Borrego Springs Photoset • rwstorm • 2019-03-01 • HikeArizona.COM

Borrego Springs, CA

	2019-03-01
	13 by rwstorm

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Borrego Springs, CA

Scenic Drive

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Borrego Springs Metal Art Sculptures

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Winter is my least favorite time of the year and I usually lay low and endure that long, agonizing wait for spring to return. I haven't been feeling that great for a few months, but this being a hermit was getting ridiculous, even by my standards.

Here is proof I needed a road trip: the last time I spent a night away from home was September 16th!

I found out about a presentation March 1st over at the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association in Borrego Springs that I wanted to attend, so bought a ticket and built a road trip around that. Oh, but I forgot about it being high tourist season over there and the flower madness was already cranking up, so would I be able to find a room?

Sure enough, most everything that wasn't an overpriced rip off was booked (lecture being on a Friday didn't help). I didn't want to camp (wintery stormy weather isn't my thing), but the campgrounds nearby were all booked anyway. Somehow I lucked out and got a room at Stanlunds after trying for about a week. That sealed the deal. :yes:

The lecture was by Chris Wray (not the FBI Chris Wray

). He the author of a couple of cool books full of historical photos and information on old highways and forgotten places in San Diego County and all the way over to the Colorado River. I found them back in 2011-12 at the gift shop at Desert Tower near Jacumba. They are somewhat hard to find due to limited distribution. One is "Highways to History, A Driving Guide to the Historic Places of the San Diego County Mountains." This one has detailed information on US Highway 80 though the years. That was the focus of his lecture as well. The other book is "The Historic Backcountry, A Geographic Guide to the Historic Places of the San Diego County Mountains and the Colorado Desert." Both are treasure troves of information! (aka prized possessions)

More info can be found by searching for Tierra Blanca Books. The books are also available from the gift shop at the Warner-Carrillo Historic Ranch site at Warner Springs.

Anyway, it was a great presentation that covered the history of the old wagon roads that morphed into US Highway 80 in the 1920's, and later to it's evolution into modern day Interstates 10 and 8. I was glad to get to tell Chris how much I admired the work he put into those books after the talk.

I spent Thursday night in El Centro, Friday night in Borrego Springs, and Saturday night in Gila Bend, before heading home Sunday morning. After leaving El Centro, I drove up to Salton City, then over to Borrego springs on S22, since good flower reports were coming in along that section. Originally I had planned on heading out of Borrego Springs on Highway 78 through Ocotillo Wells, as more flower reports were good there, but since Saturday tiurned out to be really windy and stormy, I decided to head back to I-8 via S3/CA78/S2 (old favorite).

Saturday turned out to be a fun, wild, insanely windy day!!

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Lenticular Cloud Rainbow

Wildflowers Observation Substantial
Some good displays, but it is early and Flowergeddon is just starting.

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