Anza Borrego (6)

This is a Christmas tradition we really love. When we are super lucky, we get to enjoy our stay with a Canadian Christmas present, on special delivery, all the way from Quebec. His name is Francois, and we got to spend Christmas with him in the desert. The other tradition we love is to rent fat tire e-bikes from iBikeBorrego. All of these things made for a fabulous stay. 

The timing of our arrival could not have been more perfect. The entire west coast got hit with a historic atmospheric river and many towns experienced significant damage. It was not a good idea to travel on Christmas and we were safely ensconced in our campground when it got some mild rain from the monster system. I was curious whether getting a little bit of moisture would result in catastrophic flash flooding, but really nothing happened. It was an excellent place to be.

We got there in perfect time to check in, having made only one stop to get gas and a personal pizza, split two ways at the $5 Pizza Place. It was $8.99. We had a couple of glorious days of sun and T-shirt temperatures and we appreciated that fully. Richard walked down to the Borrego Springs Center Market for a good walk and a few groceries while I set Dory up in her Christmas attire. I was delighted by a Roadrunner passing right through the site. Meep meep! Dinner that night was pancakes, sausage, and eggs on the grill. 

The next day Richard headed out on a long hike up Hellhole Canyon. I have done that hike before and remembered that getting to the palm oasis and waterfall involved relentless rock scrambling. The rest of the hike traverses a wide wash, climbing steadily uphill until you get cut off by the fallen boulders. I wasn’t especially interested in that one, so Richard got to do his fast pace morning cardio while I showered and leisurely got ready to start the day. He was successful at locating not only the palm oasis, but also the nonexistent waterfall. I drove over to the trailhead parking area to save him from the return trip back to the campground and met him a little ways up the trail. 

From there, we drove over to do The Slot. Along the way, I spotted the new additions to the Ricardo Breceda desert sculptures: a roadrunner and a rattlesnake. These sculptures appear all over the desert in Borrego Springs. There are two main areas where you can find them and these new ones are located on the south side, just off of Borrego Springs Road. There are various displays out there, with Velociraptors, horses, giant eagles, and elephants. Super cool to see new ones.

The Slot is a fun hike through a narrow slot canyon. You have to drive about four miles off road to get to the trailhead, but any car can do it. As you walk slowly downhill through the canyon, the walls rise and close in on you until you have to turn sideways in some places to squeeze through. There was only one place I remember where you have to get down a rocky step of a couple of feet. The rest was easy hiking. Eventually, the walls open back up and you can keep going along the wash for miles. We stopped when we saw the road named The Drop Off descending sharply into the valley floor. Last time we were here, we got to watch a car slipping and sliding and smoking its way desperately back up that slide. It made it, but ooh boy I would not would have wanted to be a passenger or the driver on that adventure. On our way back to the campground, we stopped at a gallery downtown to see how much a small velociraptor statue would be and I chickened out. Too rich for my blood to get a quirky backyard ornament. I also had no real way of getting one home in the car. The velociraptor search continues. 

On December 23rd, we got our bikes delivered! We knew the rain would be coming in soon, but we rolled the dice and headed out toward Coyote Canyon, hoping it wouldn’t be too bad. The Weather app made, and revised, all kinds of predictions for the day. As it turned out, we got rained on for about two hours in the middle of the day. We were well on our way out to Henderson Canyon to look at wildflowers when the rain started becoming more than a drizzle. We found shelter in a thatched roof fruit stand and ate our lunch very very slowly until the rain finally stopped. While we waited, we were fascinated by watching the air patterns play with a stream of thick, billowing smoke, coming off of a brush burn from a nearby farm. At times, the smoke layer would be pushed downward into a distinctive horizontal ribbon. Then suddenly, it seemed as though a pressure system lifted, and all of the smoke dispersed into the sky. We were entertained, but mostly we were dry.

Coyote Canyon was an absolute blast. I remembered my sand biking tips from last time (thanks blog!) and worked that throttle like a pro. The rain disappears instantly when it hits sandy washes and we saw no evidence of any water on the road. The sand was nice and packed down, making the riding smoother, but there were some wash boardy sections and some rocky sections. Going across one of the wash boards knocked a screw loose from my bike’s fender. As there was no hope of finding it, I stole a screw from the unused bike cage and made a note to apologize to Ed. We cleared the first water crossing with no problem and made it to the second crossing this time. There, we bailed because the water was pretty dauntingly deep. We’d had an excellent time and rode all the way back to Dory for nappy time.

Our Canadian Christmas present came by a little while later and we were so happy to see him again. He has been on the road for a couple of weeks on vacation and showed us pictures of some stunning off road camping spots, all across the southwest. He’s got a super sweet Safari Condo van, and he really puts those through their paces. We caught up and enjoyed blended margaritas together until it was time to call it a night.

Christmas Eve day brought the most rain of our stay. Richard and I got in a quick hike up to the Palm Canyon Oasis before it became significant. There were all kinds of signs at the trailhead warning us about both too much heat, and too much water. I was kind of concerned about being in a narrow canyon in the event of a flash flood, but there were plenty of places you could get up onto high ground if that had occurred. The storm also turned out to be a nothing burger where we were, so the worry was unnecessary. We tried to coax Francois along, but he was busy spending the day chilling and catching up on sleep after a long time on the road. We made it all the way up and back to the mouth of the canyon before the rain started. After dinner, we hung out with Francois in his van and I learned a wealth of information about Gin & Tonics.

Finally on Christmas Day, the sun came back out. We took advantage of it by doing a repeat visit to Coyote Canyon, this time with Francois. We showed him the flowers, and the desert sculptures, and took the very same route up the road to the second water crossing. There was no real difference in the condition of the road following the rains. One place had a little water to get through that wasn’t there before, but there was no evidence of flash flooding. We shared turkey hot dogs and stuffing on the grill, because we are classy people and wanted to impress him with our haute cuisine. He, having worked as a sous chef before his job at Safari Condo, brought a delicious orzo salad. We laughed, talked about cat ownership, and told tales over a bottle of Rombauer. He had an early morning ahead of him and many miles to cover, so we said a fond farewell and look forward to the next time we get to hang with our Canadian family member. Sure do love that guy!

I really love this place. The distinctive scent of Creosote, especially after a rain, is so tied to my sensory memory that it always makes me happy to be there. Something about the colors of the rocky mountains against the sunset sky brings me joy the way few other places do. I think we could do the same activities over and over again and not get tired of it. Christmas is an excellent time to visit, especially if temperatures at home are in the down jacket zone. We were legit hot for a while there. Weather reports showed it raining for a week nonstop at home, so we lucked out big time with only a minor blip in an otherwise blue sky Christmas. I feel bad for the communities that really got hit. That was a bad storm and you just never know where the weather is going bring destruction. This Christmas, we are especially grateful for our dear friends and communities, near and far. Merry Christmas!

Total mies from Owl Canyon: 203.7, 5 hours 19 min, 16.3 mpg. Site 31 full hookups. Excellent cell service. Free dump, but it has a low curb. Dump in site was better and didn’t require long hose. Bike rental: Ed Whipple with iBikeBorrego. Great guy and great ebikes!