Topic: Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

[JFanaselle]

My wife and I headed out to AB over the weekend to take in some beautiful springtime desert scenery. As you're all well aware, the flowers are blooming right now and the area is absolutely packed with city folk who are dying to see themselves a flower or two. The area around Borrego Springs was absolutely packed. Even at 8:00 am on Saturday morning, there were cars parked along both sides of Palm Canyon Drive for a mile or so around the bottom of the Montezuma Grade. The road to the visitor's center was closed off and people had to park that far away (a mile, in some cases) just to walk there. The park service had an information trailer set up in the parking lot of "The Mall" in the heart of town and was trying to guide people that way instead.

We managed to get a table at Kendall's Cafe in a relatively short amount of time, considering the number of people in town. by 10:00 am, we were on the road with full bellies. We drove around the north end of town a little and saw many, many flowers blooming in the fields around the homes. After stopping to check out a few of the metal sculptures, we decided it was getting too crowed for our liking and it was time to head east into the back country. Unfortunately, I didn't get many photos of the flowers around town, but I did snap one not not-so-good one:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

We headed out east and went straight to Font's Point. I've never been here before, and was blown away by the ruggedness of the badlands:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

We traveled further east on S22 until we hit Elsa wash, which we took south to Cut-across trail and then over to Military Wash. We took Military wash south out of the park and into Ocatillo Wells, stopping to take a few more photos of flowers along the way:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

From there, we continued south through the SVRA until we hit Highway 78, and headed east on the pavement until we got to Highway 86. I've been wanting to do some exploring around the Salton Sea for quite a while now, so we spent a little time along the west shore checking some things out. We ended up at an abandoned US Naval testing site, which had the remnants of an old wooden pier and a few structures remaining. In doing some research, I learned that the Navy used to land sea planes at this site and dock them at the pier. Many believe that this is how barnacles were introduced into the water of the lake, which can now be seen littering the shoreline with their dead shells. The sea itself and the surrounding areas are quite eerie and beautiful at the same time. It was dead silent and a gentle breeze had the water lapping quietly along the shoreline. We spent a good hour and a half at this site taking photos and having lunch:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

There were plenty of large pelicans flying low to the water looking for lunch:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Once we finished lunch, we headed north into Salton City and checked out the gorgeous Yacht Club 

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

From there, we headed back west into the park via S22 through Truckhaven. The afternoon sun was hiding behind the few obstacles that it could:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

We planned to head up Calcite Mine Road toward the old mine, but I was discouraged to see about 18 heavily modified jeeps coming down the road finishing their run for the day. They were parking all around the trailhead and even blocking access to Palm Wash, and only about half of them had even made it to the road yet. I managed to get off the pavement enough to engage their trail leader to ask how many there were and when it would be ok to head up the road without being in their way. He didn't even know how many were in his group, or who the tailgunner was. And they weren't in radio communication with one another either, so there was no one to ask. He was then quick to give me a snarky tone and ask if I had 4 wheel drive. He assured me that I wouldn't be able to make it up to the mine in my rig. I decided to pass on dealing with these knuckleheads and headed south into Palm Wash instead, first traveling via the south fork and then into the main wash. I headed into the north fork and took it back as far as a vehicle is capable of going, scrambling over several large boulders and rock gardens. The new rear end and e-locker worked like a champ! It felt so good to crawl over those rocks, and my wife did an amazing job spotting me the whole way. It took us a good 30 minutes to get through all the obstacles and deep back into the wash. It was quite beautiful once we got back as far as we could go, but we were discouraged that we couldn't find a suitable place to camp. The area was covered in pretty thick brush. That, and there were literally thousands and thousands of these massive tomato worm caterpillar bugs everywhere, and it had my wife pretty creeped out. She wasn't having any part of camping near them, so we worked our way back out of the canyon.

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Here are the bugs:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

They were EVERYWHERE!

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

We did find a cool little slot canyon to hike back into, but were disappointed that it only went a few hundred feet back:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

From there, we got back out to S22 and made our way further west. It was getting late in the day and we needed to find a suitable place to set up camp for the night. We checked the Arroyo Salado campground but discovered that it was infested with Priuses and Subarus. So we headed southeast in the Arroyo Salado wash and passed many, many other people set up who had the same idea as us. Once we stopped seeing people, we traveled about another mile and found a nice place to set up. After the sun set, the area we were in filled in with about 6 or 8 more groups who came down the road looking for a place also. Apparently everyone figured they'd be able to roll into camp around 8:00 pm and find a spot with no issues. There was plenty of room and thankfully no one set up too close to us, so we had our peace and privacy. The sunset was gorgeous:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Once the sun went down, I tried my hand at some star photography. Once again, I failed pretty badly. I need to spend some more time getting good at this, but I just don't give myself enough opportunities to practice. Here's the best shot I managed to get:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

However, once the moon came up, it was a completely different story. I was able to use the moonlight only to get some great shots of the landscape. The combination of bright moonlight and stars in the sky, plus the shadows of the landscape with a dark sky made it look like I was photographing the moon or Mars or something:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

The sunrise was just as beautiful as the sunset the night before:

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Trip report: Anza Borrego and Salton Sea on 3/18/17

Overall, we had a great trip. I didn't do as much exploring around the Anza Borrego area as I had wanted to, but the crowds were a little discouraging to me. On one hand, it's nice to have other people out there, in case you experience an emergency. But on the other hand, it's kind of a pain to have cross traffic or oncoming traffic less than every mile. With the exception of the jeepers, everyone we encountered was pleasant and after the same kind of good time as us. I was happy that I got to spend a little time around the Salton Sea, and I'll definitely be coming back to that area again soon. I want to plan another trip out to AB when I can spent a little more time hanging around Borrego Springs and exploring in some of the washes. But all in all, this was a very fun trip.

[RikRong]

Awesome photos, as usual.  AB is now on my list of things to see.

[Celt]

Great pics Joe, it's too bad you met up with the group jackwagon leader. You would have been fine going up Calcite Mine but it can get sticky passing other vehicles going the opposite direction. Another day's trip though awaits for that. both you and Rick need to be talking to my people and my people will talk to your people. I'd be glad to be a tour guide. That summer heat is a comin soon though so that puts the kaybash on some of the shenanegens but it can be easily worked out.

[JFanaselle]

Yeah I wasn't worried about the road at all (the boy ended up not coming along on the trip - just the Mrs, so I was looking forward to some better wheeling). Based on what I've researched (including You Tube videos), I'm certain that the rock gardens and obstacles I endured at the extreme end of the north fork wash was far worse than anything I'd endure on Calcite Mine road anyway. I just didn't want to deal with the jeep crew and their lack of trail etiquette/lack of desire to share the trail. If the trail leader was already having that kind of attitude toward me, I could only imagine what it would be like to work my way up the road with those guys coming down. And it looked like they were at least 20 or 30 mins from being done coming down (I think there were 15 or 16 of them, and only 7 or 8 had made it down to S22). I'll definitely make another trip out that way and get up to the mine. I'm pretty booked up for the rest of spring, so it may have to be in the fall. I'd love your expert tour guidance once that time comes!

[Ghost65]

A+ trip report Joe. Thank you.


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[RBduffer]

Way to go, big Joe!!  Best photo journalist around

Thanks for sharing.

[EJsarus]

amazing shots! mind to share specs on your equipment?

[fourxfunk]

Awesome report Joe.  I really want to get out there one day.  I'd love to check out Salvation Mountain too.

[FrankB]

Nice write up and pictures Joe.

I'm glad you got to see some of Anza Borrego, and hopefully you can see more of it without the crowds (and without those scary caterpillars - we ran into those last year - the worst part is that they look just like my shoelaces, so you had to look close to see if one was on you).

I got a kick out of that guy who photobombed your Fonts Point picture.  That's an odd spot for him to be in, halfway down the cliff.  By the way, one of these days I can show you the route to drive up through the Badlands to about the base of Fonts.  It's eerily desolate back there.

Looks like you got to part of the Salton Sea that I have not been to in a very long time; it reminds me I need to go back.

[FrankB]

Awesome report Joe.  I really want to get out there one day.  I'd love to check out Salvation Mountain too.

Don't wait too long if you want to go see Salvation Mountain.  I've heard that there is someone (or maybe even a group) taking care of it since Leonard Knight passed away, but it's hard to say how long that will last, and if anything will change.  It might be worth trying to get there before this summer.

[beedee]

I nominate Joe for Post of the year!!!

Thanks for all of the pictures and write-ups. My wife just mentioned yesterday she wants to go check out all of the wild flowers soon. I may take a Monday off to go to that with her and the baby, hoping the crowds won't be quite as bad as they would if we did it on a Sunday. I need to look up some maps on it, I'd love to go drive off the beaten path.

[JFanaselle]

I nominate Joe for Post of the year!!!

Thanks for all of the pictures and write-ups. My wife just mentioned yesterday she wants to go check out all of the wild flowers soon. I may take a Monday off to go to that with her and the baby, hoping the crowds won't be quite as bad as they would if we did it on a Sunday. I need to look up some maps on it, I'd love to go drive off the beaten path.

Should be quite a bit less crowded on a Monday. That being said, as long as you're prepared for the crowds, it wasn't too terrible. We went into town with the expectation that there would be no where to park, and that the wait times at the restaurants would be insane. We also figured the visitor center would be insane and didn't even bother planning to stop there. We got in to town early (8:00 am) hoping to beat most of the traffic coming down the grade, and it proved to be a successful plan. As expected, there wasn't anywhere to park and stopping at the visitor center meant parking over 1 mile away and walking. But we still managed to get a table for breakfast at Kendall's Restaurant, and we saw plenty of beautiful flowers just driving around town and avoiding the crowded areas.

amazing shots! mind to share specs on your equipment?

Thanks Edwin! I shoot with all Sony equipment, since I work for Sony at my "day job". On most trips, I use the DSC-RX10, which is a high-zoom point and shoot with full frame image sensor. It's a great camera to bring out on the trails, because it takes good images and the built-in lens is very versatile with a 35mm focal length equivalent of 24-200mm. It's not super huge, and packs away easily. Plus it charges back up via USB, which is easy for multi-day trips when you're trying to pack light.

For this trip, however, I brought along my full size DSLR camera and a few of my better lenses. This is the setup I keep in my rig normally and use for my photojournalism work (my "night job ). It's a Sony SLTA-99V DSLR body, which has a full-frame 25mp image sensor, in-body image stabilization and translucent mirror technology (instead of a traditional shutter mechanism). The three lenses I brought were a Carl Zeiss 18-35mm f2.8 zoom (the SAL1835Z), a Sony G 70-200mm f2.8 zoom (the SAL70200G), and a Carl Zeiss 50mm f1.4 prime (the SAL50F14Z).

[Blackx]

Those are great pictures.  You saw a lot over the weekend.  I've never been out to that pier in Salton Sea.  Looks cool.

[CVXTERRA]

What an amazing trip and even more impressive pictures. This is the kind of stuff I dream of doing haha!

Very cool!