After several days of relentless wind and heat near Borrego Springs, Richard and Dianna moved over the mountains to an RV park, while I sought refuge in a more protected section of landscape discovered the day before. I\u2019m still in Anza-Borrego State Park only about 20 miles south of Borrego Springs, but a whole world removed from the wind and oppressive heat. It has been a little breezy but nothing like the howling torrent on the other side of the park. The campground I\u2019m parked in, called Blair Valley, is surrounded by mountains on all sides, quite secluded and pretty, and also quite a bit higher and cooler than the flat lands near town. And even though AT&T has been very disappointing almost everywhere I wilderness camp, I was surprised to find I have excellent cell service. <\/p>\n
There are some pretty cool hikes in this area. You wouldn\u2019t think to drive through this place \u2013 the term \u2018forsaken\u2019 comes to mind \u2013 but there are some nice places to hike. Last week we hiked through a slot canyon that twisted for about a half-mile along a narrow, sandstone groove cut by ages of seasonal runoff. In some places we had to turn sideways to squeeze through, while the walls towered way above our heads, blocking out the sun and creating a feel almost like a cave. I have not hiked many slot canyons but this hike has given me the desire to do more of it.<\/p>\n
I have also hiked to a place called Palm Canyon. It was a nice five-mile walk on easy terrain with tons of people along the way. The trail follows a canyon to an oasis of palms and gushing water that seem quite out of place in such an arid area. I almost didn\u2019t take enough water; I was thirsty when I got back to the visitors center. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ll probably be here for a few more days. There are some nice places to explore and the weather is looking good. I will meet Richard and Dianna in Julian this afternoon. The road to get there looks like fun on a motorcycle \u2013 lots of curves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After several days of relentless wind and heat near Borrego Springs, Richard and Dianna moved over the mountains to an RV park, while I sought refuge in a more protected section of landscape discovered the day before. I\u2019m still in Anza-Borrego State Park only about 20 miles south of Borrego Springs, but a whole world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dalelafferty.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}