Palm Springs to Anza-Borrego March 28th.

On our way out to visit the Palm Springs Indian Canyons before the drive to Anza-Borrego, we stopped at the Rock Garden Cafe for Sunday Brunch.
For $10, you get quite the breakfast selection and you can have as much as you like. We had no idea what to expect. If you Google this place, you'll find quite the range of reviews. The patio was nice and shady, and the food and service were totally fine. Sure it's not anything like Cheeky's and their haute breakfast offerings, but the Rock Garden Cafe had plenty of appeal.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Indian Canyons for a hike through the palm oasis. It costs $8 a person to enter the canyon, but it's beautiful with lots of wild flowers. Thankfully this rock stays put while you head up to the parking area:
There was a fire through here in the '80s, but palms are remarkably resilient. The first bunch on this particular trail are just down the hill from the Trading Post.

Lots of brittle bush on the way down, or at least I think this is brittle bush... This particular palm is bound and determined to get some sun...Pretty pink mallows ...and these purple guys that look like fireworks shooting out of their middles...Each palm oasis provided a welcome retreat from the blazing sun, yet the open vistas were equally spectacular. Further up the valley we found many barrels and beaver tails in bloom. We saw a few other members of the cactus family along the trail, looking just as thorny as ever... Little water falls built up small pools along the trail that were all too inviting. Heading out, I tried to get a shot that could show just how big these palms were, but they really are too big to properly get into the shot!
From here, we drove to Anza-Borrego to find a place to camp. We stopped at the AM-PM to scrub the windshield and grad a frosty mango slurpee with a color quite similar to these sunset skies I captured from our camp as the sun was going down. As we were driving in to the park, ocotillos were ablaze as far as the eye could see! Here's a little bit of zoom so you can see the ocotillo silhouette in the distance. The drive along Calcite Road to our campsite was an adventure in and of itself. Super steep sections, lots of boulders, and more blind corners than you'd care to know about. Luckily there aren't many cars to compete with on a road like this.