Anza-Borrego Palm Canyon Hike

Hi Blog!

The other day, we made our way from Rancho Jurupa Park near Riverside, California to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park near Borrego Springs, California. We only planned a three day stop and as soon as we got here we knew it wouldn't be enough time to explore all the hiking and Jeeping trails in the area. There will be plenty to do next time we are in the area.

On Wednesday, March 8, 2017, we decided to take a hike on the park's signature trail. Here is Dave at the trailhead for the Palm Canyon Trail.

Borrego Palm Canyon is a wide trench descending west to east down the San Ysidro Mountains just west of Borrego Springs. The creation of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park began in the 1930s with the protection of this palm-filled canyon. This is a very popular hike. It took a while before we had a section of the trail to ourselves. Here was a rare view without other hikers:

Ocotillo are not a true cactus. For much of the year, the plant appears to be an arrangement of large spiny dead sticks, although closer examination reveals that the stems are partly green. With rainfall, the plant quickly becomes lush with small, ovate leaves, which may remain for weeks or even months. After all the rain California has recently received, the Ocotillo are leafing out.

From its beginnings almost half a billion years ago, the Anza-Borrego region has experienced a rich and complex geologic history. Marine deposition along the western edge of the ancient North American continent eventually gave way to an extended period of plate subduction, which produced the vast volumes of granitic rock exposed in Anza-Borrego’s mountain ranges and transformed older sedimentary rock into metamorphic rock. All this pressing and metamorphosing got Kathy very excited, so she was on the lookout for unusual rocks.  She was not disappointed!  Here's Kathy, bonding with one of her rock buddies.  He was too big for her to take home to the RV:

Here we get our first glimpse of the famous palm grove.  It made David think of the Grand and Glorious City of Oz, far away down the Yellow Brick Road:

As we worked our way up the canyon, the small trickling stream became a babbling brook.

These small fan palms seem to be guarding the stream.

Hey!  Where did Dave go?  Oh, there he is with Cousin It:

The tree amigos!

We stopped at the first palm grove to dip our toes in the creek. So, Dave, is the water cold?

It looks so inviting.

We have a short video to add here, but there is very little bandwidth here in this campground, so this picture will hold the spot for the video.

We continued to meander our way upstream and soon found ourselves surrounded by giant palms.

It was at least 15 degrees cooler in the shade of the palm grove.

After a short rest, we continued to hike up and around the grove so we could get a birds-eye view of the grove.

On the hike back down the canyon, we were amazed at all the places palms call home.

We took the Alternate Trail back down and soon left the wet valley floor behind. The Alternate Trail climbs up into the rocky foothills above the streambed.  It is less popular than the main trail, so we had it to ourselves most of the way.  This beavertail cactus has already started blooming! A rare sight:

Before long, we could see the whole valley floor stretched out before us with brilliant gold desert bloom in the foreground:

As we descended toward the campground, we ran into a herd of bachelor bighorn ram.  In Spanish, they are called "borregos," and thus the name of the canyon and the park.

They were just hanging out right by the side of the trail. Our presence didn't seem to disturb them much, although we took pains to be quiet and not bunch up.  We could tell they were keeping their eyes on us.

This was a great introduction to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We look forward to our return visit.