Nature Where I Live: San Francisco: Desert Spring, Pt. 1 of 4

Dawn in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

The weather forecast put a chance of rain in the cards around Borrego Springs on Monday, so I drove down early Sunday to get there in time to enjoy it. Although I didn't set an alarm when I went to bed, my brain alarm went off after I'd been sleeping for only two-and-a-half hours. I figured I'd just be wasting time if I tried to get back to sleep, so I got up and hit the road. I'd already packed the car to avoid waking up my wife with a lot of noise, so I ate my overnight oats and fixed a large mug of coffee to drink in the car.

There are signs along the highways at night that remind you to take the next exit if you're feeling drowsy, but I somehow never got drowsy all the way down there. The only thing that was drowsy was the bloom of annuals along Henderson Canyon Road. Considering that area was already showing off an excellent bloom in January, I was disappointed but not surprised that I'd stretched my luck past the breaking point.

Nevertheless, the desert is so far removed from my everyday experience in San Francisco that I just loved being out there. I spent quite a bit of time just poking around wherever I was inspired and able to pull of the road, either high on Montezuma Valley Road (S22) or along Yaqui Pass Road (S3).

Because I decided to go on short notice I was lucky to reserve Sunday night at the Tamarisk Grove Campground. The $35 camping fee and $8 vendor fee seemed exorbitant until I'd spent a long day in the sun (it reached 87 degrees in the low areas around Borrego Springs) and needed a break, which included a shower. You get two minutes for one fifty-cent token -- and the water starts out ice cold, which was both amusing and wildly refreshing. I was even a little disappointed when the water eventually began to warm up.

I pulled over along Montezuma Valley Road and started walking into the desert, drawn by lots of yellow brittlebush that made the spot look lively, when I almost stepped on this little powder-puff-sized desert spurge.

This California patch butterfly (Chlosyne californica) was so exotic to me that I was a little let down to find out it's a common desert-dweller, not a new species unknown to science.

Yep, this was Henderson Canyon Road -- and probably the best spot. Not even worth returning for better light. I drove up a ways to park in the shade of some tall tamarisks and have lunch, and where I basked in the delightful scent of an orange grove on the other side of the street.

Even the Visitor Center's grounds were pretty burnt compared with other times I've been there, so I drove back up S22 to find a place to park and poke around in the roadside desert.

Barrel Cactus & Brittlebush

I saw many of these pointy yuccas of course, and they reminded me of the ones so many San Franciscans have planted in their yards. Somehow they actually do quite well here.

These little fishhook cactuses appear to be hiding under this rock, but at least they don't jump out and bite like the chollas do.

This bee was having the time of its life, swimming around among the pollen-covered stamens in this lone beavertail cactus blossom.

Fishhook Cactus

Barrel Cactus

Ocotillo flowers on a spiky stem.

Ocotillo

More ocotillo, with a nice inflorescence closer to the ground.

Another swimming bee, this time in a barrel cactus blossom.

Mama barrel with baby fishhooks.

There are many species of cholla.

Most weren't flowering.

But the inviting flowers seem almost out of place on such an uninviting stem.

Lively patch of brittlebush.

Desert Dandelion

This was one of the most awesome critters I encountered on the whole trip.

They are huge.

They are called, appropriately enough, the Master Blister Beetle (Lytta magister).

Littleleaf ratany (Krameria erecta)

I thought this unmoving blister beetle might be dead, but it moved right along when I touched a twig near it.

Creosote Bush

Black-throated Sparrow

I scrambled out of my tent the next morning and headed up to catch the sunrise at Yaqui Pass. I was a little late, but I couldn't resist stopping to photograph these ocotillos against the purple clouds. As soon as I started moving and got a little higher I could see the sun's disk breaking through a clearing in the clouds, but by the time I reached the overlook it was gone. "You missed it," said a woman occupying some nearby rocks (and the only other person there).

I missed it, all right, but what I didn't miss was still very beautiful.

Barrel cactus cloaked in ratany.

More low-to-the-ground ocotillo.

There were still a few tiny annuals blooming here and there.

Good old Bigelow's monkeyflower.

Lilac Sunbonnet (Langloisia setosissima)

Brown-eyed Evening Primrose

The breeze was mild enough in the morning that I was able to run a focus stack on these chuparosa flowers.

California Fagonbush (Fagonia laevis)

Indigo Bush (Psorothamnus arborescens)

Mojave Desert Star (Monoptilon bellioides)

As I was poking around, some things poked back. I was being careful not to brush up against any "jumping" cholla, but the little prickly stems littering the ground can get you too. They love to get hold of your shoe so they can catch a ride onto your leg. I had to make a wedge with a pair of rocks to grip and yank one off my shin, which opened up a rivulet of blood that attracted grateful gnats.

The first light rains passed while I was in the car making notes, but an even lighter rain began to fall while I was out taking pictures. After it passed, this rainbow appeared and I found an ocotillo to put in the foreground. (The bow didn't go much beyond the right side of the frame.)