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| Anza Borrego in the Rain, CA | |
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| | Anza Borrego in the Rain, CA | | | |
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Anza Borrego in the Rain, CA
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| no partners | | Got out of the house later than I thought so it was late afternoon when I rolled into Ocotillo. Slightly delayed at the gas station as they had lost power and had to reboot. The tiny towns roads were mudded up already; but priorities in place. Lots of people at the dive bar and a few shoveling their driveways and sandbagging.
I drove north on S2. I was a little uneasy with my original plan; due to driving on the alluvial plain and the washes, so camped on relative high ground at the Carrizo Badlands overlook area. Shrouded in clouds but no rain. I had not been settled in long in the Jeep with my book when it did start raining. It rained almost all night that I could tell. Not hard rain. The next morning I decided no wash driving but some hiking. The storm wasn't really here yet so I decided to walk down some of Canyon Sin Nombre which I usually drive. I checked out a slot and a canyon or so off the main. It would drizzle, rain a little then quit. Ugh, if there was ever a time for naked hiking with this humidity it would be now.
Hiking out the bottom dropped out. I buttoned up the rain gear and trudged to the Jeep. Rivulets starting flowing down the road and into the huge wash. As I neared the car little clots of dirt were falling off the side berms as tiny streams of water made the way. At the Jeep I stripped, wet gear in a bag and got in wearing only my tank top as my shorts got soaked. Oh well, would get dry pants later.
Decided to drive down to a really big wash area and see what was doing. The dark hills started to be laced with silver as water started down. I had five minutes of excitement when descending some curves and looking to my left as the large wash was starting to flow, and down the road was starting to flow. A wash on my right erupted with like a firehose of water. I would guess initially it was the height of the Jeep headlights. I stopped and went "wow!!" It settled quickly into whitewater. I drove thru and down at the big wash it was starting to run. As I was turning the Jeep around saw a large waterfall in black rock in the distance. Of course the problem was parking the vehicle off the pavement that was not in flow and enough of an embankment to get off pavement.
On went the rain pants. I grabbed a trekking pole, bottle of lemonade, camera in chest pack and off I went.
I had to cross the large wash which had three braided sections of flow. Wasn't deep and I was in a hurry so didn't care if I got wet feet. A little voice said it might be a problem coming back if more water came down. Didn't care.
Got to the falls in time, but it was tricky in the bouldery wash to get close, but I managed. It was just roaring, thirty minutes later it was done. Coming back there were standing waves in the big wash. It was a little challenging at one spot as avoiding deeper fast areas was not possible.
I drove the the Jeep back down parking short of the Carrizo Gorge wash which now had a broadened flow but not that deep. A taco drove thru while I was there taking pictures, he had a little trouble right as he got out but just gunned it and made it fine. When I left the water was already decreasing as the hard rain had pretty much stopped.
I drove back up near to where I car camped. The wind started and I managed to point the Jeep nose into it. I read a bit because I couldn't even get the door open to go to the back, the wind was very strong. My phone had 7 alerts, 6 for flooding and one for tornado. I did a short walk about but was almost blown over. I decided to camp where I was and depart in the morning. The wind died down a bit then bands of more rain. In between bands I got camp set up. Late in the evening there was a lot of traffic on S2. Turned out several roads around Borrego Springs were closed due to flooding.
This morning driving out S2 had lot of silty debris on it but the pavement except for some edges seemed intact. Ocotillo was a parking lot because west I-8 was closed due to a rock slide at In-ko-pah. Driving home saw two semi trucks on their side in the median and a power pole down at the Imperial Sand Dunes. The wind must have caught them at just the right moment.
Well, fun hiking and sight seeing when it was 112 over there just days before. Beautiful geology and just awesome overall weather. I was well prepared in the Jeep but fortunately didn't need to use any of it. I need another life where I can be an archaeologist and a storm chaser. |
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