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TR Posts: 67
4/10/2012
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I decided to take my wife out to see the wild flowers in bloom. I was thinking about Rainbow Canyon, but since my wife's not much of a "hiker", I decided the Borrego Palm Canyon was a safer choice. When we arrived at the trailhead there was only one parking space in the entire lot to be had. If I had been serious about hiking, I would have gone elsewhere. But since this was only to be a walk in the desert to see the wild flowers. I took the last spot, and we started off. We hadn't gone very far and so far this cactus was the only thing in bloom.
But even the Brittle bush wasn't blooming.
The Desert Lavender had very small flowers on it, but they weren't open yet.
But most of the plants were just not flowering.
There was some Indian Paintbrush that was blooming.
And my wife really likes the color of these cacti, even without blooms.
And of course, you can almost always count on the Ocotillo to be in bloom, but not so the cholla.
But looking back on it, even though the flowers weren't blooming, and we didn't see anything other than two small lizards, it was a pretty good day.
I mean you couldn't ask for better weather.
Even my wife had a good time
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surfponto Administrator Posts: 1364
4/10/2012
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Awesome!!
That last Bighorn shot looks like it is from National Geographic 
Great Job
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https://www.anzaborrego.net/
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hikerdmb Posts: 423
4/10/2012
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I must have missed the flowers in those pics. I only saw those beautiful sheep. Nice job!
David
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2622
4/10/2012
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Very nice TR..! Can't wait to see what you find when you take your wife out to see bighorn sheep.....I agree with Bob, that last photo is awesome.
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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anutami Posts: 491
4/11/2012
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Looks like it walked right passed you!
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TR Posts: 67
4/11/2012
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anutami wrote:
Looks like it walked right passed you!
I had to move out of her way to let her pass. She was vocalizing quite a bit. And she let me know she was hopping down off that rock. So I backed up and let her pass. She was was less than 10 feet away. She was so unconcermed about me she stopped and put her head down to eat.
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TR Posts: 67
4/11/2012
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anutami wrote:
Looks like it walked right passed you!
Daren;
You're absolutely right. I been coming out to Borrego for years. I had never seen a big horn sheep. My wife come out three times, and we have to move out of their way to let them pass.
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herofix Posts: 30
4/11/2012
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Great pics, thanks for sharing. Love your tongue-in-cheek reporting on the (lack of) flowers, too.
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DHeuschele Posts: 87
4/11/2012
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herofix wrote:
Great pics, thanks for sharing. Love your tongue-in-cheek reporting on the (lack of) flowers, too.
I also found the reporting of the flowers funny. Great Pics. I have had pretty good success (3 times out of 10 maybe trips - they go up high near dusk and some of the 10 trips have been at dusk were there is virtually no chance to see them) seeing the sheep on the Borrego Palm Canyon trail (and fairly close - maybe 20') but that is the only trail in ABSP that I have seen the sheep.
I was fortunate enough to see ram butting heads at the bottom of the Vivian Trail coming down from San G a few years ago. The display of power was impressive. There were 3 males and we watched for maybe 15 minutes and they were still doing it when we left them. We told a ranger of them and he went up to see them. When he got there they were still butting heads but they had been joined by a fourth one that we never saw (he may have been there all along but just blended in to the background). They were maybe 150' away and all any of us had were point and shoot cameras (we had just hiked the whole divide hitting all 9 summits so we were not carrying an SLR). Even at that distance it was awesome.
I have wondered many times how many times I have passed within view of them without seeing them.
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TR Posts: 67
4/16/2012
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They were easy to spot because of all of the vocalizing. You just followed the noise to the sheep. But I'm sure this was an abberation. If they weren't making any noise, they would be very hard to spot.
DHeuschele wrote:
herofix wrote:
Great pics, thanks for sharing. Love your tongue-in-cheek reporting on the (lack of) flowers, too.
I also found the reporting of the flowers funny. Great Pics. I have had pretty good success (3 times out of 10 maybe trips - they go up high near dusk and some of the 10 trips have been at dusk were there is virtually no chance to see them) seeing the sheep on the Borrego Palm Canyon trail (and fairly close - maybe 20') but that is the only trail in ABSP that I have seen the sheep.
I was fortunate enough to see ram butting heads at the bottom of the Vivian Trail coming down from San G a few years ago. The display of power was impressive. There were 3 males and we watched for maybe 15 minutes and they were still doing it when we left them. We told a ranger of them and he went up to see them. When he got there they were still butting heads but they had been joined by a fourth one that we never saw (he may have been there all along but just blended in to the background). They were maybe 150' away and all any of us had were point and shoot cameras (we had just hiked the whole divide hitting all 9 summits so we were not carrying an SLR). Even at that distance it was awesome.
I have wondered many times how many times I have passed within view of them without seeing them.
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