Anza Borrego Desert State Park & Borrego Springs

Mar 09     Caliente Springs Resort - Oasis Palms RV Resort       43 miles     1 hour

We played some pickleball this morning then packed up and drove to Oasis Palms RV Resort. The address is Thermal, Ca but its on the outskirts of Thermal near the Salton Sea.

This RV park is in the middle of agriculture land. There's orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees on property that we can pick. We'll be here for 2 nights. Passport America rate is $20 per night so total $40, no tax. We went swimming in the afternoon in the pool and tried the hot tub. Kind of dirty looking but the temperature was nice. As we were walking back from the pool, we notice the air was kind of stinky. We think it was the pond but not sure.

Can barely make out the Salton Sea in the distance

Mar 10     Anza-Borrego Desert State Park & Borrego Springs

It took us about an hour to drive to the park. Kind of boring, very dry desert area. There was an area where they do a lot of off roading. Looks like this is the big thing out here. Lots of trails in the desert hills with lots of RV's and trailers boondocking around the area.

After going to the visitors center at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park we went on a 3-mile roundtrip hike into Borrego Palm Canyon. The trail leads to a cool, shady palm oasis. This was a pretty easy hike to start but then we started going uphill on the rocky trail. It got pretty challenging in some places, especially the end where we had to do some rock scrambling. Very nice hike and beautiful scenery, we got a good workout.

Making our way into the canyon

We had a couple of water crossings

Getting closer

Finally....the Oasis

This park normally has a great spring bloom but not this year. It was a very dry winter so hardly any

blooms. We were supposed to camp at this park a couple of nights but I cancelled because the main reason was the flowers and there wasn't too much.

Found some blooms

After lunch we drove to Borrego Springs and checked out Galleta Meadows. Here, in the middle of the desert, is a magical menagerie of free standing sculptures. Numbering in the dozens, the metal creatures appear almost natural in the desert landscape. The work is truly unique.

This is a baby camel nursing

Check out the details on this dragon

We drove to Fantasy Springs Casino for dinner. We just love the buffet there. Tonight they had prime rib. The prime rib was okay, but everything else was excellent. The best was the fresh pasta bar. You pick what you want, so I got shrimp, spinach, and mushroom. They saute everything in a pan, add the sauce you pick, then add the pasta. So, so good. Plenty in one serving but delicious.