3/27 San Diego, CA

No posts for several days because I spent most of last week with my son's family at Disneyland.  Had a great time, but spring break is NOT the best time to visit because of the crowds.  Wore myself out walking and glad to be resting for a few days.

Anyway, now I am in San Diego, or at least one of the suburbs, in a regional campground.  The campground is in a slightly rural area, on top of a hill, so there are terrific views in all directions and a wonderful breeze all day and night.  The weather has been sunny and in the low 70s, so it has been perfect!

And last night and early this morning, several of the Easter Bunny's friends came out from the bushes next to my campsite and were hopping around.  No photos because bunnies are very fast!  Love this paved, full hookup campsite because of the view and because of the  large space and privacy afforded by the landscaping.

Lynn, one of my RVing friends, has lived all her life in San Diego and kindly offered to take me around for her deluxe tour of the city!  First stop was Fiesta Island, where another couple of friends camped once.  They just parked on the beach below and no one bothered them at all overnight.  Looks like the sand is hard enough to drive on.

Next stop was La Jolla.  I walked around this area and enjoyed the sea lions that took up residence a few years ago, although the local people are not so happy with the stink and how they have fouled the beach and ocean in this area.   Lots of people watching them, although it could be argued who was harassing who. 

Nice view down the coast.

Mostly the sea lions were females, but this very noisy guy is definitely a large male and proud of controlling his rock.

You can walk several hundred feet down the little oceanside park. 

The tower is for lifeguards, but I don't think many people swim in this area anymore because of sea lion attacks and not very clean water.

Speaking of fouling a beach, this little island is full of birds and very close to the so-called swimming area.

 

 After a walk, Lynn took me to Mount Soledad which has a controversial cross on it.  It has been here since 1913, and because this is government land, many people feel it should be removed.  The view, however, is NOT controversial, and it is well worth driving up here to look around.

The wall, shown here, commemorates veterans.

 

Very nice view of downtown San Diego. 

 

After this, I treated Lynn to lunch for a very pleasant day. 

3/19 Drive from Yuma, AZ, to Lake Morena, CA

I spend two nights in Yuma, visiting a cousin and his wife.  The next day, I drove from Yuma to Lake Morena, which is an almost dry lake and regional campground south of I-8 and about 60 miles east of San Diego, CA. (I am headed to Anaheim, for a few days at Disneyland.)

Anyway, it turned out to be a more interesting drive than I thought it would be.  First, I drove past the Imperial Dunes.  I had not even known they were there, but they are impressive.  I did not have time to stop, but maybe some other year.  These photos are all taken through my vehicle windshield as I was driving.  (Don't worry. I just point the camera and take a lot of photos, in the hopes that a couple will turn out.  I don't take my eyes off the road.)

After another 50+ miles of driving, the interstate entered the Jacumba mountains and the elevation went from about 500' to well over 3,500'.  What impressed me was that the mountains were made of jumbles of huge rocks.  Hardly any vegetation grows in them.

Lots and lots and lots of rocks!

The mountains got a little flatter, and had more vegetation on the other side of the mountains.  I stayed at a regional park near the town of Campo, CA, but this is mostly cattle country. 

3/17 Ajo Mountain Van Tour

I had planned to leave Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument this morning, but this 9:00 am tour had been full yesterday, so this was my only opportunity, so I delayed leaving until noon.

 

The problem is that the scenic drives in this park are all dirt, and the one that is supposed to be the most scenic, this one to the Ajo Mountains, is closed to vehicles over 22 feet long, so I really wanted to take it.  Actually, the road is so bumpy, I would not have wanted to subject a car to that road anyway.  This photo shows part of the mountains.

 

The van stopped at this organ pipe cactus, because it is extremely unique in two ways. First, one of its arms has developed a crested or "cristate" form.  You can see the strange formation in the center.  Second, it has arms growing on its arms, which seldom happens in an organ pipe cactus.  

Here is a close-up of the crested arm.  It almost looks like something has caused it to grow fans or layers.  No one knows what causes this, but it happens in other types of cactus, as well, although it is very rare.

Another view.

And here are the strange arms growing on the regular stems of the cactus.

This is a baby organ pipe cactus.  You can see two very small new stems growing from the base.

Nice view of an arch.

Looking back west towards the main part of the national monument.

Very pretty area, but much too hot to hike in most of the time!

3/16 Desert View Trail & Cactus in Bloom

Many of the trees and shrubs in the Sonoran Desert, and a very few of the cactus, are beginning to bloom.  In my posting on 3/7 at the Gilbert Ray Campground in Tucson Mountain park, I showed you pictures of mesquite trees with bright yellow flowers and the ocotillo beginning to show pinkish red flowers.  

After the tour to the Quitobaquito spring, I decided to take a hike on the Desert View Trail because I had been told there were some cactus in bloom, so off I went.

This is a buckhorn cholla with red flowers.

And another variety with deep gold flowers. 

I think this is a claret cup cactus.  I was surprised to see it in bloom because almost none of this type of cactus blooms this early.

Not sure what this cactus is, but the pink flowers are very pretty.

The Arizona state tree is the Palo Verde, and nearly all of them have tons of bright yellow flowers right now. 

This may not seem like an interesting photo, but it shows how saguaro cactus use "nurse" plants to get a start in life.  Growing at the base of another shrub or tree gives them a little shade and a slightly cooler environment that helps them as very young plants.  This saguaro is about 2 feet high and is probably at least 35 years old

Both this saguaro and an ocotillo are getting a start in the middle of this same desert shrub.

Somehow, this beehive cactus got its start in a crack in a rock!

 

 Organ pipe cactus like warm weather without chilly periods, so they are concentrated on the south sides of rocky hills.  You can see how they predominate here.  I could not get close to this cave, but it looks like it might be an old mine.

Some more photos of the trail.

This is a wash that crosses the hiking trail.

 

OK, confession time.  I got lost on the trail.  Or rather the trail got smaller and branched out, so apparently I took the wrong branch.  For about 45 minutes, I ended up walking cross country, trying to find where the trail was.  I could still see the campground in the distance and the roof of the restroom building near the start of the trail--just couldn't figure out how to get there. Luckily, not everything in the desert has spikes, so I managed to get to the trail again without getting more than a couple small scratches. 

This is the campground in the distance.

Finally found a couple walking on the trail, so I yelled at them and asked them to help me get back on track.  It was a really hot day, and I should have taken my cell phone and walking stick, but I made it back safely.  No snakes, either!