Winter Camping in the Anza Borrego Desert

[hotfishtacos]

We've been really anxious to do some remote camping with our 19' Escape so we spent this last weekend in the Anza Borrego Desert, away from it all; no lights, no people, just us and the desert critters. It was great! The star-filled sky at night was beautiful. We hiked a lot and saw a lot of signs that Indian once lived there during the winter. The day time temperature was around 75F and it got down to the mid 40s at night. Here are some pictures:

If you look closely you can see our campsite near the side of that small mountain....The exact coordinates are GPS: N 33 00.496 W 116 22.984



Here is a closeup of the campsite...



Here is Margarita out for a walk in the desert..



These are Indian Morteros where they used to grind their food in depressions in the granite rock..





We also found these Pictoglyphs...




The desert was great! We plan to go back and stay when it is flowering in the spring.

[JohnB]

That looks like an amazing place. Not like winter camping in Canada!
Thanks for posting your photos.
Confirms my interest in wanting to go down to that area soon.

[KarenH]

Very, very interesting...thanks for posting!

[hotfishtacos]

To continue...This area of Anza Borrego Desert where we camped is called Blair Valley and is loaded with history. On Google you can find websites on Blair Valley, CA on the Pictographs and Monteros as well as what the Indians ate and how they lived there.

We also explored an adobe dwelling up on Ghost Mountain where a family built their home during the depression in 1932 and lived off the land in the desert...pretty extreme! Well, his wife couldn't take raising kids up there in the middle of the desert for long where it gets over 115F during the summer and divorced him after while. He abandoned his settlement soon afterward.

Here are pictures of the abandoned homestead:





Here is a sundial that was made with a bar pounded onto a rock and the lines scratched into the rock for the time at the abandoned site..



Great stuff!

[gbaglo]

Great stuff.
I notice that the awning is sloped in case it rains

[float5]

Okay, what's going on? I am seeing only one photo --- the pictographs. I am seeing nothing to indicate that photos have been posted, merely the descriptions. I am signed in and see the same thing whether signed in or not. This is not the first time that this has happened. Anyone else having this problem?

[cpaharley2008]

Looks ok to me, nice trip report.

[escape artist]

Hi: hotfishtacos...Very interesting indeed. The Natives drew pictures on the rocks and the depression era family drew apart "On the rocks".
Makes me want to at least try boondocking in the desert some time!!! Thanks. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Jim Bennett]

Looks like an interesting place. Enjoyed the photos.

Originally Posted by Floating Cloud

Okay, what's going on? I am seeing only one photo --- the pictographs. I am seeing nothing to indicate that photos have been posted, merely the descriptions. I am signed in and see the same thing whether signed in or not. This is not the first time that this has happened. Anyone else having this problem?

Maybe clear your cookies and cache. I know when things like this seem to happen only to me, this takes care of it most of the time. The other times a reboot often works too.

[float5]

Thanks, Jim. Finally saw the photos but can't tell which fix worked, however, they are gone again! Too weird. I cleared cache, cookies and history and rebooted. Also, they do not appear on two other computers. I take it that they are coming through another site, not posted directly to the Escape site. Perhaps they are being blocked because of the security set-up.

Looks like an interesting find, Steve, what I briefly saw!

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Floating Cloud

I take it that they are coming through another site, not posted directly to the Escape site. Perhaps they are being blocked because of the security set-up.

They are hosted on this site, but that would not make much of a difference as they are linked, not attached.