We took a quick overnight trip out to Anza Borrego to hike the tracks a bit and explore the Indian Hill area. I had not been out to the southern Anza Borrego desert since they started construction of the Ocotillo Express wind farm and was saddened to see the damage. Where once stood large forests of Ocotillo, now resembled something out of an apocalyptic nightmare. The monstrous wind towers dwarfed anything around them and along with the huge SDG&E switchyard and imposing Sunrise Powerlink transmission towers have forever industrialized the tranquil desert around Ocotillo. Ironic isn’t it, that something marketed as "Green" has d... [More]

Snapped a closeup of a Monarch Butterfly while we were camping in Carrizo Gorge on Thanksgiving. We also managed to mount the Maggiolina Rooftop Tent onto Mary's Toyota Tacoma which takes a little bit of tweaking. :)    

Our annual Anza Borrego Thanksgiving camping trip is something we always look forward to. While it sounds like a big hassle to lug all the food, tables, barbecues and drinks out to the desert, the rewards of sunshine and desert solitude are worth it. Nightime temperatures were in the the low 30's, but the Maggiolina Rooftop Tent kept us pretty warm. We camped in  Carrizo Gorge, which is our favorite area of Anza Borrego, and did day hikes up the East Fork as well as Four Frogs Canyon.The Ocotillo are simply amazing this time of year. During the dry summer months the Ocotillo resemble dried up sticks poking out of the desert soil. On... [More]

If you really want to escape the summer beach crowds of San Diego, but still want to play in the sand, you could always take a 2+ hour drive east to the Anza Borrego Desert. Our motivation was simple, June gloom had continued two weeks into July, shrouding the coast in clouds. We had forgotten what sunshine felt like. Mind you this is not journey for those who can't take a little heat. When we pulled up at the Carrizo Gorge turnoff, temperatures were already close to 100' and promised to rise throughout the morning. Suprisingly, we were not the only foolhardy souls out in Anza Borrego braving the  triple digit temperatures. When Mary ... [More]

Tucked away in the southern end of the Anza Borrego Desert is an engineering marvel that, due to its' remoteness, has only been viewed by a relatively small number of people. The Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1932 after an earthquake collapsed one of the tunnels of the Carrizo Gorge section of the San Diego Arizona Railroad. At two hundred feet tall and 750 feet long, it remains to this day the longest, tallest curved wooden trestle ever built in the United States. The sheer ruggedness of the mountainous terrain as well as the searing desert temperatures warranted the name "The Impossible Railroad". The preferred route is to park near Mo... [More]

Deep in the rugged expanse of Carrizo Gorge in the Anza Borrego desert, there is a small cave of pictographs that few have ever seen. The area is surrounded by large unstable mountains, choked with catclaw, and littered with large truck size boulders. The Carrizo Gorge also marks the transition from the Colorado Desert to the dry San Diego coastal mountains. We have visited the area numerous times. At one point Mary and I tried to scout a route to Goat Canyon along Carrizo Gorge. While this is doable, we were eventually turned back by thick groves of catclaw that proceeded to tear at our skin and clothes.  Fast forward to a couple mont... [More]

Our annual Thanksgiving tradition is to spend Thanksgiving with our family and then head out to Anza Borrego the following day for a couple days of desert fun. This year turned out to be one of the more memorable trips we have had, so sit back and I will try to explain what transpired. Friday morning found Mary and I heading out to Carrizo Gorge to meet Jan, Gina and crew at one of our favorite campsites. Jan had left the night before to get the Imu Pit ready. Imu Pit ? you ask. Well yes, this year after 5 successful years of grilled turkey perfection we opted to try the Polynesian method of cooking the turkey in a pit in the ground. Th... [More]

Even though the Anza Borrego Desert State park has been spared from the destructive path of the Sunrise Powerlink ; the battle is far from over.  SDG&E's Southern route goes through portions of Cleveland National Forest as well as land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. Formerly untouched areas such as the Carrizo Gorge Wilderness Area will forever be marred by 150 foot steel towers. Wilderness aside, what about the East County residents who live in the rural San Diego backcountry? It is estimated that the Sunrise Powerlink will affect 3000 east San Diego county residents. This destructive impact ... [More]

We left the coast on a sunny Sunday morning and pointed the LandCruiser east out to one of our favorite areas of Anza Borrego. A quick stop at Starbucks and Subway to fuel up and we were our way. This time we had a couple of Anza newbies, our friends Steve and Haeja. Late April the temperatures begin to approach triple digits out in the Anza Borrego Desert so we knew this was one of our last trips of the season. Our plan was to hike from the East Fork of Carrizo Gorge out to the seldom visited Carrizo Palms. The palms are located in a remote location below the Carrizo Gorge Railway and are a bit difficult to get to. Our hike began with a ... [More]

Our post Thanksgiving trip out to Anza Borrego has become an annual affair that we really look forward to. This year we invited Linda and the plan was to meet Jan, Gina, Mike and crew out in Carrizo Gorge.  Amazingly we were on the road by 8AM on an overcast  Friday morning. We (Bob, Mary, Diesel and Sadie) in the BJ70 and Linda, Kaiel and Jake in her Honda CRV.  Being the courteus drivers we are, we told Linda to go on ahead to Ocotillo. It is no fun driving 40 mph behind a BJ70 sucking in diesel fumes once the hills start. Once we dropped down the pass into Ocotillo the weather cleared and we were greete... [More]