It's been 9 years ago since we've last been to Anza Borrego State Park. And before that we've been there in 2011 as well. So it was time to renew our relationship to this little California desert town. We didn't have any blue skies today and it got a bit windy in the afternoon but it wasn't cold.
In order to get there from Holtville, we had to head north on Hwy 111 via Brawley where we entered Hwy 78/86. Right behind the Border Patrol checkpoint, Hwy 78 leaves Hwy 86 and turns left (west) Borrego Springs is about 35 miles ahead.
We were bound to find the famous annual spring bloom of the valley.
Curiously we were craning our necks as we went along towards town. Despite the fresh green all along, we couldn't see many flowers from the road.
The Anza Borrego Desert State Park is the biggest State Park of California and we made it to its headquarter, mainly to look for information about where to find the most dense flower spots.
The closest spots to see spring flowers were up Henderson Canyon Rd and at the northern end of DiGiorgio Rd.
What really surprised us was the overpowering smell of the purple Sand Verbena. It was like entering a perfume store and having the perfume right under your nose.
Even though it was only Thursday, lots of people had the same idea, so traffic was busy. Plenty of Chinese people to see.
After seeing the flower we went to see many of the rusty steel sculptures Borrego Springs is also famous for.
The first we saw was a group of vineyard workers. And it was there that we got the laugh of the day. Dixie was ahead of us reaching the closest statue first. Promptly she started barking at it, thinking it was a life figure. It was just too funny.
The steel statues here are extremely well-built and very detailed in their features.
Big pre-historic elephants (shovel-tusks), desert turtles, dromedaries, dinosaurs, scorpion with dangerous looking monster insect and even an incredibly dragon worm are on display.
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Other animals have earlier been featured in our 2011 blog posting and 2014 posting.
A neat place, for both the flowers and the sculptures!
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