Los Angeles has its share of natural and unnatural beauty. This weekend we packed up the kids, AKA the terriers of terror, and visited Anza Borrego State Park. For a few weeks in late winter the desert springs to life. The seasonal winter rains allow millions of wildflowers to blossom in a short lived burst of color. It was a 2 ½ hour drive from our home in Los Angeles to the park, which is why we’ve never gone before. It’s a long day trip and over a tank of gas for the Durango.
Upon entering the park we headed up towards Coyote Canyon where the wildflower report said the flowers were in bloom. Apparently everyone else read the same report as even the dirt road had plenty of cars. We went as far as a water crossing, which I wasn’t willing to chance in a 2WD Durango. Mr. M was gunning for it of course. We stopped for lunch in a grove of occotillos before heading off for some less traveled back roads. We let the boys run off leash around a deserted dry lake bed, perfect because they couldn’t get out of sight. We crossed the park from west to east, ending up at the Salton Sea before turning for home. We had a few incidents, B stepped on a piece of dead cactus. It took awhile to remove from his foot but he was a trooper and didn’t let it slow him down. I managed to slam my knee into the trailer hitch, I’m still limping around and my knee is black and blue. Still, we had a nice day away from the city. Here are a few pictures from the trip to show that even in the desert, life blooms.
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No way, that is where we wen this weekend too! We saw the wildflowers, then went to wind caves then to the pictographs and camped. Froze my butt off!
:)
beautiful! I think it's so neat to see PF bloggers "personal" lives, you know what I mean? Thanks for sharing!
nice pictures, i especially like that one with the white flowers :)
Beautiful! I've always been meaning to go. Every year I tell myself, "I should go see the wildflowers", and I always miss it. Thanks for the pictures. It definitely looks like its worth a day trip to witness it in person.
Hi there-what a fabulous trip out, sorry to hear of the little injuries but what lovely photos and scenery!
I love wild areas like that.
However, I'm still stuck on the fact that a 2.5 hour drive is a whole tank of gas! That's 1/4 to 1/3 of a tank in my car... I guess just reinforcement for me to keep my little car forever!
@SP - it's a small world! I'm sure you froze your butt off, the desert is cold at night. Esp in winter, that's why we only went for the day.
@Mrs Money - thanks, now you'll have to show off the scenery in your area!
@Manshu - Mr M deserves all the photo credits, I kept the doggies company while he spent forever getting the perfect shots.
@Kat - you have to go, it's so much closer to you than it was for us. It's in san diego county, next weekend should still be good, grab a friend and go.
@Sharon - thanks, my knee is feeling much better now.
@Kel - well that's a whole tank of gas round trip with Mr Lead Foot driving! Plus we went off on some dirt roads in soft sand. That had to kill the gas mileage a bit, but yes the thing is a beast!
Always nice to get out of town for a while, even if it's just a few hours! Sounds like you and the boys had fun! :)
I will be in Vista for a wedding later this month, too bad we will miss this. Very pretty.
Beautiful! We are going camping here next weekend! Nice to see the flowers blooming. Another great place (that is CLOSER) is Gorman off the 5 freeway. Hungry Valley Recreational area. But then we also go to ride and camp, not to just see the flowers. ;)
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