Almost every time I came to San Diego to represent Penn State at the Esri User Conference, I’d take time off to visit Anza Borrego State Park. In particular, I enjoyed visiting the desert town of Borrego Springs, and the nearby Palm Canyon Trail. The town and the trail are at the far western edge of the Sonoran desert, in the rainshadow of the Peninsular Ranges.
I returned to trail again on April 27 for the first time since moving to California, this time with Esri colleague Angie Lee. It’s only a mile and a half from the trailhead up an alluvial fan into the ravine and shortly to an extraordinary fan palm oasis. The second picture shows the oasis. For scale, note the two fellow visitors in the lower left.
Hiking here in April you’re likely to see plenty of people but no borregos. The bighorn sheep only tolerate people when the hot summer temperatures dry up the smaller seeps up slope and force the them down to the oasis in plain sight. Last time I visited, in July 2010, the temperature was 112ºF, and the borregos were there, wary but willing to share the oasis with a few visitors.
The third picture is one of the dozen or so bighorns Cindy Brewer and I saw on that visit. I remember how long the three mile round trip seemed in that extreme heat. Well worth it, though I should have packed more water.