It was awfully windy last night – between the coyotes howling and wind rocking the RV neither of us slept well.

We haven’t yet ventured down into the southern portion of the park, so today’s the day. The winds continue gusting, making our helmets bob around on the motorcycle ride. We top off gas and head south. It’s beautiful country, much fewer people around. We pass only a handful of vehicles on the way and a couple of campsites. At least part of it is cooler, whether due to elevation or protection from the mountains I’m not sure, and is also much greener. We pass through that and return to the brown desert yet again.

Halfway through our gas tank we find a bluff overlooking the valley for lunch. We seem to have the place to ourselves, with only a couple of vehicles passing along the road. We sit within the rock garden that someone has created. After eating, I rebuild the cairnes that have fallen over.

We decide to press on, past the boundaries of the park. Either way we go, we’re looking for a gas station. We pass a border check point, through a windmill farm, and then in Ocotillo we find one under I-8. The lady next to us has a new vehicle and asks us to look at her vehicle. It’s new, and the tank is capless. She wanted to make sure she wasn’t missing something.

Back on the road, we decide to head back up to Julian for another coffee. It’s cool at the higher elevation and I’m chilled when we arrive. We walk around town to explore our options and settle on Mom’s Bakery. The pies smell delicious.

After finishing our coffees we head back home, prepare supper, and spend the evening reading before bed.

After our morning bicycle ride we cleaned up and hopped on the motorcycle to check out the statues in the desert. Iron beasts (real, extinct, and imagined) populate the landscape. We did a quick drive-by on the way into town to refill on gas and then slowly toured through them, discovering new ones as we went. I think my favorite was the scorpion vs the cricket, but the rock crawling jeep was also good.

Tour completed, we headed back into town proper, parking and walking about the shops in the mall. Grabbed coffees from a coffee shop/bakery and sat on the porch to drink them.

Headed to the library for wifi and in preparation for the yoga class. Free class on Wednesday and Ashley wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. I got some reading and writing done, we updated an over-due post on Facebook, etc.

Finally time to head home for supper. Still a vegetarian grill combo – foil packets of potatoes and onions over lentils. Delish!

I bring Ashley her tea in bed and cook breakfast as we start our day. It’s not too hot yet so we hop back on the bicycles and head east, back toward the badlands. Longer hills than we expected and not quite recovered from yesterday’s ride and the hike on Friday. Glad we weren’t set on a long ride.

Made a smoothie upon returning – it was delicious and far more filling than I expected! Almond milk, banana, peanut butter, frozen fruit, and chia/flax seed.

Laid about reading for a bit before it got too hot so we headed out on the motorcycle, hoping to use it as air conditioning. We headed into town to top off waters at the visitor center and gas at the station before going south-east on a new road. Either a big valley or a small canyon greeted us at the edge of the park – spotted an RV scouting a camping spot right on the edge. Not only will they have it to themself but will also have a spectacular view!

Continuing on past the park we saw even more off-roaders than yesterday. It’s a veritable city out there! Like everyone from quartsite picked up a 4×4 of some sort and re-converged here. But for a motorcycle ride, it’s a pretty boring stretch of road so we turned around and headed back into the park, meandering our way back into town via the mountain roads.

Ashley begins preparing for our date tonight. Shower and gets dressed up as I put together our cheese, meat, fruit, and chocolate tray. Thought it would be a great at-home date to sit outside and enjoy some wine with snacks. Delicious! A great opportunity to try some cheeses we wouldn’t otherwise and a couple of new chocolates. Good chance to sit and chat, enjoying the desert sunset and evening. Ashley, as always, looked gorgeous!

After breakfast we packed our bags and hopped on the motorcycle to go exploring. While passing through the round-a-bout in Borrego Springs we spotted a farmer’s market and stopped to see what they had to offer. Some pretty good looking produce, a mushroom stand, and fresh tamales! Sometimes we save a lot of money by not carrying cash with us. 😀

On to the Anza-Borrego Visitors Center. No different maps than the one that we picked up yesterday. There’s a nearby trail that we’ve been interested in, so we head that way. The Hellhole Canyon/Maidenhair Falls Trail is a “mostly difficult hike up into a canyon oasis. Some rock scrambling required.” It was pretty warm (but, you know, it’s the desert) and the rock scrambling was fun but the hardest part was just deciding which branch of the trail to take as it split around rocks, palm trees, etc.

Interesting to walk through a desert canyon and come across palm trees. We continued on to the end and sat beside the falls on a stone outcrop to enjoy our lunch. After eating we climbed up to the top of the falls for a bit of a rest break in the shade while listening to the water flowing/falling and looking out over the valley. Then we climbed back down to look at the bottom of the falls, joining the group of people already there. After a short visit we began heading back down the trail.

Returning to the motorcycle, we headed on up the road to see what there was to see. It was a fun ride, a nice twisty road winding up to the tops of the mountains. We followed it to the end, where it met S2, before turning around and heading back to the visitors center. There we parked again and hiked over to the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground to hike the Borrego Palm Canyon Nature Trail. By the time we reached the trailhead, though, we were tired from the hike and the heat and decided to save it for another day. Back on the motorcycle we headed home.

Grilled chicken, asparagus, and sweet potato for supper. Ate outside again, watching the stars. Enjoyed herbal tea before bed.

Without any plans leading into the day, we took a look at the map, found a nearby green area (a park of some sort) that had lots of squiggles in the road, and headed toward it. Quite the unscientific approach but it really worked out well!

We headed to Palomar Mountain state park to see what we could see. We passed through critus orchards – they smelled delicious and were pretty with the dots of orange highlighting the trees. Coming to our road we began winding up the mountain road. It was quite twisty and we crept our way up – passing some bicyclists along the way.

At the top we found a spot alongside the road to sit and enjoy a snack while overlooking the valley below us. What a fabulous view!

After eating we headed further back into the mountains to check out the Palomar Observatory. We were able to check out the visitors center and then head back into the observatory itself, seeing the telescope and generally exploring. What a fascinating place and amazing discoveries it’s made! Went there on a whim, but so glad that we did!

Heading down the mountain via a different route, we headed back toward Old Town for a late lunch at EAT Marketplace. Delicious, as always.

Picked up a few things at the grocery store and then headed home. Ashley put together supper while I completed some chores in the RV.

Yet another fabulous meal spent chatting with Bill and Carol over supper.