Anza-Borrego

After a couple of weeks camped along Ogilby road in the far south-east corner of California, we decided to move a bit further into the state, but not without a tank full of cheaper Arizona fuel!

Both east-bound and westbound rest areas on the I-8 east of El Centro have RV dump areas, but both appear to be permanently (?) closed.  At least they have large signs before you even turn off the interstate to this effect.

We turned north off the Interstate at Ocotillo, onto State Route S-2, also known as the Imperial Highway. Just north of the village of Ocotillo is a forest of windmills.

 When I first pulled up, a few of the fans were just barely moving.  By the time I got in the air, they had stopped moving entirely.  Not an award winning day for wind power today!  But an excellent day to fly around safely for a look.

 Further along the road was a small Border Patrol check station right on the boundary of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park - the largest state park in California.  

 
 
The original 'plan' had us going quite a ways further north, to camp in the Blair Valley, near the site of the Marshall South homestead.  But, by checking every side road we came to, we found a spot that ranked high on the scale, and there was no reason to go further.

 Some nice big old trees provided a wind break, pivacy, shade, and a place to hang the hammock!

 

After a few days exploring the immediate vicinity of our camp, we did make a day trip into Borrego Springs to do some laundry and find some water. There is a new laundry facility in town, in the 'mall', as well as a huge new stand-alone library, since the last time we visited.  Unfortunately, the free water tap up at the Park HQ and visitor center is now dry, and they even want you to pay a day-use fee to park in the parking lot to get information!  After laundry and propane, we drove by Christmas circle, and took a couple of photos for Bayfield Al, and walked in the green grass!

Next , it was out to Henderson Canyon road to pick up a huge $3. bag of sweet grapefruit from the self-service stand there.  From there, it was out to do a drive by of the Peg Leg area, which was packed with campers as expected.

 

We drove a short distance up Rockhouse Road, and as expected, there were no RV's within sight, but the signage was confusing at best.  More RV's were in the desert across the highway.

On the way back south to our camp spot, we could see what looked likea substatial forest fire pumping up smoke from the far side of the S-1 Highway, the Sunrise Highway.  Despite several Google searches, I was not able to find what had burned.

Other day trips in the area included explorations of an old Dolomite Mine.

 

 

 

Some friends for Hailey to play with ...

 

While this close to San Diego and the coast, we made a couple of day trips into the city, in large part to visit Fry's Electronics.  It's speculation on my part whether they are in the throes of shutting down, or whether it is a supply problem brought on by sanctions and trade embargoes with China, but at any rate, two stores I went to had a disturbingly large number of completely or almost bare shelves.  There is still lots of merchandise to be had, but these are the other side of the coin.  It will certainly be a great loss if they end up closing down for whatever reason.

 Desert flowers.

San Diego waterfront flower.

 We discovered that there is a very large, salty body of water just west of San Diego, so we can't go any further in that direction.  Guess we'll just have to head back a bit east and see where we end up!