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We left the Del Pueblo RV Park and Tennis Resort in Yuma at 11:00 Sunday morning, March 25 headed for California’s Anza Borrego State Park and Joshua Tree National Park. While traveling west on I-8, we passed through the Imperial Sand Dunes Bureau of Land Management Recreation Area. There were RVers camped all along the road and 4-wheelers by the gazillions

running up and down the dunes. The Imperial Dunes are the largest mass of sand dunes in California. They extend for more than 40 miles along the eastern edge of the Imperial Valley agricultural region in a ban averaging 5 miles in width. Some of the area has been designated as a playground for ATVs.

We exited the freeway west of El Centro and followed San Diego County Roads 2 and 3 through the Anza Borrego State Park to the Borrego Palm Canyon campground. Part of this route traces the 1849 Great Southern Overland Stage Route. We also traversed Yaqui Pass. It was a beautiful drive with the ocotillo (ah’-coh-tee’-yoh) plants in full bloom. It was a treat to see the vivid red blossoms against the stark desert landscape. The ocotillo is not a cactus but is a woody, deciduous plant. Unlike other deciduous shrubs that grow leaves in the spring and drop them in the fall, ocotillo plants grow leaves up to five times a year after rain showers and then shed them during droughts.

The campground was in a lovely setting with native California Fan Palm trees throughout. We had planned to spend only two nights here but, because of high winds that gusted up to 60 miles per hour, we decided to stay for a third night in hopes that the weather would calm down. We spent a couple of days catching up on our personal stuff. We did go into town one day for lunch at the Red Ocotillo and I visited the state park’s visitor center that afternoon. There I learned several interesting facts:

1. Out of 1,000 people who are bitten by rattlesnakes, only one will die.

2. White clothes really are cooler than black. Black absorbs 25% more heat in full sun.

3. To cool off, vultures urinate on their legs – aren’t you glad I shared that one?

4. The oldest living plant in the desert, a creosote bush in the Mohave, is 9,400 years old.

5. The Cahuilla and Kumeyaay Indians lived in this desert until White man arrived.

6. Anza Borrego is one of the last wild habitats for the desert pup fish which lives in fresh water but is just as much "at home" in a salty sea. It thrives whether its surroundings are icy cold or very hot and adjusts easily to radical changes in oxygen levels. It’s a tough little puppy!

7. The Anza Borrego Desert has been home to the Peninsula Big Horn Sheep for thousands of years and today, it’s one of the last refuges for this endangered mammal. Only 400 of this population remain in the U.S. and 275 of them are here. They can drink up to five gallons of water at a time. The females use their horns to protect themselves and their young, while the rams use their horns to battle each other for dominance. And the rams have very thick skulls . . . hmmmmmm – are we talking sheep or humans here?

The visitor center had a large southern mammoth’s skull and various bones on display that were uncovered in the park in 1986. The mammoth resembled an elephant with a lower jaw width of about 2½ feet. There was also a skull from a giant zebra.

We left the campground on Wednesday, March 28 about 11:30 for our short trip north to Joshua Tree National Park via S22 and CA 86. It was on this segment through the Colorado Desert that we got our first glimpse of the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is an inland saline lake that, like Death Valley, is located below sea level – in fact, the water surface is 220 feet below sea level. Averaging 15 by 35 miles in size, it is the largest lake in California, though only 51 feet deep at the most. This large body of water was created here in the Colorado Desert in 1905 when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell and breach a dike. It took nearly two years to control the river’s flow into the formerly dry Salton Sink, once the site of a major salt mining operation. Before the flooding was stopped, the New and Alamo Rivers had been created, several towns were underwater, and the Salton Sea had been formed. The area became a tourist attraction in the 1920’s because of its water recreation and the waterfowl attracted there. It is still a major resource for migrating and wading birds. There was some success at fishing for a while but increased salinity, pollution from agricultural runoff and weather events in recent years have killed off most the fish except for the adaptable and hardy tilapia. There are several sad reminders, along the way, of what this area must have been like in its heyday.

After a short jaunt west on I-10 we headed north on CA 62 to Yucca Valley and Joshua Tree National Park’s Black Rock Canyon campground. While it was located in a pretty setting, I have to admit it was one of the worst maintained campgrounds we’ve ever stayed in. It has obviously been heavily used through the years and is very dusty. The internal roads are badly in need of repair. The campsites are so sloped that we moved to five different sites before we found one that was level enough for us to make a go of it. And, of course, as in most national parks, there are no hookups so we would be "boondocking" for the next two nights.

The next day, we stopped in at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center in the town of Joshua Tree (how confusing is that?) where we learned that the plant got its name from the Mormon pioneers of the 1850s. Legend has it that when they saw the limbs of the tree outstretched as if in prayer, it reminded them of Joshua who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. So they called it the Joshua Tree and it stuck. The Joshua Tree is neither tree nor cactus but is actually a giant member of the lily family, like the yucca plant. However, it should not be confused with the yucca which has longer, wider leaves and fibrous threads curling along its leaf margins. It is also related to Easter lilies, trilliums, onions and tulips. The Joshua Tree is the largest variety of yucca in the U.S. In fact, the biggest known tree in the park is 42 feet tall with a crown width of 34 feet and a trunk that is nearly nine feet in circumference. Their average life span is 150 years but some are believed to have lived up to 500 years. They are found only in North America – in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. They are confined mostly to the higher, moister Mojave Desert between 2,000 and 6,000 feet elevation. They have a woody interior and have been used for fencing and corrals and even to fuel steam engines used in processing ore. But thanks to the vision of one woman, Minerva Hoyt (1866-1945), who organized a campaign to save this desert flora from vandalism in the 1930’s, we now have a magnificent national park to enjoy. No wonder she was dubbed the "Apostle of the Cacti".

Two distinct deserts are represented in the park’s 794,000 acres with three-quarters of the park designated as wilderness. The eastern half is in the lower, hotter Colorado Desert, California’s portion of the Sonoran Desert. No Joshua Trees grow here. The western part of the park, where we are camped, is in the Mojave Desert and is dominated by extensive stands of Joshua Trees and beautiful granite rock formations. As we began our driving tour of the park, we followed Park Boulevard to the Keys View turnoff where we braved gale winds on a chilly morning to walk to the 5,185 foot overlook. Unfortunately, the smog from Los Angeles had settled in so the view was not as spectacular as it could have been. We could, however, vaguely see the Salton Sea, 35 miles away, and San Gorgonio Mountain, the highest point in Southern California, at 11,485 feet elevation. The mountains we saw from the lookout are part of the Little San Bernardino mountain range.

We then turned south on Geology Tour Road, an 18-mile loop through Pleasant Valley via dirt road. Just before we turned off, two coyotes crossed the road in front of us but I wasn’t ready with my camera so I missed them. Shucks! After the loop, we turned south on Pinto Basin Road and the landscape began to change as we moved from the Mojave into the Colorado Desert. We stopped at the Cholla (choy’-ya) Cactus Garden to see an amazing display of several acres of Teddy Bear (or Jumping) Cholla. The top joints of this species of cholla appear to be covered with soft, silvery bristles which account for its common name "teddy bear" cholla. Each of the spines is tipped with a microscopic barb, and if one tries to "hug the bear" or accidentally brushes up against it, the spines will drive deep into the skin, causing the joint to detach and stay with you. Then the origin of the second nickname, "jumping cholla", suddenly becomes apparent. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, we were told that the cholla cannot jump – this is simply a very painful illusion.

We saw many incredible rock formations throughout the park and lots of climbers scaling them. And we saw more wildlife here than in any other national park we’ve visited. We typically think of the desert as a "dead" place but it is actually teeming with life, both vegetation and animal. During our visits to Anza Borrego and Joshua Tree, we saw black-tailed jackrabbits, coyotes, a kangaroo rat, roadrunners, Gambel’s quails, ladder-backed woodpeckers, and lots of other kinds of birds!

Our final stop was at the Twentynine Palms Visitor Center and the Oasis of Mara. We took a short hike to the oasis which, unfortunately, is no longer a natural occurrence. With the growth in population, the water table has dropped and the Park Service now has to irrigate the California fan palms found there. Notes from surveyors in the 1850’s indicated that the water here extended a half-mile into the desert.

As we pulled out of the park on Friday, our thoughts were about Jerry’s dad who died unexpectedly 14 years ago today. We still miss him but life goes on as surely as death occurs. It is a beautiful day and we are making a foray back into the western edge of Arizona to spend a little time on old Route 66. We thought this was a fitting destination since Jerry’s dad was one of 200,000 who drove that road to California during the 30’s and 40’s. So, join us for our next segment as we get our "kicks on Route 66".

Happy trails to you . . . til we meet again!