Anza Borrego

On Saturday, June 5th Ted and I went to Anza Borrego desert - about 2 1/2 hours from San Diego. We got up at 5:15 am to get to the desert early because the temperatures were expected to reach 110 degrees by mid-day. At ~7 am it was already in the upper 80's.

This picture is from the drive in - I was overcome by the beauty around me.

There were literally NO other people on the road. I decided this was the perfect mid-highway photo-op.

Ted joined me!

Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear :).

There were tons of HUGE statues throughout the desert. We took a couple of shots of some of them. The elephants were one of my favorites! They appear to be a favorite of the birds too.

Just to show you how big they are.

Ted getting friendly with an elephant.

A grazing horse.

Break it up.

A shot of the two of us. Hard to get when we are alone!

The eagle has landed.

There was a random flea market in the middle of the desert. One of the vendors was selling medical supplies. It was sort of creepy!

Here are some deals going down.

Creepy or not, I bought myself a handy-dandy reflex hammer for $3.

Entering the state park the temps were in the low-90s. We were advised to have at least 2L of water with each of us. I guess you lose water pretty quickly in the desert.

One of many photo-ops/much needed breaks. Me and my new found friend the cactus. There were plenty of these. Notice we aren't very close friends. Personal space is critical in this friendship.

The Palm Oasis at the end of our hike. There are only palm trees where there is a source of water. Here there was a natural spring bubbling up from the aquifers below. This meant we could turn around and head back - we were excited about that.

Me and the palm trees.

Ted photographing the palm trees.

We love the palm trees.

Climbing up one of the rocks to rest and relax.

Ahh...

On our way back we spotted these two beauties. They are both long-horned sheep (I think that is the technical name :) ). We were able to get incredibly close - the photo doesn't do it justice.

It was as if they were posing for us.

A mid-air jump!

Post-hike sitting at the visitor's center. EXHAUSTED and hot. But still reeling from the excitement of being so close to nature. We felt incredibly lucky to have encountered the desert animals. All in all we saw several native creatures including: rabbits, several types of little rodents (again the technical name), and sheep. The native creatures we managed not to see: rattle snakes, scorpions, mountain lions, foxes, and tarantula (plural tarantulae??). Like I said, we felt lucky.

As we drove out (through the mountains) we snapped this shot of the area we had hiked in. Absolutely beautiful!!

This video is one I snapped while watching the two female sheep walk away. All of a sudden a GIANT male sheep popped up in the corner of my screen (hence my noticeable shock on the video). He was clearly there to protect his ladies. I am glad he didn't charge us. I was a LITTLE nervous. He was much closer than the video shows. It was cool and humbling at the same time.