Borrego Palm Canyon, Salton Sea, California USA, 30 September 2016

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This is a map of our journey to LA, the Salton Sea and Joshua National Park.  You may need to click on it to see more detail (all images are larger if you click on them).

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Dawn at the Salton Sea.

We drove from LA 160 miles (260km) WSW to Salton City on the Salton Sea.  We were guests of Jeni Bate who I had met online through our respective WordPress sites.  She showed us around the Salton Sea area and we had a great time.  I highly recommend you visit her Art Website:  Skyscapes for the Soul.

(More on the ecology and history of the area in a later post).

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We headed west from Salton City in the morning.  This is a view from the side of the road, perhaps at Montezuma Valley Road Lookout.

We stopped for lunch in the small town of Borrego and saw an exhibition of Jeni’s paintings at the Borrego Art Institute.

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This whole area is desert of course.  We’re now heading towards Borrego Palm Canyon in Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park.  This appears to be at the Borrego Palm Canyon Trailhead.

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In the canyon now.  This is a barrel cactus.

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A hummingbird feeding on an ocotillo (fouquieria splendens).

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We met other walkers who had seen bighorn sheep up on the rocky sides of the mountains but we didn’t see them.  (Borrego is the Spanish word for these sheep).

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Our destination is a grove of Californian Palms (washingtonia filifera), fed by spring water.

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The palms can grow up to 20 to 25 metres (60 to 80 feet).

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Heading back.  An ocotillo in a barren landscape.

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Desert cacti, perhaps clavellina cholla.

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