How I Spent My Spring Break, Part 3

But first, let me say that I discovered something about Blogger and layouts and "Preview." It's all a lie. I "previewed" the heck out of that last post and the preview showed all those small photos paired-up, side-by-side, NOT all stacked on top of each other. Gah!

OK. Back to Spring Break.

I'm calling it Spring Break because it *was* Spring Break for my step-sister who invited me to come down and stay with her at her place in Julian. And it's definitely a nice space to be in. Any place where you can wake up to a sunrise like this one is OK by me.

In the summer, the sun rises over that lowest dip in that canyon view. On a clear day, you can see the shimmer off the Salton Sea. And that valley is Anza-Borrego. It's still a half-hour drive to get into the park, but it's ONLY a half-hour drive into the park!

On the first full day in SoCal, we rented a small SUV to cruise around the park and go only slightly off-road. That evening we visited my step-brother and borrowed his Jeep for some more serious "off-road" driving the next day. OK, it wasn't actually serious "off-roading." It was more unpaved, jeep-roading. 

First, we tried for the Sentenac Birding Loop, but we were challenged in finding the trail head (such as it was) and the general area wasn't all that exciting. So, we headed off to Lizard Wash canyon. This has a goodly long jeep road into the canyon to the truly hike-able trail. I'm pleased to report that I found specimens of both fruiting and blooming Desert Apricot! 

I also saw a Fishhook Cactus starting to bloom!

AND I came across one of my favorites: a hummingbird nest!

I saw the Mom hummer arrive at this cedar with building materials, building up her nest for the coming spring. When she left to get more fluff, I swooped in to snap a shot. When she returned, I left her to her chores.

Also in Lizard Wash was this very handsome Cholla.

I also found at least one species of Dudleya, maybe three species, but I'm not as "up" as I should be on my Dudleyas.

It turned out to be a good thing that we had the Jeep with the big-ol' knobby tires. The end of the jeep road in Lizard Wash was a lovely platform of semi-hard surface. But the way out was either to back up for many yards to find a sufficiently wide spot to turn around OR to drive straight down a six-foot drop of loose sand, into a gully of loose sand, and up the far side of loose sand onto a hard sand roadway that looped back to the original road. Very nice in the knobby-tired Jeep. Very challenging in a sedan, even if it had all-wheel drive.

Thanks, Steve!