A FALL TRIP TO THE DESERT: Anza Borrego State Park, California

Anza Borrego State Park, Palm Canyon Trail

In late October, Art and I spent a weekend at Anza Borrego Desert State Park, about a three hour drive southeast of Los Angeles, the largest state park in California and one of our favorites. When I first came to California more than forty years ago, I viewed the desert as a dry barren place. Since then I’ve learned to appreciate the wide variety of wildlife that makes its home there and the amazing adaptations of the many desert plants.

Cholla cactus. When it rains, the cactus absorbs water and stores it for later use.

Most of my many trips to Anza Borrego have been in the spring--when birds are singing, winter rains fill the seasonal streams, and flowers burst into bloom everywhere. This was my first visit in the fall. In contrast, the landscape was almost uniformly brown, the steam beds were dry, and there were many fewer birds– and not many people either.

The walkway between the Visitor Center and the campground is crossed by late afternoon shadows.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and after checking in at our hotel, the Borrego Springs Resort, we headed for the Visitor Center where we looked at the exhibits and chatted with the helpful volunteers at the desk. We then took a short walk down the paved trail leading to the campground, looking for signs of life.

A bee getting nectar from a chuparosa flower.

We startled a rabbit that scurried away through the cactus and spotted a hummingbird getting its last sips of nectar from the red chuparosa flowers before the sun went down. But otherwise, it was fairly quiet.

Beginning of the solar system walk. "If the diameter of the Sun were 36 inches, the diameter of this steel sign stand, how large would Earth be? How far away? Follow the trail and find out!

Along the walkway we passed markers giving us a vicarious tour of the solar system. Each planet is a proportional size and distance away, giving a sense of the immensity of our universe. (Earth was just a tiny dot, not even a half inch across.)

The sun rises to the east, visible between the palms planted around our hotel.

The next morning we got up early to begin our walk to Palm Canyon before it got too hot. (Even in fall, desert temperatures can be in the 90s.) After parking our car at the trail head a park volunteer gave us a map and nature guide and made sure that we had packed plenty of water for the three-mile round trip hike. Even though the morning air was still cool, it quickly became much warmer.

Although we were unlikely to see them, signs warn hikers of mountain lions and rattlesnakes.

We followed the trail up the canyon, occasionally scrambling over boulders or climbing steps to get to the next level. As we approached the oasis we began to see spots of green, telling us that there was water not far below the surface.

The California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera) is the only palm tree native to California.

At the oasis native California fan palms flourish, providing shelter and food for wildlife. Pools provide water for bighorn sheep, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels and other animals. If you are lucky you might spot the bighorn sheep (called borregos in Spanish) that live in the canyons and ledges. We saw footprints and scat, but no sheep.
After resting in the shade for a while and sipping some of our water, we headed back down to our car.

Tall rocky mountains border Anza Borrego to the north. Rain at upper elevations funnels down through the canyons.Flash floods carry boulders down from the mountain. Nooks and crannies underneath make habitat for desert wildlife.

The quiet atmosphere made the starkness of the geology even more striking and though we had to look a little harder for signs of desert wildlife, we knew it was still there.

The Verdin is a common desert bird.

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: A bad day at Logan Pass (not really) Guest post by Caroline Hatton

Mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus), Glacier National Park

My friend and fellow children's book author Caroline Hatton and her husband visited Glacier National Park in Montana in August 2017, where, despite less than optimal viewing conditions, they saw lots of wildlife. She took the photos in this post. Caroline's latest book, C'est pas marrant  is in her native French, for ages 8 and up. It's about humorous sibling antics in Paris. Here's her report of her trip to Glacier NP.

It was supposed to be a vacation, a break from L.A. smog and traffic. Not!

As we arrived at Glacier National Park, evening winds stretched a thick blanket of wildfire smoke over the Rocky Mountains,* the brownish haze blurring the ridges visible from our cabin at Rising Sun. The next morning, a Sunday, the cold air smelled smoky and the closest peak had a faint, sickly purplish tinge. The mountainscapes looked jaundiced and washed out like watercolors by an art class drop-out.To reduce pollution and enjoy sightseeing without concern about driving and parking, we left our rental car at the St Mary Visitor Center, at the eastern end of the famous Going-to-the-Sun Road, and rode the park's free shuttle to Logan Pass. A long line of cars and assorted buses approached the pass and the trail up to Hidden Lake looked like an ant hill crawling with tourists. 

Columbian ground squirrel (Urocitellus columbianus)

Before hiking to the Hidden Lake Overlook, we squeezed onto a crowded bench for a bite of lunch. I was elbowed by what turned out to be a rude, unshaved, local resident (a Columbian ground squirrel), who proceeded to stare at me and inspect my day pack without permission.

I thumped my boot but he didn't even blink. To keep him from chewing a hole in my pack, I had to yank it away. He had targeted the corner, inside which were Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts, an unexpected sign of good taste in an otherwise uncivilized individual.

Hoary marmot (Marmota caligata), total length 2 feet ~ 60 cm or more

Having lost our appetite, we headed up the trail, onto the board walk, careful not to step on visitors crouched to hold iPhones closer to masses of pink, purple, yellow, and white wildflowers; loose toddlers; and unwashed, out of control residents (hoary marmots)**--who ate the flowers!

Seriously: not reckless, but cautious trio of bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis)

Farther uphill, a reckless trio (three bighorn sheep) raced across the trail with no warning, between oncoming groups of hikers. It looked like a collision begging to happen. In L.A., they'd put up some kind of sign, such as those that say, "CAUTION: truck crossing!"

Slow traffic: mountain goat

Also in L.A., they have freeway signs that say, "Slower traffic: keep right."

Oh well. At least we got our money's worth, because obviously, we weren't in L.A.!

We did not hike from the Hidden Lake Overlook down to Hidden Lake because climbing back up would have required deep breathing, which didn’t seem like a good idea in the smoky air. Vistas remained hazy every one of the eight days we spent between Glacier National Park and the adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada, but we were lucky to see one black bear, two moose, four grizzlies, a dozen deer, lots of squirrels and chipmunks, and many, many more bighorn sheep in several different locations.

All the shuttle drivers we encountered during our visit were highly professional, helpful, and friendly. They said that the park was usually much more crowded on weekends days than week days. At each stop, they radioed to the dispatcher the number of people waiting for rides in each direction, if any, for faster service. 

We’d love to go back to Glacier National Park in other seasons!

Update as of September 1, 2017:
Since we came home from Glacier, they closed the lodge at Lake McDonald one month early due to concern for the health of the staff, who had been exposed daily to smoke from the nearby Sprague Fire. All trails around and from Lake McDonald had been closed since the fire. Then that fire grew a little larger. Now it has destroyed the historic Sperry Chalet, located in the back country about seven miles from Lake McDonald. What a sad day for the park and all who have enjoyed staying at the Chalet through the years.

Hungry marmot

Footnotes

* Ten days before our arrival, a thunderstorm had generated some 150 lightning strikes, some of which started three wildfires in the park, including near the western end of the Going-to-the-Sun Road. More wildfires had already been burning or started burning afterwards outside of the western boundary of the park.

Fire is a natural process that improves habitat for many wildlife species and maintains certain forest types. In Glacier National Park, fires burn every year. Unless they threaten structures, fires are allowed to run their natural course as an integral part of managing ecosystems. Wildfires that start in summer may burn until snow falls.

** Implying that any marmot was on the trail, let alone that it almost got stepped on, is a grumpy exaggeration. The closest marmot was on the grass next to the boardwalk.

For more info:

For students to learn more about wildfires: Fire-in-Depth by the U.S. National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/fire/wildland-fire/learning-center/fire-in-depth/wildfire-causes.cfm

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK: Hike to Hidden Lake by Tom Scheaffer

https://theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com/2016/07/?m=0

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, Montana: A Place to Renew Your Spirit by Caroline Arnold

https://theintrepidtourist.blogspot.com/2012/10/glacier-national-park-montana-place-to.html