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Talk about a trip you took out to Anza Borrego

After an autumn rain

hikerdmb

Posts: 423

10/24/2010

hikerdmb

Posts: 423

Our plan was to go out and backpack up Whale Peak but my buddy hurt his back so we decided to head out and just camp from the truck. We had no plan on where we would go we just took off. When we left North County it was getting cloudier and we had a little rain as we went over the mountains. Heading down the hill into Borrego Springs the clouds had cleared for the most part but we saw a couple of huge dust clouds blowing across the desert floor and got concerned that it would be windy. However when we got down to Borrego Springs there was not too much wind and it was 80 degrees. Our first trip off road was up to a place we had camped before. We couldn't believe all the green Ocotillos up on the hills and we had to go up and take a look. The road was completely clean of tracks from the recent rains. Here is a view north toward Toro Peak and Clark Dry Lake.

We returned back to the highway and then continued east to Palo Verde Wash. There was lots of wet sand and some mud in this wash but nothing that proved to be too difficult. I was amazed at how much mud there was all the way down this wash.
Palo Verde Wash looking south.

When we got to the Cut Across Trail we turned right and headed west toward San Felipe Wash. There were several places along the Cut Across Trail with huge mud puddles but again we found nothing too difficult. I don't remember rain like this in the fall.

We got down to San Feliipe Wash and found more wet sand and mud and continued on to Rainbow Wash and back to a campsite we have stayed at several times in the last few years.
Here is a pic of our camp site.

I took a little walk up the wash, this is not Rainbow Wash but it is close to there. Saw lot of animal tracks in the new mud. This is some small animal track but not sure what.

And this is a snake track that went across the wash.

Never saw any water in this wash but lots of mud that sure liked like water with the sun light on it.

One of the coolest things on this hike was all the little plants that were just coming up from seed. It was incredible how such small plants could push through the thick mud to start growing in the sun.

All afternoon the wind was quite calm which was nice. It seemed last year it was windy on pretty much every trip. We had a nice sunset. But it was nothing compared to the sunrise Sunday morning.

Left around noon and got home just in time to see most of the Charger game. Should have stayed in the desert longer.
But that Charger loss was made up by an Auburn win on Saturday and first time ever BCS ranking of #1.

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Anza Borrego Desert

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After an autumn rain