After 13 days of travel through Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and California, we reached our temporary home for the next month — Borrego Springs, California. A small desert community, it is a quirky little town with alot of natural beauty. Yes, it is a desert, yes it is warmer than what we are used to, but the quietness and solitude and dark skies have their own appeal. So we do our outdoor activity of the day at sun rise and hang out in AC or the shade the rest of the day 🙂

Anza Borrego Desert State Park is immense. The star of the park is a herd of Bighorn Sheep known as the Borrego Sheep. We haven’t spotted them yet, but I hope we can admire them at some point during our stay.

The town of Borrego Springs is known for its metal sculptures placed throughout town. Anything from horses to big dragons. It sure makes riding around town interesting. It’s great to see all of the cyclists here. It seems like almost everyone at the campground has a bike.

Some cool canyon hikes — Palm Canyon, Hellhole Canyon. Hellhole — ugly name, but a really cool hike with 3 oases deep in the back of the canyon. It is cool to see an oasis with palm trees, even maple and eucalyptus trees, in such harsh conditions. My favorite hike was the shortest hike of them all — The Slot. The Slot is a slot canyon hike that is only about a total of 2 miles out and back. But there is about 1/4 mile of some very narrow, very windy slot canyon that is amazing. The sandstone looks like velvety, tan cake frosting. I really enjoyed this one.

We spent a day in Julian, California. A cool historic town known for gold mining, but now made famous for its apples and bakeries serving up apple pie. We tried some from the Julian Pie Company — very tasty. We did a hike nearby in Warner Springs — a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) known as Eagle Rock. See the photos and you be the judge — does it look like an eagle with its wings partially spread? I think so 🙂

Our friend, Alan, who has been coming here since 2007, arrived and took me on a bike ride to show me the best places to spot a Borrego Bighorn. And on the final spot, lo and behold, we finally saw a herd of them. On a golf course, of all places 🙂 They come down off the rocky mountain to eat grass and drink water and then head back into the hills. An amazing animal that is able to survive in some harsh conditions. But of course, humans, are the biggest threat to this beautiful creature and their numbers are dwindling year after year. I am grateful to have seen them.

Alan also introduced us to his Borrego Springs cycling group. A very nice group of people. We did a 30 mile ride with them. It was alot of fun. Wish we were here longer to do more rides with them.

We visited the Painted Canyons in the Mecca Hills Wilderness. We hiked the Painted Canyons Ladder Trail. It consists of slot canyons connected with aluminum ladders. A little sketchy climbing up and down these ladders. We only did a few of them, but were able to get back into the canyon and see all the different colors of rock formations.

We grew to love this small desert community. When we first arrived, it was hot, everything is brown, and we were like uh oh, what did we get ourselves into. We even considered leaving. But I’m glad we stuck it out. The temps started to drop. We started to appreciate the quiet beauty of the desert. Our bodies even became acclimated to the warmer climate. By the end of our stay, we were putting on pants and flannels in the evening eventhough it was 75 🙂

Time to hit the road and on to our next stop — Lake Havasu City, Arizona for a quick Thanksgiving visit with an old friend. Then Yuma, Arizona.