanted to drive down to Anza Borrego St Pk, roughly 80 miles south, to "'see the spring wildflowers," and we joined them (in separate cars).  By gum, we scored, too!

In 2009, Jimmy and I hiked the Palm Canyon Trail, remembered it fondly, and decided to do it again today.  Sue and Mo went off on their own, and we'd meet up later.  Above, you see Jimmy on the trail.

Brittlebush was the prize winner for its sheer numbers -- great blocks of yellow flowers.  Nice photo mix with Beavertail Cactus, above.

We encountered several large bushes with The. Most. Fragrant. Flowers., each alive with buzzing bees.  Lo and behold, they were Desert Lavender, left.  Spotted a couple of (also large) Chuparosas covered with their red tubular flowers, top, and the spectacular Desert Sand Verbena, bottom, with a Dune Evening Primrose plopped in the middle.  Did you know the Spanish word for hummingbird is Chuparosa?  Now you do.

If a person got tired of eyeballing flowers, they could gaze at interesting rock formations.  Like Joshua Tree Nat'l Pk, Anza Borrego has rocks.  Lots and lots.  Check out the angled rocks, above.

Now, you know I'm going to find a barrel cactus if possible!  See the red x, above?  A cute li'l barrel cactus has found a foothold.  That's it in the inset.

How many flower pictures are too many?  How many did I take?  Way more than I'll post.  Clockwise from top left:  Bigelow's Monkey Flower, Pigmy Gold Poppy, Desert Sunflower, and Desert Chicory.  Each was a beauty.

Here we found and crossed Borrego Palm Canyon Creek -- a perennial, shallow stream which originates from springs in the canyon and which, in turn, creates a lush oasis for/of native California fan palms.  The stream also disappears as the water flows downstream.

Here the stream makes a shallow pool.

More and more and more, oh lucky me!  Clockwise from top left:  Dune Evening Primrose, close up of a Desert Sand Verbena flower, Brown-eyed Primrose, and a critter on a Desert Sunflower.  All in great numbers.  I think my identifications are correct, but don't sue me if I'm wrong.

The rocky trail is three miles R/T, with an elevation gain of about 700 feet.  We found it to be a bit more strenuous this time around, can't imagine why. 😄. The palm grove oasis (yellow x) is closed until further notice due to a fire in January 2020 -- a grove of roughly 60 mature California Fan Palms went up in a fiery ball of flame, but ecologists say the trees will regrow.  Anyhoot, the 1.5-mile trail leads to an overlook, above, where you can see the post-fire recovery of the palms.

Oh sure, we saw many of these ant hills. Harvester Ants march out on warm days to collect seeds from nearby wildflowers and bushes which they bring back to the nest and hull. They then discard the seed chaff outside their hole, building a crater. These ants act as gardeners, planting seeds across the desert. I gave each hill plenty of room.

Datura.  Beautiful. 💕

I remember seeing these animals back in 2009, wondering who? why? and so on.  They're still here, more have been added, and they're remarkable to see.  We didn't get out of the car to show you size, but believe me, they are very large!

Sue and Mo were waiting for us at Coyote Canyon.  We would pile into their car (4x4) and see how far we could go on this rocky, sandy trail before getting stopped by a water crossing.  Lots of wildflowers on this drive, plenty of cholla cactus and ocotillos, etc.  I looked it up to see how long this "trail" is -- 18.3 out-and-back, but some upper sections have vehicle restrictions.  We were glad we didn't take Smartie!  Sue, above, is testing the Second Crossing, and it was deemed too deep for their Tracker car. We turned around at this point.  

Aglow with Desert Dandelions.

Finally, we parted, they needed an RV part in Indio, and Jimmy and I would drive along Henderson Canyon Rd on our way out of the park.  Henderson Canyon is a premier location for wildflowers.  We were awed by the display of primarily Desert Sunflowers, Desert Sand Verbena and Dune Evening Primrose.

Purple and white as far as the eye can see.  Wow!

And this -- THIS is Jimmy's contribution.  No, neither of us knows what it is, except it's tiny.  Jimmy!  You're not supposed to pick the ... flowers?

Yup, it was a long day, but we had a grand time.  Jimmy drove us to Anza Borrego and I drove us home.  We made it back by 5pm, Sue and Mo got caught in Indio traffic and were an hour behind us.

One more thing -- the pools, odorless, mineral hot springs are still heavenly.

Anza Borrego State Park hike 4-14-09

Instead of stopping overnight in blah Blythe CA, we continued on to Borrego Springs CA in the dry and dusty (and - sigh - windy) desert. When we asked about a great one-day-only outside activity, the good people at the visitor center advised us to hike the Palm Canyon trail, which we proceeded to tackle. The trail is quite famous for its spring wildflower display, but we were a couple of weeks late for prime blooming.  Nevertheless, we saw an abundance of pretty colors anyway. Here are a few photos. Click on any to enlarge.

 

Stopping at the VC first is always the best idea.

 

Shorts and short-sleeve weather -- warm, but very nice!

The sandy path was easy to follow and easy on the feet.

 

Though the area is filled with plenty of rock and cactus obstacles.

 

And even, ohmygosh, a fairly big rattlesnake, close to us as we walked past!

 

We spotted a couple of roadrunners - beep beep - zipping along.

 

The scarlet Ocotillo blooms were gorgeous, as they are after rain.

  And suddenly - whoa! - here was a stream in the desert?

 

Jimmy (blue shirt) is approaching the spring (or oasis) that you'd never guess could be here, unless you were directed to it or knew about it from ancient times.  Look at those beautiful palm trees! 

 

While the hike is only 3 miles R/T, we took our time so we could look, poke and examine, and rest in the shade of those wonderful indigenous fan palms. The long grassy skirts keep the tree trunks from drying out so badly in the summer heat.

And surprise, here 'tis - a mile-and-a-half into the canyon is a real oasis!  Nature at its grandest.  We really enjoyed this hike; so different from treks we've done in other areas.  I know hikes into canyons with oases like this exist elsewhere in the desert.  Maybe we can scope out a couple (at different times) and go hiking.  We'd like that.  We definitely recommend this one.