Anza Borrego

For those of you that read Toby's blog (www.communitas.tumblr.com), this may be a bit repetive... but I felt I had to write about our weekend in the desert so here it is!

I had never even heard of Anza Borrego before last Sunday. At a dinner party, I met a director who has traveled around the world for work. We were talking about camping and he said that in all of his travels, one of the most beautiful places he's ever been is just three hours from Los Angeles, the Anza Borrego desert in the springtime. Every year, for one to three weeks in March, all of the desert flowers bloom at once. I decided then and there that we had to go.

When I got home, I looked up Anza Borrego only to find that the desert flowers had just bloomed and we had a week to get there before the sun dried them up. We searched campsites, hotels, and even houses to rent but everything was booked. Disappointed, I decided our trip would have to wait until next year. Then on Thursday morning, a friend pulled up in the driveway and asked if we were going to Anza Borrego or what. It turns out that you can camp anywhere in the park. No need for a campsite as long as you're willing to bring in your own water and pee in the desert sand. A day, some quick packing, and an overstuffed minivan later, we found ourselves headed for the desert.

I had a few reservations about our desert excursion. As I strapped 19-month-old Noni into the car seat, I couldn't help but consider that while four other families decided to join us in our last minute adventure, three of the wives were staying home because they were worried about bringing their babies camping in a place that offers temperatures in the low 40s at night, which frankly seemed like a reasonable concern. Moments before bringing Noni out to the car, I had also foolishly googled "wildlife in Anza Borrego" and was greeted with images of tarantulas, scorpions, rattlesnakes and mountain lions. I tried my best to put the images out of my mind, but they resurfaced in the pamphlets at the Anza Borrego visitor center anyway. (Fortunately my friend Steph waited until we returned to email me that a tarantula had climbed onto her backpack during her last visit to the park.)

My first few moments at the park confirmed my fears of bringing a baby to the desert. Noni ran up to a cactus and then drew back crying, prickers and a piece of the cactus attached to her hand. I immediately pulled it off of her, only to find the cactus stuck to my own fingers.
But after some minor pain and a few minutes with the tweezers, we were on our way through the desert, in awe at the landscape we were seeing outside the car window.



Moments later, we pulled over at the sight of probably twenty sculptures of horses dotting the landscape. (See photo of one below.) Noni insisted on running up and kissing each "neigh".


After that, we headed to our campsite in Hawk Canyon. The campsite was perfect - sheltered from the wind, surrounded by desert flowers and just below rock walls to hike up for sweeping views of the park. We set up camp and headed out for a hike.


In the late afternoon, our friends arrived. I loved that at a moment's notice, everyone had packed up and driven hours away to this remote spot in the desert. The kids played by a sand hill near our campsite until it got dark. Then we all bundled up for the cool desert night and sat around the campfire, talking, singing and eating incredible food. (See photo below) The only bit of sadness for me was knowing that my sister and her family were also camping this weekend - but across the country in South Carolina. It would be nice to live close enough to camp in the same spot.




Overall, Anza Borrego proved far tamer than I had feared (no scorpions or mountain lions on this trip) and even more magical than I had imagined. I'm putting Anza Borrego in the springtime up there with Machu Picchu at sunrise as one of those things that everyone should try to see once. It was a great way to kick off our once-a-month-camping-trip that we're planning from now through October. (If you're interested in coming along, let Toby know so he can put you in his Facebook camping group!) Now I'm off to shake out sleeping bags and shoes...and am hoping we didn't bring any desert creatures with us on the way home!