Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Hello, I hope this finds everyone in good spirits. We had an amazing weekend. With all the rain fall Southern California has received this past winter the desert wildflowers were supposed to be amazing. So we packed up the Tahoe and headed out to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The park is tucked into the southeastern corner of California. Running about 25 miles east-to-west and 50 miles north-to-south, it is California's largest state park encompassing more than 600,000 acres. The desert wildflowers were still in bloom and on the downside of their peak. The cactus flowers were just starting to bloom. So amazing in contrast. What an amazing place. Here are some images of our trip.















These caterpillars seemed very happy in with the wildflowers.





The park has such an amazing diverse terrain. These wildflowers and then not but a few miles down the road the landscape below.





Below are The Carrizo badlands, three million years ago The Colorado River flooded its banks innumerable times through the centuries and deposited thousands of feet of silt onto the Borrego Desert. This Delta region of the Colorado teamed with life. Fossils found in these layers tell us that lakes formed and streams meandered through the valleys while trees and grassland covered much of the surrounding countryside. Mastodons, camels, horses and rhinos roamed the area. While vultures soared overhead with wingspans 17 feet across.

Marine reefs, lake deposits, and silt from the Colorado River delta have been cast into layers over millions of years. These deposits, once horizontal, have been tilted up and exposed like the Pages of a book. The elements of erosion have sculpted these badlands. Paleontologists studying the fossils of the Carrizo Badlands have discovered this is one of the richest deposits of it’s kind on earth. The time period of one-half million to five million years ago is represented by the hardened bones of mastodons, llamas, horses and tapirs. Grasslands and scattered forests supported large animal herds.





On our way out of the park and back toward San Diego we came across many more wildflowers and hillsides covered with California Poppies.






On our way home we could not resist stopping to get another flat of delicious Strawberries from these fields in Carlsbad.



I hope your weekend was an adventure too, whatever you decided to do. If not, join us sometime.