4/3 Hike to Visitor Center

This state park is a little different because the campground is quite a ways away from the visitor center, especially via roadway, but they have connected the two with a paved hiking trail that is handicap accessible.  It makes a nice walk.  I knew it was going to be close to 90 degrees today, so I started out at about 9 am with my sun hat, two bottles of water, and my fanny pack with supplies and some money. 

About three weeks ago, I had an incident in Organ Pipe National Park on a poorly marked trail.  First, I had been told the trail was "easy" when it actually was a lot harder.  Instead of being level and less than a mile, as I had been told, it was 1.2 miles long and gained several hundred feet of altitude, plus I lost the trail in the middle and ended up cutting across the desert to the parking lot, which I could see.  I was not exactly lost, but I was extremely hot and the walking much harder than I should be attempting at my age and condition.  It would have been a lot better had there been maps available and the trail better identified, like this one was.

I can't help showing photos of the incredibly blue sky against the mountains.

This is looking towards the visitor center.  You can't see a building because it is built underground with only one side open, but you can see a few trees at about 12:30 pm in this photo.  Long way to go! 

This is looking back towards the campground and the mountain behind it.

Those tiny dots are RVs in the distance from about a third of the way down the trail.

I was impressed by the number of leaves on this ocotillo.  Most of the time, there are just bare branches.

 

 

This is a view of the town in the distance. 

Flowers in the desert sometimes are very small and close to the earth, so you have to look for them.  This plant was about 6" tall.

When I got there, I discovered that the local archeological society was giving tours of their facility, which was a short walk through the desert.

Most of the stuff in this building came from the private collection of the man whose name is on the building and others who collected in this area many years ago.  It is not illegal to collect, but they have preserved what was already there and most had locations document, so there is still a lot of value in studying these artifacts. 

The volunteers built this building entirely themselves, by the way, out of bales of straw and cement.  It is on state park property, so obviously they had to have permission. 

The volunteers have documented, cleaned, and preserved everything that was donated.  In addition, the building is climate-controlled and secure.  

Really, not a bad job for a bunch of mostly elderly amateurs!!  The lady who conducted our tour said she was in her 80s when she helped construct the building.

This is what a natural palm tree looks like, in case you have never seen one.

Only a very few cactus are on bloom.  Most will bloom in June or July, so I will miss them/

Headed back home.  I should have said something to the young guy who was heading to the visitor center from the parking lot and complained at how far he had to walk!! 

Can you see this lizard with the striped tail?  This might be a leopard lizard, but the pattern of spots on his back is slightly different than the pictures I can find online.  He was about a foot long, so fairly big for a desert lizard.

This is a very nice campground for a state park.  Most of the RV sites have water, electric, and sewer connections, although they also have a tent-only area with no connections. 

 

4/2 Drive to Borrego Springs, CA

There are several ways to get to Borrego Springs, CA, but the most scenic and most scary is coming from the west through Ranchita on S22, aka Montezuma Borrego Road. (Borrego Springs is in a wide valley with mountains on almost all sides.) The road looks like tiny on the map, but is paved, although curvy.  I have driven it twice and highly recommend it!  And you want to drive it from west to east to get the full views of the valley.

The road starts out pretty flat, although you have already gradually climbed to over 3,500 feet by this point. 

Then it starts going down and you get peeks of the valley in the distance. Note the lack of guard rails.  They would only block the view, anyway.

There are a couple of pullouts.  I took this telephoto shot of the town of Borrego Springs from one of them.

I confess that I took this photo through the windshield as I was driving.  The nice thing about this route is that there is hardly any traffic, so it is easy to slow down.

While this is one of the driest parts of California, it occasionally does get heavy rains.  Notice the wash on the right side of the photo.  Nature is wearing down a mountain or two.

These are four-wheel trails on the mountain.

You can see the road cutting through in the distance.

Borrego Springs is a very small place, but it has two small gas stations, a sort of a hardware store, and a small market, hidden behind the performing arts center.  This is the road to town from the campground.  

Downtown Borrego Springs!  There is a gift shop and garden center on the left. On the right is the art institute.  Straight ahead is the town park which is the center of a large roundabout.

Nice place to sit or even have a picnic.  Rest rooms are in the center.

The art institute.

I'll try to take more photos as I drive through town on my way out tomorrow.

3/30 San Juan Capistrano, CA

The last time I was here was when I was 14, which is a very, very long time ago.  I wanted to come back, and since I had friends in this area I wanted to visit, I decided this would be a good time.  And, I lucked out because the weather was perfect--just enough warmer than it was in San Diego to make pleasant sightseeing.  Not a very imposing entrance.

But really beautiful gardens inside!! 

Some rooms showing living conditions for the people who lived at the mission.

 

And more gardens.

This is a small chapel off the main part of the original church.

 

 This is the main part of the church.  I was told the width was always the same, but it was originally only about half this long, but was added onto as the number of worshipers increased.

Incredibly ornate wood carving and gold leaf work.

This is looking back towards the entrance where you can see an organ.

A small vegetable garden and work area.

These large pots were for rendering animal fats.

I had to wait until the five busloads of kids left before I could take a photo of the courtyard!  Previously, it had been occupied with kids.

This is a pit where wine was fermented.  Inside the building there pits in the floor for crushing the grapes by stomping on them.  As the juice is released, it ran through a hold in the wall into this one of two fermentation pits.  They are pretty big, so they must have made a LOT of wine!

A small oven of some sort.  Maybe baking??

These are the ruins of the second church built at the mission.  You can tell it was much larger.  I was told it was destroyed in the 1812 earthquake, which made me immediately think of the one in New Madrid, MO, that was 7.5 in magnitude, but this was the Capistrano earthquake along the San Andreas fault that occurred just a few months later.  It was 6.9 in magnitude.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_Wrightwood_earthquake   Interesting to have two such huge earthquakes so close together.

I am guessing this church was destroyed while the older one survived because it was so much bigger. 

And this is the third church built at the San Juan Capistrano Mission and the one that is used today.  

The one thing I did not see here this day was any swallows.  Apparently, when several parts of the historical parts of the mission were stabilized a few years ago, nests were disturbed, so the swallows made their nests elsewhere.  Now they are playing swallow mating calls and have constructed this nesting area with the hopes of luring them back.  Check this out:  http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/02/23/50003/san-juan-capistrano-looks-for-new-ways-lure-back-s/