Vintage post card of our favorite desert plant, the Ocotillo. (found this on EBay) Some interesting facts about the Ocotillo Plant   Can reach 30 feet tall Sheds its' small green leaves during dry spells. Is pollinated by hummingbirds Generally will bloom March - June, with a display of orange/red tube like flowers  

Borrego Days marks the start of the desert season in Anza Borrego. Temperatures are beginning to drop from their summer highs allowing hikers, campers and 4-wheelers to return and enjoy the beautiful Anza Borrego Desert.  Unlike most of our trips to Anza Borrego, the Maggiolina Rooftop tent, propane stove and other various types of expedition gear were left behind. We had an invite to stay with friends in Borrego Springs at their beautiful rancho style home. (Thanks Jon and Elena)  After a quick morning hike along the old De Anza trail, Mary and I headed over to the Borrego Days fe... [More]

Daren who frequents the forum participated in this years annual Anza Borrego Bighorn Sheep count. The three day event, staffed by volunteers, was a great success.

During his watch Daren snapped this great shot from high above upper Hellhole Canyon. You can check out more of Daren's great BLOG at http://www.sefcik.com/ [More]

Check out some of the great wildflowers we have seen over the past few months out in Anza Borrego. Click post title to start the show.

Come springtime, many southern Californians turn their attention east towards the Anza Borrego Desert.  The attraction is the annual wildflower blooms, that can instantly transform this unforgiving landscape into a flourishing garden.  Unfortunately this annual pilgrimage is in jeopardy as the Anza Borrego desert is under attack from a relentless invader, innocuously named Sahara Mustard. Sahara Mustard is considered an invasive species and lately has been choking out many of the native wildflowers in the Borrego Valley and surrounding areas. So you are probably ... [More]

iPhone, CalParks iPhone App, iPhone GPS, GPS, Anza Borrego iPhone [More]

Join guest photographer Andy as he explores the Anza Borrego Desert at night. These awesome photos were taken on a recent overnight backpacking trip into Bighorn Canyon by members of the forum.

On a recent overnight camping trip to Mount Laguna I snapped this picture of the Anza Borrego Desert far below.If you look closely you can see the Salton Sea in the upper left of the picture.

       The first meeting of the year for the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Botany Society will be held Monday, November 8, at 10 a.m. in the Daniel Discovery Lab at the Park Visitor Center.  A freelecture on the evolution of plant photosynthesis by Dr. Joanne Ingwall will precede the business meeting, and all are invited to attend. New certification classes for the Botany Society will begin January 3, 2011. Anyone interested inattending the classes should contact Larry Hendrickson at lhendrickson@parks.ca.gov. Also, mark your calendars for the 2nd Annual Botany ... [More]

Jon Grasson has done an excellent job of putting together an awesome resource for Desert lovers everywhere. Dezert Magazine, an online periodical, is reminiscent of the printed Desert Magazine that ceased publication in 1985 after 40 + years of circulation . I was honored when John asked to include one of our blog entries in the first issue. Check it out if you have a chance.   Best, Bob

April 04, 2010 The girls over at DzrtGrls.com forwarded me some great pictures from  the recent 7.2 earthquake. The quake itself occured just over the border in Mexicali on April 4, 2010 and apparently shook things up pretty well in Anza Borrego. These pictures are from the Fishcreek / Sandstone Canyon area and are from a post on the Ford Truck Enthusiast forum. We missed this by one day on our recent trip to the Arroyo Tapiado Mud Caves. What you should take away from these pictures is that camping in a narrow canyon is a very bad idea. There are more pictures and a trail report... [More]

03/25/2010 The wildflowers and cactus blooms have arrived in the southern Anza Borrego Desert When my sister Linda viewed last week's wildflower update post she insisted I take her on a mid-week flower hunting trip. After much arm twisting I agreed and here is what we found. We had this great encounter with a couple of Jackrabbits in Indian Valley. Once they realized that we weren't a threat they chased each other around the LandCruiser for a good ten minutes. Linda commented that it was probably some rabbit mating ritual being Spring and all.  Check the rest of the Wi... [More]

What I love about living in San Diego is that within two hours you can leave the coast, drive over the mountains and then drop down into the desert. Incredible diversity in my opinion.  With that in mind, I decided to take the day off work and check on the wildflowers out in the Anza Borrego desert. My preferred area of Borrego is the southern section where you can get away from the crowds, hike up a trail and be completely immersed in the solitude of the Desert.   Driving up the S2 I knew I was in for a great show. The road was lined with Desert Dandelions, Lupine amd B... [More]

It looks to be a great year for wildflowers out in the Anza Borrego desert due to the record rains we had in January. We are planning on heading out this coming Valentine's weekend to scout out some areas. From what I have been reading, late February into mid March will be the peak, so make your plans to head on out. This year I am extra excited since we finally picked up a decent camera. Hopefully you will be able to tell by the new pictures we upload. I am hoping to report back Monday so check back.  For now enjoy these pictures from our previous flower hunting trips. Anza-Borrego De... [More]

Summer temperatures in Anza Borrego Desert State Park [More]

If the Governor has his way the Anza-Borrego Desert will be off limits due to state budget cuts. Anza Borrego is on the chopping block along with 219 other parks in the California State Parks system. According to an article in the Union Tribune, the parks being targeted do not have enough visitors to offset the costs associated with keeping them open. Governor Schwarzenegger's budget would cut $213 million from the state parks budget over the next two years. So let me get this right, Californians who have had to trim back on their vacation budgets can no longer take a weekend mini-vacation... [More]

Anza Borrego WildFlowers, Wildflower Report [More]

Anza Borrego Desert sign outside of Julian I guess there is a little sliver of Anza Borrego Desert State Park that comes up the mountain between Julian and Cuyamaca. I had never noticed this sign until a recent day trip to find snow.  

Decided to "Blogisize" this for ease of maintenance and navigation. The old site looked great but as it got bigger it was really hard to maintain. Hopefull now it will be a lot easier to navigate and update so stay tuned. Here is a quick pic from a couple years ago when the wild flowers were just intense. That's our friend Jan in the background and our dog Tia in the foreground. Hopefully this year we get something close to this. It was pretty unreal to be driving through a dry sandy wash and suddenly be blinded by fields of pink and white Desert wild flowers... [More]