Next stop--the desert! Bug has been fascinated by the desert for a long time and I decided that we needed to make his dreams come true. Our visit to Anza-Borrego State Park began with an ill-fated attempt at camping. Honestly, it was doomed from the start. We didn't get away from San Diego very early, which meant it was already very dark when we got there. There was also a crazy windstorm going on, we had brought our big tent, which took 3 adults to put it up the only other time we used it, and Peanut was past bedtime, freaking out about the moths that were swarming, and completely DONE. Almost 2 hours in, working by flashlight, I thought we almost had the tent up, and then a gust of wind took the whole thing down. At that same moment, Bean saw a white, 2 inch long termite, and I decided we were going to find a hotel. I pride myself on being a camper and hiker, but enough was enough.
But the next morning, after a late start because of the late night, we went back to the park and set off on the hike we'd been looking forward to--Palm Canyon Trail.
We started off doing pretty well--high hopes of seeing lots of animals and making it to the oasis at the end of the trail. A ranger had told us that the out and back trip was just over 3 miles and that he, at age 70, could do it in 1.5 hours, so I thought maybe we could finish it before the temperature got to the 90s.
These kids have turned into pretty good hikers. At least, the older two. Peanut still takes a lot of encouragement, and sometimes outright bribing. He can hike 2-3 miles these days, but it doesn't mean it's all happy hiking. This trip involved some tears, an ice cream bribe, and still a lot of grumbling, but he made it.
And while the wildflowers were nothing like the superbloom of 2017, we did see some pretty amazing plants.
The oasis! Unfortunately, Peanut was such a mess at this point, and it was getting hotter by the minute, so we turned back before the final 1/2 mile of rock scrambling to get to the oasis. We were all a little disappointed to make it so far, but we were going way slower than that ranger suggested was possible, and we still had to get back to the car.
As far as animal life, we'd seen a couple different types of lizards
which was fun, but the kids had been scanning the cliffs in desperate hopes of seeing one of the endangered Desert Bighorn sheep in the area. We hadn't had any luck, and I knew that the chances were pretty slight, and then, about 5 minutes before the parking lot,
we found a ewe!
We watched her for about 15 minutes. She devoured all the flowers in sight, wandering around the dry river bed, coming within 20 feet of us without seeming too nervous. I was so happy, for everyone's sake, that we had one big win in what had been a somewhat disappointing trip.
After that, we went into town on a bit of a sculpture scavenger hunt. Scattered throughout the desert around the town, there are 130 metal sculptures representing the animals that lived in this area, and a few mythical creatures.
They're pretty impressive, and it was fun driving around through the desert to find them all. And the kids made sure we stopped at them all. And took pictures of them all.
And then, it was time to head back to civilization and the road to home. Here's a few more pictures of the sculptures:
