Anza Borrego Camping Trip

Over Easter weekend, Pat and I headed off to Anza Borrego State Park, which is the largest state park outside of the state of Alaska. It also happens to be the desert. When we arrived, we were very lucky to get the last tent site in the campground.

Since it was very windy, we decided not to set up our tent but to do some hiking right away. This sign greeted us at the trail head along with a disclaimer that "people have died of dehydration on this trail." We thought that was unlikely, since the entire trail was only 1.5 miles long!

It did look pretty dry though!

Despite the "dangers" we headed off.

After a mile and a half, we came to Lost Palms Oasis. It was very beautiful but there were about 100 people there, which made it less appealing.


It was shady and cool beneath the palms. Right after this picture was taken, Pat disturbed a rattlesnake, and it gave him a scary warning. I do have a picture but I don't have it with me. I will try to post it later.

We then left the maintained trail (and all those pesky people) behind and followed the creek along a series of small waterfalls.

Here is the view back down the canyon.


We kept coming upon more and more oases, as we went. They were lusher than I expected.

I always forget to get pictures of myself. So, here is one.


We rounded a bend and could see Mount Baldy far off in the distance.

More palm trees.



When we got back to our campsite, the wind was still howling. I had to cook dinner in the back of the car. Luckily, I am an old pro at this.

In the meantime, Pat had a heck of a time setting up the tent. Eventually, I went over to give him a hand. Once erected, the tent was a champ. It didn't blow around at all unlike several of our neighbors'.

One final story about this weekend (without pictures):

We got up early Sunday morning and were tickled to see that the Easter Bunny had visited the campside beside us, bringing two young girls huge baskets and stuffed animals. As I made some coffee, I heard someone come traipsing noisily through our campsite. Instinctively, I turned to see who/what it was. You can imagine my surprise when I saw a stout, younger guy (perhaps 20ish) in a red flannel shirt march by with a shotgun slung over one shoulder. Guess what was in his other hand? Yep, pretty obvious. A dead bunny rabbit. The guy shot the Easter Bunny! The woman next door looked at me and mouthed "is that legal?" I said "NO." She went to get the rangers while I watched to see where the guy was headed. About 45 minutes later, the rangers escorted him out of the park.