Prinnie Places: March 2010

-- Think of Anza-Borrego State Park and you probably think of the kaleidoscope of spring wildflowers. So do a lot of people - so many that, for the brief and short lived time they're in blossom, this is one desert that's far from deserted.

But a spring trip to the park offers something else: the day-to-day desert - history, stargazing, gold mines and pictographs, even the hope of seeing a rare bighorn sheep. And except for hundreds of coyotes, you feel as if you have the place to yourself.

Road Kill

--GETTING THERE: Anza-Borrego State Park is about 50 miles east of San Diego, bordered on the south by Interstate 8. Highway 78 goes through Julian and the middle of the park.

Gary the Bagpipe Player from Canada and Paul from England.

We arrived South East of San Diego to the wide open desert of Blair Valley's primitive campground.

My dog Niko visualizing the taste of campfire dinner tonight, while relaxing next to my tent.

Blair Valley sits on an old Lakebed once occupied by the Kumeyaay Indians. Otherwise known as the "steep ones" or "cliff dwellers."

The Kumeyaay People

still have several thousand members in the United States and two villages east of Ensenada in Baja California . Crafts from the Ensenada villages are sold by California Kumeyaay at Cuyamaca State Park southwest of Anza-Borrego and at Malkia Museum at the Morongo Reservation, north of Interstate 10 between Los Angeles and Palm Springs.

http://www.desertusa.com/mag99/july/papr/kumeyaay.html

Majestic boulder mountains--the backdrop to our campsite.

Every musical expression was a concert like performance echoing through the Valley.

I love making healthy, delicious meals outdoors. The food just tastes better.

mmmm. Gary grilling chicken for dinner under the moonlight.

Like native Kumeyaay people once lived, our campfire was our source of light and warmth.

Prinnie serenading the morning wildlife.

Bighorn sheep watched in awe from the boulders above.

Anza-Borrego is the largest state park in the continental United States. We started the next day with free hot showers at an exclusive RV resort. We then ventured to the Borrego Springs Visitor Center, watching a short video evoking an idealized day in the desert, with bighorn sheep, bobcats, coyotes and birds. Exhibits trace the region's changes, from an extension of the Sea of Cortez 10 million years ago to grassland a million years ago to today's desert.

On a mountain high above Borrego Springs.

No snow, no rain, no mudslides...We enjoyed the sunshine and open skies.

We embarked on our adventure through the desert.

Desert Sunflowers--Our first sight of recent spring rain.

The Anza Borrego visitors center is full of California history and information about this vast land.

FAUNA

Coyote

Desert Tortoise Shell

Mountain Lion

FLORA

Barrel Cactus

Ocotillo and Cactus

Teddy Bear Cholla

Desert Pupfish

These amazing desert pupfish range from nickel to quarter size, yet are a rare endangered species that survived the Ice Age.

California Fan Palms

Barrel Cactus

Pancake Cactus

Chuparosa

Woody Woodpecker

Sky Art at Galleta Meadows in Borrego Springs.

Gary hanging onto an ancient Mammoth for dear life.

Wild Bronco Stallions

This canyon was the site of a Native village. Today there are fewer than 500 native people, but the water is used by desert creatures great and small, from mice and coyotes to the endangered bighorn sheep that are sometimes spotted on this trail in the early morning. Looking up at hundreds of feet of fault-shattered rock, it's easy to imagine sheep leaping from boulder to boulder.

That evening we drove a few miles past our campsite to the base of a 1 mile hike up to an ancient Indian pictograph-covered boulder where Kumeyaay family bands camped. The Kumeyaay migrated with the seasons and the food supply, relying on agave in the spring, mesquite beans in the summer and palm nuts in the fall, as well as rabbits and quail they caught with yucca-fiber nets.

They also harvested chia seeds,an annual desert mint whose tiny seeds were their Clif bars. A teaspoon of ground seeds and water fueled a runner all day along trade routes over the mountain ranges to the coast or the desert.

In route to Indian Pictographs

The pictographs, about 500 years old, are painted with red, orange and yellow mineral pigments bound with blood, urine and plant materials. The site was used for puberty rites; boys spent three days fasting and drinking hallucinogenic datura tea, learning their responsibilities from the men, and finally getting the single pierced nostril that signified manhood.

Nearby rocks are pitted with morteros, grinding holes for seeds and nuts.

Indian Pictographs

British Paul translation..."Hey Look!"

Princess native translation..."And The Sun Was Bright."

Niko checking out the fertile land near Glen Ivy Hot Springs.

Almost there. When I enter the world of Glen Ivy Hot Springs, I leave the rest of the world behind.

What a beauitful day to be born...After several days in the desert, nothing is more refreshing than soothing and relaxing in Mineral Baths at "Club Mud".

Over the passage of time Native Americans, Spaniards and stagecoach travelers have sought relaxation and healing in Glen Ivy's natural mineral waters that bubble forth from deep within the earth.