Elephant Tree Trail Hike

I mentioned in an earlier post that, after the full day of rain on Sunday, Monday was both windy and sunny. By mid-afternoon Monday the wind had started to mellow out a bit, so we decided to go for a hike on the Elephant Tree Trail. The trailhead was not far from the Fish Creek Primitive Campground.

From the turnout off the Split Mountain Road, you drive about a mile down a "Jeep road" (NOT at all sedan-worthy!) before finding the parking area and the start of the 1.5-mile self-guided tour. (However, due to budget constraints, no interpretive pamphlets are available for the self-guiding numbered posts.) The trail is your basic "follow-the-wash" trail with the occasional rock blockade to keep you on the correct wash along with the occasional numbered post.

Of course, as you hike up and around this desert wash, you get to see all the other desert plants growing and blooming along the trail, such as this Gander's Cholla...

and this Beavertail Cactus...

and the dainty Spanish Needles...

and, of course, the ubiquitous Brittle Bush...

and the useful Indigo Bush...

and the Chuparosa that the Hummingbirds love so much...

or the rare double-circle of Barrel Cactus blossoms...

till you finally get to the Elephant Tree.

The funky looking Elephant Tree is native to northern Mexico, southern Arizona, and southern-most California. Apparently, there used to be a number of Elephant Trees in the area, but the rest have died, leaving just this one.

"Wreckage of Time: The Fish Creek Badlands"

As I mentioned in the first in this series of posts, one of the things that drove the start time of our trip was the subject field trip on March 7th put on by the Anza-Borrego Foundation. I had been planning on camping a couple of nights and exploring around Fish Creek on this trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, so this field trip clinched it all, given that 9 AM Sunday at the campground was the scheduled start time and location.

As I mentioned in the last post, it started raining Saturday evening and continued to rain (a fairly cold rain with a little wind) all day Sunday during the trip, so I didn't take very many photos. But the rain didn't ruin the field trip so much as it turned it into more of an adventure as the day went on.

One of the requirements of the class was that you had to be in a 4WD vehicle, so we got one. The class consisted of about a dozen 4WD vehicles following one another up the Fish Creek Wash, stopping occasionally to get a little piece of the talk (while getting a little more wet) or to take a short hike to see something neat (in the form of an anti-cline or fossil footprints or fault offsets or layers of rock and soil). 

Our class guide, instructor, and author, Paul Remeika, talked (under an umbrella to protect the props) about the fault system in Southern California, how the San Andreas slides along a curve, and how land forms at Whitewater Canyon (on one side of the fault) match up with land forms near Yuma (on the other side of the fault).

He also explained that, in part because of the curving fault, the land opened into a gap where the Salton Sea currently sits.

And, of course, we got to look at the layers that have been laid down and washed away over the eons.

And we got to see the tilted layers that have been jacked up by tectonic movements.

But the real adventure started on the return trip. After all, we had spent over half a day driving up a "wash" in the rain. And what happens to a "wash" when it rains? Well, it fills up with water.  Happily, we were being led by a guy who had spent the last 30 years of his life working as a ranger in this area. So, we followed his lead back down the wash that was running with water -- or, more accurately, mud -- till we got back to the Fish Creek Primitive Campground.

Happily, the campground was a good 30 feet above the bottom of the wash, so the camp wasn't going to wash away. The rain finally stopped late in the evening and had mostly soaked into the sand by the next morning. Things were still a little muddy and there were still a few areas of standing water, but there was no more flowing water... in Fish Creek Wash.

There was still plenty of running water in other areas of the park. And all that running water exposed a LOT of really big rocks on a lot of the "Jeep roads" all over the park, making passage by vehicles with anything less than maximal clearance 4WD vehicles rather adventurous. (We only had the rental 4WD for a week.)

Camping at Fish Creek Primitive Campground

My brother and I have returned from a two-and-a-half week mostly-camping trip to Southern California, mostly in search of spring wildflowers. You can't imagine my excitement when I read in the Moon camp book where it described the Fish Creek Primitive Campground as having free WiFi! I knew the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (and most all California State Parks) had free WiFi, but spelling out that this primitive site had it made me so happy! That would mean that I could upload and blog on photos almost in real-time. But it was not to be. *sigh*

The campground is fairly primitive.

No tables, but they do have fire rings.

And they do have fairly clean and sturdy "facilities," but without paper.

No, not flush toilets as there is no running water.

You may have noticed the blackened pot above. That comes from cooking over a wood fire. "But, steph! I thought you had a propane stove," you say. Well, yes, I do have a propane stove. It was left sitting by the truck where we were loading all the gear. You do what you've gotta do. I can build a fire and cook over one, too.

Lest you think that this is the most boring campground ever, there are some nice views, too.

These are the rocks behind/south of the camp.

And the sunrises were lovely. As long as the camp wasn't overrun with yahoos (like it was the first Saturday night), the place was quite serene.

Except when the wind was howling like a banshee.

But the wind was actually welcome that Monday. The rains had started Saturday night and continued all through Sunday and, between the wind and rain, the tent leaked and got some things wet. When the sun came out on Monday (with a high in the 70s), the wind also kicked up. The combination really helped to dry everything out quite quickly. So, it all worked out!

However, all that wind made starting a fire a tad challenging... I highly recommend butane cigar lighters.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Our trip has been in quest of Spring Wildflowers. Our expectations haven't really been met. This is not to say that there are no wildflowers. No, no! They abound! But they do not "abound" as in "field after field of abundant blooms." There are plenty of specimens. And, if you pick through the abundant greenery out in the fields where the abundant wildflowers used to be, there are mostly-hidden fields of wildflowers.

So, what's up? Well, two things. 

The first thing is the weather. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park got another inch or two of rain on March 7th, followed by a day of cool wind, followed by a day of cold, and so on. Finally, around the 15th, the weather started to warm so the flowers have the energy they need to bloom.

The second thing is the Saharan Mustard. This plant is an invasive alien species that is taking over the fields and any other hot, sandy place they can find. The seeds are still viable after 300 years of lying dormant in the dry sand, waiting for the tiniest amount of rain. Then it grows quickly and grows taller than most species of California native desert wildflowers, thus shading out the native species.

To try to combat the Saharan Mustard (and keep the wildflower-seeking public coming to the park), they have formed classes in training volunteers in identifying this damaging species (as opposed to the native mustard species), when and how to pull them up, and how to adequately dispose of them (once they bloom, you have to remove them from the site and cook them or they'll go to seed anyway). Once trained, the volunteers can join teams focused on eradicating them from selected focus areas or you can go out pulling (and cooking) on your own.

You can see the difference in the areas that have been untouched and the areas that have been "weeded" in this photo.

All the green between the man and the mountain is Saharan Mustard. The tan and flowers in the foreground are remaining wildflowers and sand. For a closer view of the fight for living space...

The Saharan Mustard is in the upper right. The Desert Sunflower, Dune Evening Primrose, and the Sand Verbena (and sand) fill the rest of the area. The sunflower is the only species that can grow taller than the mustard.

We Be Campin'!

We thought we were all packed up and good to go on Friday morning (March 5th), but we soon discovered that we had managed not to load one or two rather important components. The most important was the propane stove. I have a lovely 2-burner model that I've used for eons. It's back home in the garage, right next to where the truck was parked. *sigh*

So, while we *could* (and actually did a couple of times) eat cold food, hot food is better -- especially given how cold and windy it has been. So, we found a bag of wood to buy and I built fires a few times to cook on. We set the pot of water directly on the logs and it boiled up quite quickly.

When we eventually got back to El Centro, we went to Big 5 and bought an inexpensive, one-burner, propane stove. We haven't yet used it, but it looks like it will be quite adequate.

Having an Adventure!

Thanks! to Magie for subbing for me for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. I'm missing out on wildflowers in my own yard!



This post is the first in a series of posts about how I spent my Spring Vacation -- on a Wildflowers Trip! (I'm actually on the trip right now.) This time I'm camping for 2.5 weeks with my brother who hasn't actually camped since he was barely pubescent (not even for reals in the Army).

The plan started out such that we were going to be doing a week or maybe two, starting around March 9th. We were going to follow a particular route down 101, then east (to see some wildflowers) on the way to the Carrizo Plain National Monument (to see some wildflowers) then farther east and south to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve (to see wildflowers) then south through Joshua Tree National Forest to the visitor center (to see wildflowers) then south and west to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (to see LOTS of wildflowers).

That plan changed somewhat when I saw a geology field trip available at ABDSP on the 7th. So, leave earlier than planned, bypass the initial wildflowers, do geology, do flowers in the park, then back-track through the wildflowers on the way back north.

The geology trip was good, but the flowers are hunkered down, looking for several warm days in a row so they can actually bloom! So, plan changed again in mid-trip. (Hey! We have 2.5 weeks!) After almost a week in the park, we'll be visiting our step-sister (who has a place in the mountains that looks out over the park and the Salton Sea) for a couple of days, then head back into the park in hopes that the bloom will be getting better as the weather warms. Of course, we'll follow the wildflower trail heading back north, too.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, 15 March 2010

Here it is, another Bloom Day. I'll be guest-blogging for Steph since she's on the road ...

It is a lovely cool day today, just a few stray clouds. Quite a few plants are blooming today.

• Ribes Sanguineum (Pink flowering current, CA native - Feb. photo)
• Strawberries
• Freesias (yellow)
• Calendulas
• CA poppies - orange
• Nasturtiums
• Impatiens
• White flowering Solanum
• Pink geranium
• Bok choy
• Purple potato plant
• Ceanothus
• Mimulus arantiscus (Sticky Moneyflower, CA native - Feb. photo)
• Cercis occidentalis (Redbud) (see photo below)
• CA poppies - peach (see photo below)
• Dandelions
• Milk weed
  
  
  
  
  

I should have taken more photos of the redbud because this one is not focused very well.

Fortunately I did take more than one photo of this lovely poppy because the other one was not good.

Winter Veggies: Papa Cabbage

The other day I decided that Papa Cabbage was ready for harvest. He was looking quite capable of making vast quantities of coleslaw or other cabbage-y treats.

This is what he looked like after harvest...

And the final remains...

I can see snails and aphids (and their damage), but can you also see that all the branches are variously aligned in crosses? That's why cabbages and all their kin are called "cruciferous," because everything about them is in Maltese Cross shapes. Even their blossoms have this shape.

Including this bok choi that has bolted and set flowers has the look.