After re-charging our batteries yesterday around the pool and spa area of the resort, we were ready for another day long adventure! Today, we decided it was time to go back into California and tour through the mountain range just before San Diego. We took Hwy. 8 out to Octollio, and then headed north on Hwy. S2 into the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This is an incredible area of California. We had just started out about 4 miles into the Park and believe it or not, yes, another Border Patrol Stop! Imagine that..... After producing all of our passports, they believed that we were just a bunch of Canuks wanting to visit the desert.
Right away we started to run into these new cactus plants we had never seen before..... I will call them the pencil cactus...
Not too far into the park we knew we were in for something special. This is an area of badlands we came across.... really neat....
More cactus plants that we had not come across yet, this one has a purple haze on it....
We had to duly record the Morrisons being out in the desert today! In fine form I might add! Ya, you can tell by the way they are dressed it was real cold today! (NOT...)
We ran into another different cactus plant.... this one was crazy....
As we drove on, we climbed higher, up to about 4,200 feet, and all of a sudden, we realized we had trees growing.... I had missed trees for the past 2 months that we have lived in the desert, and the only real tree is a Palm Tree! This picture is of a ranch up in the mountains.... very nice.
Once we climbed up the the top of the mountains, we realized we were looking at the Salton Sea in the distance... we passed this sea, on our way up to Palm Springs a week ago...
This is a picture of the valley we drove right up through, just beautiful! Judy and I are thinking about taking our bikes back one day and doing it again!
We drove out of the park on the west side and started to head south back to Hwy. 8 using Hwy. 78 and Hwy. 79. This route took us right through the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Were we in for one big Surprise! It appears that the whole State Park had burnt! One big fire.... I guess it was part of the California wild fires in recent years. There were some houses around, but they all appeared to survive. Ed Durchame of Sudbury, a good friend and Fire Manager, would be able to tell me how long ago this area burnt, but I am guessing maybe 2 or 3 years ago....
More evidence of the fire... it covered 100's of acres...
We made our way back down to Hwy. 8 and headed east back to Yuma. We were still 4,000 feet up, and we knew we had to get back to sea level on the desert floor. The mountains along Hwy. 8 are all comprised of these huge boulders.... look at the size of the home in this picture, compared to the rocks around it....
California as well as Arizona, are in a battle to keep Mexican Citizens out of the States, and they too have built a big fence along the border with Mexico... you can see part of it here. Hwy. 8 runs east/west right along the border area with Mexico. There are also lots of Border Agents all along here, keeping a watchful eye out....
As we drove back to Yuma, passing El Centro, we came across this guy who was doing a bit of crop dusting with his plane....
As we came through the Imperial Sand Dune area, we found these RVer's in a big circle. They were out playing with the toys in the sand... if you look in the background of the picture, you will see that darn fence along the Mexican Border again....
As we were heading out in the middle of nowhere today, I was prepared! I took my role as co-pilot serious, and had my laptop with Microsoft mapping programs, I had my Magellon Hand Held GPS, I had my camera, I had my binoculars, and a coffee to go! John, Pat, and Judy were giving me the gears all day long about all this stuff I had with me.... well, it was a bit hard getting in and out of the car...
Yes, another great day over... we got back home and had a nice dinner, and watched the Leaf's lose.... gggrrrrrrr.....
Pat and John had a chance to talk with Emily today by phone, and she was filling them in on all the happenings in the Alliston area..... I talked to my Mom today in Orillia and am up to date on everything there....
It seems the blog hits are huge, (over 100 again today) and I attribute that to Emily telling all the Morrison gang about the blog and they are all trying to figure out what John and Pat are up to... also they are trying to find out what day they are coming home, so they can have a big blow out party at the farm before hand.... :-))
Till tomorrow...
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