Exploring Borrego, Part 3 - Wildflowers

Anyone who has read my blog for a while will know that I love taking pictures of flowers. Our day in Borrego was no exception. And, besides, it is wildflower season in the desert!

There were a lot of "ooohs" and "aahhhs" on the drive out there. The Southern California landscape is painted in yellows, greens, oranges, reds and even purples right now. It's such a pretty time of year. The brown desert had colorful surprises of it's own. This pretty purple flower was growing on a ledge inside a slot canyon...


So pretty! Here's a close up of it...


Another kind of purple flower on the floor of the canyon...


These pods grew on the tops of the canyon walls, fell into the canyons, and gathered in little recesses. Some were only about six to eight inches tall. Other's were close to two feet. The stems at the top act like little parachutes which allow them to float gently down. It's fun to climb up and drop them to see them float...


This plant has some pod plants tangled in it...


Here's a closer look at the plant...


And, an even closer look at the flower. I like the little orange lines...


The Ocotillo trees lie dormant much of the time. However, with enough water or after a rain, they sprout leaves within hours to days. They've had plenty of water lately because they're all very green and the tops are blazing in red blooms. So, pretty!...


But, watch out for those thorns!...


I love the intense, gorgeous colors in the picture...


The cholla (pronounced choy uh) seem to have liked all the rain we got this year too. They look greener and healthier than usual. I've always been very careful around these because of stories I've heard about pieces of the plant "jumping" off. I'm not sure I believe that but I've never been one to take a chance. Those thorns looks pretty wicked. I'm usually very careful not to step on all the pieces that lie on the ground near the plants. But, I was so excited about taking pictures that I must have stopped paying attention. When I got back to the truck, I looked down at my shoes and the bottoms were covered in green goo and thorns. Luckily, hubby had some pliers and pulled the thorns out...all that he could, anyway. These shoes may never be the same! lol


Wow!...


Can you say "YELLOW"?! The color is so intense and so pretty!...


This has tiny white flowers and the plant itself doesn't really look like a desert plant. I'm thinking that it usually isn't but it was nestled near the oasis with plenty of water. When the water is gone, I bet the plant will be too. Such a treat to see while it's here though...


I spy red!...


These bushes were in Palm Canyon and they were taller than us!...


They were loaded with fuzzy little fringy things...


So cute!...


I really haven't done my homework on all the flowers I saw that day and don't know the names of most of them. I'm just enjoying them simply...for their color and beauty.


I'm not sure if I'd ever seen a green cactus flower before...


I love the color in this one...


Desert daisies...


The center looks like it's covered in teeny tiny yellow flowers. So cute!


Glowing blue...


These make me think of strawberry blossoms...


I love the red and yellow centers...


There were a bunch of these trees planted in town near the restaurant we stopped at for dinner...


They were covered in pretty yellow flowers...


The desert lavender bushes were covered in blooms but I was so busy enjoying their scent that I forgot to take a picture.

What a terrific day we had! It was filled with fun and adventure, new sights and learning, and...most of all...spending time together and making memories. :-)

Exploring Borrego, Part 2 - Desert Oasis

Our day of exploring in Borrego was off to a great start with finding those caves. The next thing we wanted to explore was an area of round boulders called the "Pumpkin Patch". We followed the directions we'd found on the internet but we weren't able to find it. We'll get more detailed directions and try it again someday. You can click HERE to see pictures of what we would have seen.

Next, we headed over to Palm Canyon for a hike. I love this place and I've hiked it since I was a kid. I even blogged about it a couple of years ago. It may be the same hike but we always discover new things and it's a lot of fun. One thing that was different this time is that there was more water up there than I think I've ever seen in that canyon...at least, since I was a kid. We're always so amazed and excited to find water in the middle of the dry desert. Here's the first bit of water we came upon that day...


Further up the canyon was this little oasis...


There were even little frogs. So cute!...


And...waterfalls!...




Water!...


We had to get our feet wet!...


After playing in the water for a bit, we hiked further up the canyon. Here's a view of the creek just above where it fell into those waterfalls...


Amazing!


Wow!


Hidden treasures in the desert. Water for the wildlife, the plants, and fun for us!


Here's the view going back down the canyon. It's interesting that a broad view like this seems like there's really nothing there. A closer look reveals so much more.

You can see my daughter and her friend near the bottom right corner...


What a wonderful way to end the day. The sun was going down and the light was beautiful. The temperature was warm and the breeze felt great. The sound of the waterfalls and the birds singing didn't sound like something we would expect to hear in the desert but it was fantastic!

Since it's spring time, there were flowers blooming. You know me...I can't resist taking photos of those. I'll share some in my next post. I hope you come on back. :-)

Exploring Borrego, Part 1 - Cave Adventures

We like to hike but when it includes new and unusual things to see and a little adventure...we LOVE it! Our hikes last Friday included all of that and more! My husband and I and my daughter and her good friend loaded up early last Friday morning and headed out to the desert near Borrego Springs in search of mud caves. We followed somewhat vague directions we'd found on the internet, out a few highways to a mile marker, turned up a wash, out another wash, over sand and rocks, toward some (dried) mud hills, looking for caves...


Our first stop took us up a slot canyon and we got to make the first tracks of the day...


The weather was quite warm but felt oh so good after this long cold winter. There was some shade to keep us from getting really hot.


There were a few arches along the way...


It may be mostly dirt, sand and rocks but there's so much to see! This spot had some crumbly, cracked ground...


There was obviously water in here over the winter...


It looks soft but it's actually quite hard...almost like rock...


The texture on the walls of the slot canyon were constantly changing...


Drip!...


This looks like a vein of rock/mineral...


I like this one...




Interesting! I wonder how this one was formed?...


We didn't find any caves in that canyon. So, we hopped back into the SUV and headed further up the wash. We found this on our next stop...the entrance to a cave!...


We went in with our packs of water, food and flashlights. It wound around and back and forth. We could stand upright through most of it but had to duck under a few ledges. It was pretty long...maybe a quarter of a mile. Since it was made of dried mud, it didn't echo like it would if it was rock. The temperature inside was nice...about 70, I think.


There was light at the end of the tunnel! It was a hole to the outside. My husband and my daughter's friend climbed out to take a look. This is a shot of my hubby standing in the exit of the cave we were in...


As we stood at the end of the cave, we saw a bat fly by and then noticed a small cave underneath where we were standing. My daughter's friend decided to go in and check it out...


There he goes...


Back out! It was short and only lead to a hole where he could look out and see us. But, he found a Chargers hat in there!


We turned around and headed back toward the main entrance. Just before we got there, we noticed something. Hmmmm? What's down there?...


Another offshoot?


Hubby decided to check it out. Going down...


Down...


Down.


This is my daughter and her friend looking out at the entrance/exit...


Wow! That was fun! Here we are sitting just outside the entrance...


On the way back to the SUV, hubby took a little detour, on a tiny little trail, up the side of the mud mountain we had just been inside of. Going up!...


The next cave we found didn't look like much from the outside. In fact, we weren't sure it went much farther than this hole. But, just inside and to the right there was indeed a cave. We followed it in and found a great surprise. There was a big room that was about four stories tall with a little light coming in from the top. There were remains of campfires in the center and it was pretty big. We decided it would be the perfect spot for lunch. So, we went back to the SUV, grabbed our food and hiked back in. The guys set their flashlights up onto the walls of the cave and as our eyes adjusted we could see really well. It was a truly unique and fun dining experience! I didn't get any pictures though. It was pretty dark in there but I probably should have tried to take some.


We saw very few people while we were hiking the caves and this part of the desert. We didn't see much wildlife either. Just some birds and a few bugs...




And, a few lizards. They were pretty...


Part way up one of the washes that we drove in, there was a street sign...in the middle of no where! It said, "Hollywood" and "Vine"...


We were having so much fun together and the day was only half over. After lunch, we packed up and headed north to Borrego Springs for more adventure. That will be in my next post. :-)