Last night the wind kicked up, and sitting outside in our lawn chairs, gazing at the stars wasn’t an option we elected. However, Kathleen stood outside the rig for a few minutes, contemplating the star-studded canopy above us. We both agree this is a perfect place to enjoy the night skies. Even just a few minutes was a good experience.
This morning the wind had died down, though we suspect there is usually some wind blowing most of the time. We are situated on a little elevation from which we can see the desert all around us. Paul climbed up a little incline from where he could capture our little camp site. (It didn’t seem “little” as he struggled to the top for the picture shoot!) What might look like a little brown plank road is actually the roof of an outdoor shelter across the road from our site! We are surrounded by sand, but even with the wind, we don’t seem to have the layer of find dust/sand that we so often experienced in Sunbeam Lake! Since this is mid-week, there are not many campers here. Come the weekend, though, the place will be full. So our accommodations are only for the nights of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
We wanted to spend the weekend in Anza Borrego campground, and drove up there today to see if we could get reservations for Friday, Saturday and Sunday – and possibly a few more days. No such luck! Like Agua Calliente, the State Park is completely full, too. So we have determined to revisit the State Park on our way back to El Centro in mid September. We will get our reservations in early, and have the opportunity to participate in the excellent campfire lectures that are held at Anza Borrego.
We saw a number of cyclists out on the roads today and thought of son-in-law, Jamie. He loves cycling hills (and mountains) and we are sure that this area would place high on Jamie’s list of favorite biking places.
On our way to Anza Borrego, we passed by a little sign that caught our attention. We were surprised and delighted to see
a sign indicating that this was part of the Pacific Rim Trail. These “chairs” and “cupboard” might be used by some of the PCT hikers. Looks like a supply of water for fellow travelers on the Trail. Across the street we noticed the other sign indicating the PCT. As we looked down the path we thought of our dear Melanie and her husband who, we believe, hiked the entire PCT some years ago. We stood there and wondered if they passed over this area on their adventure. Now they are parents of very small children and we won’t be surprised to see them grow up in their parent’s footsteps!
When we visited the Agua Calliente campground, Paul noticed a “new” to us cactus. It is called a “Pencil Cactus.”.There are so many types of cacti, and we are always interested in finding ones we haven’t seen before. The prickly pear cactus is coming into bloom, and the barrel cactus look like they are in full bloom. We don’t know if the pencil cactus has blooms, or not.
Instead of returning to Agua Calliente on the same road as the ones we took to reach the park, we decided to return here
another way. We took S-22 west this time (it runs into S-2 which is the way we want to go). The road climbs and climbs up over 3,000 feet and the views below were much appreciated. We were not able to identify the light tan half circles below, but enjoyed seeing the town of Borrego Springs from this vantage point.
Once we had climbed up and up, we reached a sort of rolling meadow. Along the road we noticed an interesting display of miniature houses and buildings. The artist has a gallery on the grounds, but it looked as though no one was “at home” today. We did enjoy viewing his various creations. Coming along the road, it looked like a miniature village, spread along the side of the road! Very interesting and well executed!
We reached the very tiny hamlet of Ranchito where we saw this unusual statue in front of the Realty Company. We didn’t notice much more than this little store and a volunteer fire station. Perhaps there were other civic buildings off the road, but we could not see any sign of same.
When we reached S-2 we headed south toward Agua Calliente. Along the road we noticed this unusual Ocotillo. Most of these plants grow their stalks fairly close to one another – this one made us think of Harry Potter’s “Whamping Willow”!
This was most pleasant day, exploring the area, and we capped the day off with a visit to the thermal pool. More about that tomorrow!
