Chapter 66 - Anza Borrego Desert
March 10, 2001
2/10/2001 After several rounds of visiting doctors, dentists and opticians, we're almost done. There's one more appointment on the 20th, but we're getting hitch itch, and have decided to head out to the desert today, returning to San Diego, California for that appointment.
We chose the short, complicated route, exiting I-15 at Ted Williams Parkway, cutting through Poway, and then following SR67 to Ramona, SR 78 to Santa Ysabel, and then SR 79, turning onto San Felipe Road (CR 2) just before Warner Springs, then turning onto CR S22, which becomes CR S3. This is pleasant driving -- twisty 2-lane roads through occasional small towns in mountain valleys. We stopped at the Julian Pie Company in Santa Ysabel (they also have a store/bakery in Julian), and bought an "original" apple pie, still warm from the oven. This is one of three kinds of apple pie they offer, along with many other fruit pies. It may be the world's best commercially baked pie -- almost as good as Helen's. It's made from tart, locally grown apples, spiced just right, with a tender flaky crust. Yum!
CR S3 is the most scenic part of the trip. It drops from 4000 feet above sea level to under 1000 feet in nine miles, an average grade of 7%. The road is blasted out of a steep rock slope, following a winding canyon from the high plateau down to the desert floor. In spite of that, it's a comfortable drive. It's a relatively new road -- no grades over 8%, adequately wide lanes, paved shoulders, barriers along the cliff edge, and the sharpest curves can be taken comfortably at 25 mph. Along the way, there are spectacular views to the east, and a couple of pullouts where we could stop to enjoy the view. We should have been able to see the Salton Sea, but low clouds and haze obscured the eastern horizon.
Our trip coincided with a strong cold front which was moving the same direction, at about the same speed as we were. We had lowering black clouds and light rain for much of the way, with strong winds while descending the eastern slopes. It was fascinating to watch the heavy storm clouds break up and dissipate as they blew out over the dry desert. Half way down the slope, we broke out into sunshine, and for the rest of the day we had only occasional clouds.
The entrance to the Palm Canyon campground in Anza Borrego State Park had a "campground full" sign, but we drove in anyway, getting there at 2:30, and discovered that one camper with a reservation had just been declared a no-show, making the site available. We grabbed it, although we could only be guaranteed two nights. California's weird central reservation process requires that we call the reservations office at least two days in advance in order to get reservations beyond tomorrow night. No problem -- we had planned on scouting the park for attractive boondocking sites anyway, and had only expected to stay at Palm Canyon for three days.
We're dry-camping in the primitive rear portion of the campground, but these are the most spectacular sites, located on the alluvial fan at the mouth of Palm Canyon, high enough to have a beautiful view to the East and North. The campsites in this area are widely spaced out in the midst of varied desert plants. A few bushes are in bloom. Some ocotillo have leafed out, and also have red buds which will soon open.
2/11 A lovely day. A few fluffy clouds drifting in from the mountains, and then evaporating overhead. It's still cool in the shade -- with the high temperature for the day expected to be in the low 60's. Part of the day was spent driving around scouting for good boondocking sites. We rediscovered a place 20 miles east of Borrego Springs, just across the county line into Imperial County, which has a panoramic view east to Salton Sea and the mountains beyond. It also has a close-up view of a deep erosion-sculpted canyon. There is a large area in which to spread out and relatively few other RV's, -- almost ideal. We'll move there in a day or two. Along the way, we enjoyed a small piece of desert which received more rain than other areas, and is in bloom. Big patches of brilliant purple sand verbena are along the roadside and scattered across the desert, punctuated with showy white evening primrose.
While at the extreme east end of Anza Borrego Desert State Park, we hiked the trail to the old Calcite Mine -- operated during World War 2 by Polaroid Corporation, who manufactured the bi-refringent calcite crystals for bombsights and other such applications. A washed-out jeep trail extends about 1.5 miles from the highway to the abandoned mine site, dipping through two canyons on the way then climbing the mountain slope to the North. The mine itself is just a series of ditches, up to 20' deep and 6' wide, cut down into the slopes of punky rock. I found quite a few small, imperfect calcite crystals in the mine tailings and in the dry washes downstream. The view out across the desert from the mountainside is spectacular.
2/12 The hike into Palm Canyon is as nice as we remembered. (See chapters 15, 17, and 31 for earlier descriptions). The dryness of the past year is visible, in that a higher percentage of bushes are dead looking than we remembered from previous visits. Wildlife seems scarce. I've seen a few birds around the campsite (black-throated sparrow, cactus wren, two kinds of hummingbird), and we got a close-up view of a roadrunner along the trail in Palm Canyon. Other than a few little lizards and the ubiquitous ravens, we've noticed no other animals. It clouded over in the afternoon, and rained a little. Towards nightfall, the clouds became heavy and dark, and it rained fairly hard at least twice during the night.
2/13 Still cloudy and raining occasionally. We hooked up in the rain and moved about 20 miles east to another campsite this morning. The new campsite is just across the county line in Imperial County. We've got a great view. The negative is that we're fully exposed to the desert wind, which can be strong and relentless. We're getting the tail end of a big, cold, storm that has dumped several inches of rain along the coast and dropped a foot or more of snow at elevations down to 500 feet (the kids are having snowball fights in the parks of Berkeley and Oakland).
We think of the new site as "boondocking" in contrast to the State Park site we've been in, even though neither has hookups. The park does have ramadas and picnic tables at each site, water spigots scattered among the campsites, and a bath/shower facility (which is a long walk from our campsite), but we don't generally use these, and hence see little difference in convenience between a formal campground and the undeveloped site to which we're moving. We're likely to suffer other RV's with noisy electrical generators in either kind of place. The big difference today is that the undeveloped site will be much quieter (at least if we park far enough away from the generators) and much darker (and it's free). Incidentally, California has reduced its camping fees this year, which are now in line with most other states. We were paying $8/night (senior rate) in the Palm Canyon campground.
2/14 Mostly blue sky this morning. The mountains both to the east and west of us are snow-covered, with the bottom of the snow band a surprisingly sharp line at perhaps 3000 feet elevation. Combined with the deep blue of the Salton Sea and the infinite gradations of tan of the deserts, it's a stunning scene. We can see for miles and, except for a few others boondocking out here, nobody in sight and nothing manmade except for telephone poles disappearing into the distance down the road and one radio antenna.
2/15 Dave climbed down into the canyon and hiked a few miles upstream. Celebrating the arrival of somewhat warmer temperatures, we cooked sausages over a campfire for an evening meal, then sat watching the fire die and the stars come alive.
2/16 Dave spent a while on the trailer roof with wrenches, hacksaw, file, and electric drill, trying out a scheme for tilting the solar panels toward the side of the trailer. The original mounting arrangement allowed tilting them only toward the front or back, but we're currently parked with the trailer oriented east-west to optimize the view from Helen's favorite seat. The idea worked, and the panels are now facing south, increasing the power generation by about 30%. With long winter nights, lights on for several hours in the evening, frequent cloudy days, and extensive use of both computers, we appreciate the extra battery charging.
A dark clear, still night that isn't too cold. The coyotes howl and we bundle up, mute our flashlights, venture out and are impressed. The winter constellations sparkle gloriously overhead and we even see two shooting stars. We also find out that we are not as isolated as we thought. Seven miles away, lights outline the Salton Sea, a romantic glitter. A soft glow on the southeast horizon tells us a major settlement isn't far, maybe 20 miles away. Another glow is behind the north mountains. When we look closely the next day, we can see dibs and dabs of the houses on the near shore of the Salton Sea. None are visible on the far side, although the lights at night were unmistakable.
2/17 The park map shows three small palm oases in Arroyo Salada, on the eastern edge of the State Park, just a few miles from where we're camped. We started driving on the jeep trail heading south from SR S22, but found ourselves stuck in soft sand after only a mile or so, and after digging out of that, found an eroded, rocky descent into a tributary of the Arroyo, and so abandoned the truck and started hiking. By the time we had enough hiking; we still hadn't found the oases. But it was a pleasant hike through interesting terrain. The vertical walls of the arroyo, composed of solidified silt - not quite rock - have interesting lenticular inclusions of harder sandstone, typically one foot in diameter, and often with whimsical shapes. Later, we see similar inclusions shaped as long tubes -- ranging from a few inches to several feet in cross section, but extending indefinitely in length -- sheared off where the supporting "siltstone" has eroded away, but disappearing far back into the cliffs. Several types of bush which we have not noticed elsewhere are in bloom along the dry streambed.
On the way back, the truck gets stuck in the same patch of soft sand -- I apparently didn't learn much the first time through. This time, it took half an hour to get out.
2/18 Today's expedition was a circumnavigation of the Salton Sea, about 120 miles. From a distance, the lake is an attractive deep blue. Close up, the shoreline isn't particularly attractive -- sometimes swampy, often coarse silty sand with rocks mixed in. There are resort communities along the shore every 10 miles or so, but they are all cheaply built, run-down, and unattractive. The few towns don't look prosperous. At Niland, we detoured a mile or two east to look at "Slab City" (sometimes referred to as "The Slabs"). This is a patch of desert featuring a number of concrete slabs which were the foundations of buildings on a military base which was abandoned and torn down many years ago. There are still several small World War II-era concrete buildings scattered around, with thick bombproof walls and narrow gun slits instead of windows.
The area has been taken over by the RV community, and there are hundreds of RV's scattered around. Many are decaying antiques which probably haven't been on the road in years. Some are surrounded by unidentifiable piles of junk. Others are large, shiny, new motorhomes. Several clubs have established their own subdivisions, labeled with large signs. Loners on Wheels and another singles group have particularly prominent signs in the area we drove through. These "organized" areas are much neater -- no junk, RV's parked in some semblance of a planned arrangement. With the high population density and the anarchy of the place, we wonder how this broad range of people with different economic and cultural backgrounds manages to co-exist in reasonable harmony.
One entrepreneur has established a solar and wind power business in a complex of three old trailers, selling and installing wind turbines, photovoltaic panels, and related electronics. Other small RVer-operated businesses were advertising their services on small paper signs, stuck on posts in the sand or thumbtacked to two community bulletin boards.
2/19 Back to San Diego and to Campland on the Bay. Helen broke a tooth cap over the weekend, and left a message on the dentist's answering machine. The dentist's office called back this morning (Monday) and asked if we could make a 1:30 PM cancellation opening today. We optimistically said yes, packed up in record time, and hit the road. We actually made it back with sufficient time to check in to the campground before the appointment. A replacement crown will have to be manufactured, meaning yet another appointment, in about 10 days.
Although the road was dry, the hillsides along SR 79, between Julian and I-8, were still snow covered from the storm a few days ago. Today is a school holiday, and many families were sledding on the hills -- a noisy and cheerful scene for almost 20 miles. This area along S-79 is mostly state or county parkland, alternating between meadows and pine-forested hillsides, with the road following the shore of Lake Cuyamaca for several miles -- a pretty drive. The road is at about 4000 feet above sea level, with mountains around us rising to 6000 feet.
2/24 The past five days in San Diego have been occupied with doctor and dentist visits, dinner with our son Dan, a few nights of table tennis at the local club for Dave, and some shopping -- not much time to play tourist, and not much to write about.
We discovered Charlie's Best Breads, a tiny bakery tucked away in a shopping plaza only a mile or so from our campsite. They make several varieties of heavy, hearty, whole-grain bread, which are wonderful. Their cookies and scones are good too!
This morning, we hooked up the trailer and drove to Jojoba Hills SKP Park for a change of scenery. The drive is uninteresting -- mostly on I-15 -- except for the last 15 miles on SR-79, which winds its way through attractive valleys along the North edge of Palomar Mountain. Yet another slow-moving Pacific storm has arrived. It's cold, with frequent rain, quite heavy at times. We mostly hung out in the trailer, enjoying the views of the mountains (when they weren't obscured by low clouds and fog scudding through the valleys), reading, and catching up on various little indoor projects. The Park has an extensive library, which we're enjoying.
One evening, we spent a pleasant couple of hours talking to Al and Carol Layton. Al runs the Canoe/Kayak Escapees BOF (Birds of a Feather) group and edits their newsletter. They are members at Jojoba Hills (which is a Co-op), and spend much of the winter here. He had seen our canoes and introduced himself when Dave was here in December. So of course the conversation centered around canoeing, and about how to encourage more active group activity in the BOF (105 members, scattered all over the country).
2/28 We retraced our route back to San Diego today, through intermittent rain. We have a lovely beach site at Campland on the Bay, on a little point of land where Rose Creek flows into Mission Bay. The back of the trailer is only a few feet from the water's edge at high tide and we can see water through nearly every window.
There is a huge and varied collection of birds on the water around us -- coots, mallard, pintail, bufflehead, American widgeon, redhead duck, black brandt, lesser scaup, cormorants, egret, and assorted other gulls, ducks, and sandpipers. A great blue heron and a brown pelican each flap past a couple of times a day, making their rounds. The mallards are tame, and spend a lot of time wandering around the campground looking for handouts. During the middle of the day, there may be a dozen ducks sleeping peacefully in our campsite -- if it's sunny, they'll be in the shade under the truck or the picnic table. In cloudy weather, they can be anywhere -- we've seen them tuck their beak under a wing and fall asleep right in the middle of the road.
A huge flock of pigeons also circulates through the park. When a few dozen of them land on our trailer roof, it gets somewhat noisy, and I worry about our TV antenna as it sags under the weight of several of these plump birds.
We've discovered another very good (and quite inexpensive) Italian restaurant -- Lorna's Italian Kitchen North. We've gone there twice with Dan, and had excellent meals each time. The service is a bit slapdash, but the chef makes up for it.
3/3 We spent about 2 hours with Kenshi Fukuhara and a Japanese TV producer who spoke little English. They are gathering information for a Japanese TV documentary about the full time RVing lifestyle in America -- apparently almost an inconceivable concept in Japan. We've been answering Ken's questions via Email for several months.
Lew and Dottie Anderson stopped by for a couple hours of pleasant conversation in the afternoon. They are soon-to-be-retired RVers who are contemplating becoming full-timers. Lew is a San Diego policeman.
3/7 On the road again. We hitched up this morning and headed for Phoenix -- the usual boring drive along Interstate 8. Actually, the first 60 miles are never boring, with heavy traffic, steep grades, and interesting mountain views in the Cleveland National Forest. Near Alpine, the hillsides are black for miles, the aftermath of the disastrous forest fire a couple of months ago.
We stopped for the night near Wellton, Arizona. After looking at a couple of unpromising campgrounds in town, we drove a little bit out of town to the east and found a lovely boondocking spot in the desert, on the edge of a small hill, looking out over irrigated bottom land to an impressive range of mountains a few miles north. We had noticed a sheriff's office building as we came through town, so we drove back to ask about boondocking. The answer, from the uniformed deputy on duty, was "no problem", so here we are, with a free scenic view site that is officially sanctioned.
The abundant spring rains have turned the desert into a garden. We picked samples of at least a dozen different kinds of flowers in the desert surrounding our campsite and at a spot along the highway on the way in to town. We also saw, but didn't pick, two big showy white trumpet-shaped lilies, looking out of place in the desert. Helen has been able to identify most of these flowers, with liberal use of the guidebooks. The vase of mixed desert flowers cheers up the trailer.
3/8 On the way to Phoenix, we stopped to look over a boondocking site that someone on RV-Talk has recommended. It's Buckeye Hills Recreation Area -- a County-operated park that's largely undeveloped. Several attractive large campsites have been built, well spaced out on a hilltop with nice views, with picnic tables and grilles. It was nearly empty. It's free. This was only about an hour's drive from Phoenix, where we had guaranteed reservations and things that needed doing, so we didn't stay the night. Perhaps we'll come back and spend a few days here when we leave Phoenix.
We pulled into Apache Palms RV Park, in Tempe, AZ, in early afternoon. Tomorrow, we'll pick up our niece Sharon at the airport and embark on a whirlwind tour to show her as much of Arizona as we can fit into six days.