12/15 The Village of Borrego Springs

This is a very nice little village with quite a few permanent homes spread out in the nearby desert, having a population of 2,800.  The town is actually in the middle of Anza Borrego State Park, and there are a lot of things to do here--hiking, biking, exploring in outer areas via 4-wheel drive vehicles, golfing, tennis, shopping, etc.  There are three small grocery markets, two gas stations, several restaurants, hardware store, a museum and nature center, an art gallery, a coin laundry, and a lot of other shops.

No big chain stores, but you can get most of what you need here.  

The town is centered around a large round-about circling a park with public toilets.  Spokes of the wheel will take you to various businesses and the art work I described in the last post. 

 My motorhome parked on the town center round-about.

A display of purchasable metal art in a local business.

A few more businesses on the "main" street. 

A small public garden next to the nature center.

There is a small sign on the main town road notifying you of the "Mall."  Unfortunately, it is not very clear that down the two entrances are several very nice stores, the coin laundry, a public library, the post office, the sheriff's office, and a lot of other things. 

One part of the Mall has a shop that sells metal sculptures, which are on display outside.

 

 

Heading out of town. 

12/14 Art in the Borrego Springs Desert

A few years ago, Dennis Avery, who was the owner of a large parcel of desert near Borrego Springs, California, wanted to add some art work to his land, so he contracted with metal artist Ricardo Breceda to create some sculptures to display on his land.  Over the past 20 years, he has created and displays about 130 sculptures in this huge desert area. 

To get to them, you need a map from the local state park or nature center, and then just follow directions to as many of these sculptures as you can find.  Some are very close to one of the highways in the area, and others require some walking.  

Since you will be driving and walking on private land, signs such as the one posted below, warn you against things you are asked to not do:

Following are photos of some of the sculptures we found this week.  Some are of prehistoric animals and others are examples of more modern themes. Here is a large bird who has brought a snake to its babies.

And a horse.

A saber tooth cat about to pounce on a horse.

And one that has already pounced!

An elephant.

And a Columbia mammoth.

A giant tortoise.

 A couple of ancient relatives of modern elephants. 

A camel nursing its young.

This is the front part of a serpent that is crossing the highway,

You can see the rear part of the serpent on the other side of the road.

Maybe a rattlesnake?  Except that rattlesnakes do not have teeth like this one does.

And a prospector and his lady friend in a 1946 Jeep.

The head of a Native American.

And a closeup of that head. 

Obviously, there are a lot more of these sculptures, and Borrego Springs is a terrific place to visit, so go there and see if you can find others. 

12/12 Joshua Tree National Park & Box Canyon

 It was a very long drive, but the friend I am traveling with for a few days and I spent today in Joshua Tree National Park.  I had been here before, and we did not have a lot of time, so I took us first to the more rocky and more scenic northwestern end of the park.  

It has been beautiful weather here in Southern California, by the way, with lots of sunshine and days with highs in upper 60s and lower 70s!  Perfect day for a long drive.   The following first few photos show how the northwestern part of the park looks--lots of joshua trees and rocky mountains and outcroppings.

Joshua trees are not trees at all, but are related to yucca plants.  Large ones, like these below can live for a couple of hundred years because they are very slow growers.  They produce large white flowers if there is enough rainfall. 

In a few places, you can find rock climbers like this bunch. 

More rock climbers on a nearby stone formation.

Headed south, you see some joshua trees, but fewer of them and fewer rock hills.  I love area like this where there is very little traffic!

I decided to drive all the way through the park so we could exit at the south entrance, Cottonwood entrance. 

It is much flatter near the southern entrance, as you can see fro this photo.

One advantage of taking the southern entrance is that you can follow the exit road past I-10 and drive through Box Canyon to the Salton Sea.  

I have driven through this canyon a few years ago and since it was later in the year then, I found it full of campers.  There can be rain and floods very rarely here, so you do have to watch out in rainy weather. 

We did not pass a single car heading south through the canyon. 

Almost out of the canyon!