Anza-Borrego March 29th

Sunday night in Anza-Borrego was incredibly quiet and still, and when the sun came up on Monday we got an early start to beat the heat. We had our very own ocotillo plant right on the edge of our camp, along with desert lilies, blooming beaver tails, creosote bush, along with several others. Everything around was remarkably green.Because the road was just a little too crazy, we didn't drive all the way up to the calcite mine area the night before, but we were close and Sean mapped out a 5 mile loop for us to hike which included a trek through a cool slot canyon. Here's the first view of the canyon from the road above, and there are actually two canyons to explore:Once we dropped down into the slot canyon, we found some desert lupine along with a few other flowers (names I forget!).
It was so much cooler down there. The perfect place for a desert hike!

Apparently there is a really skinny area that was once known as "Fat man's misery" but since the canyon is always evolving, it's hard to pinpoint exactly where this super skinny place might be. Sean and I passed through the whole canyon without any trouble. Of course, neither of us are fat men. In any case, we did see quite a few flowers in the canyon that we couldn't find anywhere else. Once out of the canyon, we hiked up the road to the old calcite mines. Along the way we found these two giant boulders that looked like desert watchers. They were home to lots of little birds.We also saw lots of lizards, but this guy was particularly energetic. We caught him doing push ups. I should have tried to get a video:
The second slot canyon was a lot wider with a few open areas where you could find enormous boulders that had fallen from the cliff walls.
Here's a perfect example of why a DEM is only 2.5D:
The road we drove on is probably right along this area. Luckily we didn't have to scale up that wall to get back to the car. A few feet ahead we found a jeep road to get us back up out of the canyon. After such a long way without any sign of civilization, it was weird to come around a bend and see something metal.

During our entire time in the Calcite Mine area, we only saw a few other people.

We hopped in the truck and headed west to visit Fonts Point. It was quite a view, but lots of giant flying ants chased us away. We saw so many desert lilies in the Calcite Mine area and also around Fonts Point, but none of my desert lily pictures are in focus for these two locations.

After Fonts Point, we headed north up through the small town of Borrego Springs on our way to a little place called Desert Gardens, but not before stopping for some grapefruit and tangerines. Yum. We should have bought a whole bag.

We stopped at the Desert Gardens which consisted of two picnic tables and ate our lunch under the shade of an ocotillo. This was the first place we saw indigo, and I think the first blue flower all together.
Blooming beaver tails were easy to find here too.
There were loads of people out towards Desert Gardens. Part of the area is accessible by a paved rode, and the rest is bumpy and dirt yet we saw so many cars trying to make their way up the road. We made it through two river crossings, but the third was completely flooded out. You can see the road going off into this brush area with the 3rd crossing sign off to the right.
We drove back out and headed towards the Anza-Borrego visitor center. Along the way we saw elephants in the field. Turns out the elephants were just the beginning of iron grandeur. We can all thank Dennis Avery for the curiosities all located on his Galleta Valley Estate.

The Anza-Borrego visitor center was closed by the time we arrived, but the parking lot was still mostly full. Lots of people were walking around the property taking pictures.
The name plates next the the plants were very helpful and they had really cool profile maps out to help visitors identify the peaks.

From the visitor center, we headed south to the Mine Wash turnout to find a place to camp for the night. Here we saw a few jack rabbits fly across the road in front of us, and loads of wildflowers everywhere. It was too dark to get many photos when we finally got settled, but I knew the next morning would be perfect.
It was definitely colder and the wind really began to tear through the canyon during the wee hours. I thought for sure I'd find my chair half a mile away tangled up in an impossible tussle with a jumping cholla. Between the super bright moon and the howling winds, I hardly slept.