Desert Flowers & Salton Sea

3/11/2010


Its time to head out from the Anza Borrego Desert Park Visitor Center and see where they suggested we go to see the desert wild flowers. We thought we were going to be late for the peak of the desert bloom. But instead we are just about a week early.
Orange grooves on both sides of the road.
First wild flower field visitor center directed us to, as well as to many other people. You have to remember, that this isn't Iowa in the spring, where flowers are a common sight. This is a desert where very little blooms.
Lemon groves.
Snow on the top of the highest mountain at 6193 ft.
Wild flowers, desert, & snow capped mountains.
Like I said, if you"re from Iowa these flowers aren't that impressive. But this is the desert!

Wild Primrose.
Shadow of Diane holding Mallery and her hat.
Wild Lilly

Side of mountain with wild flowers
We stopped at another location we were told to go. I waited by the car, along side the road, because I was bored. There were a few people taking pictures, Diane walked over and a gentleman from Australia started talking to Diane about photography and said she should put her hat down and take a picture of the flowers with her hat in the picture?????? I think he was flirting with her. He told her he lived in San Diego and was not impressed with the intellectual level of the people??? Sounds like a kook to me.
Wild Primrose and white sand shinning in the sun.

A big valley, surrounded by mountains. The purple flowers are hard to see at the base of the mountains unless you enlarge the picture?
We continued down the road that the visitor center told us to take that would be very scenic and would give us a peak at the Salton Sea! Along the way a brochure told us we could take a detour on an unpaved road the would lead us to a great view of the surrounding area. We turned onto this sand road and started to wonder if this was a good idea for a Honda civic that is so low to the ground. We hailed the SUV coming towards us and asked what the road was like ahead. He said he didn't think we would make it to the viewing area, so we turned around and headed back to the main road. View of Salton Sea from way far above.

This is a turn out that we stopped at. This area is said to have hundreds of minor earthquakes every year. More than almost anywhere in the US. No wonder you don't see any signs of people!
The Salton Sea! This is a huge lake in middle of the desert. Not very clean and the surrounding town is rather strange with some old parts and a few very new parts. Lots of sea birds.
Here I Am, standing at the end of a pier that is in terrible shape.
Not a boat to be seen. This definitely isn't Kansas Dorthy. Kind of reminds me of Lake Powell without the beautiful scenery around the lake.
Salt beds along the shore where the water has dries up. Not sand!
We arrive back home at Ocotillo Wells SVR Park. See the sand dune on the side of the hill. In the next picture you will see a close up of the dune buggies driving up the side of this dune.
I tried, in vain to set up our new satellite dish here is the desert. This is just the place I bought it for, but alas, I couldn't get a signal and finally gave up, not knowing if it was a bad location or I wasn't doing something right. In addition to this set back, Diane has discovered that her glasses are missing. We fear that she might have lost them at one of the many places we stopped at earlier today, getting in and out of the car. We will call the visitor center tomorrow and see if they might have been turned in there.