Drove to the Salton Sea. This is just 30 miles from the Mexican border atop the San Andreas fault. It’s an area that has been flooded periodically forever. From 6M to 2M years ago the area was very wet and forested , but it dried up and was desert for the last 2M years until 1905 when an irrigation pipe bringing water to the Imperial Valley cracked, combined with a big flood of the Colorado, and the Salton sea was reborn. It grew for awhile — from agricultural runoff — but now it is shrinking again. It is 40 feet deep at its deepest, and the average is about 20 feet deep. It is very salty — more so than the ocean.

We saw some Northern Shoveler Ducks that winter here, some Great Egrets, some Black-Necked Stilts, and lots of sea gulls. Had a picnic lunch near the Sonny Bono Wildlife Refuge at the south end.

Drove to the Algodones Dunes or the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. On the way we passed close to a place that is marked on the map as “DANGER — Live Bombing Area — Keep Out.” And we were suddenly closely buzzed by a Marine jet fighter! It really scared me and could have caused a nasty accident! We didn’t even see it coming but only saw it as it pulled out of its dive and flew away.

The Algodones Recreation area was weird. Full of RVs, many of them pulling tractors, and hundreds and hundreds of dune buggies. We have no idea if this is an every-day event or if there is some special dune buggy event there this weekend. It was amazing! We got some photos of the dune buggy people, and some of the surrounding dunes, most of them marred and scarred with dune buggy tracks.

Then on to Borrego Springs in the Anza-Borrego Desert where we will be spending the night. We ate dinner at the Crazy Coyote Grill, which was very good, even though Brian, our waiter, was a bit flaky. He forgot to take our orders. Then he forgot to bring our salads. Then he forgot to bring us the bill. Oy

Went early to the Anza-Borrego visitor’s center, which was very beautiful, tucked into a dune, it was barely visible except for the signage, and the architecture was completely in keeping with the desert habitat. The “gardens” were well-labeled and gorgeous — full of beautiful specimens of desert plants.

Arthur Luehrmann, Kerstin and Leonard Trawick among the Sand Verbena, Anza-Borrego Desert. A lady volunteer at the visitor's center told us where we could go to see the most wildflowers, so we followed her advice and went to the Coyote Creek and towards Ocotillo Flats. She said the main bloom is usually in late March, but that area was already in bloom. Boy, was she right!

Magenta sand verbena carpeted much of the ground, giving way to drifts of white Datura with occasional Dune Sunflowers looking like gorgeous Black-Eyed Susans, and Desert Sunflowers, with more yellow petals and orange centers. We also saw the tiny Purplemat and purple Arizona Lupine.

Among the flowering bushes we saw (and smelled) Desert Lavender, the rose Chuparosa (the Butterfly Bush), and the Indigo Bush. Outshining everyone was the Brittlebush with its fireworks of yellow flowers held high above light blue-green foliage and the giant flower stalks sent up by the yuccas.

We then tried to drive to Fonts Point, but half way up Fonts Wash the car almost got stuck in wet sand, so we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and we drove back down. Back to near the Visitor’s Center and what we thought was a walk to an overlook of the canyon, but we took the wrong path and ended up walking along the Borrego Palm Canyon trail.

full moon, Anza Borrega Desert

Home to the motel for a swim and quiet. We’re going back to Crazy Coyote tonight for Kerstin’s birthday dinner. And once again we and the flaky Brian were inflicted on each other. This time the restaurant was completely crowded — so much so that they had to open up three dining rooms where before they only had one — all with the same wait staff. We had reservations at 7:15pm and were served at 8:30pm. Oy. But there was a busser named something like Haraniya who tried to take care of us. After dinner I would have liked to go to the Visitors Center to see the desert displayed by the full moon, but the others voted to go back to the motel to bed.