The objective today was to investigate greener and more westerly campsites. We headed south-west from Borrego Springs on Highway # S3, which turned into Highway # 78, through Yaqui Pass, and then south-east on Highway #S2. The mountains here are not that high - 4 to 5,000 feet, and the passes 2,000 feet, yet it is amazing the effect they have on moisture/green-ness (vegetation). Just ten miles east of Borrego Springs are the Borrego and Carrizo Badlands. It is so dry, that the best they can do for vegetation is the odd scraggly Creosote bush. Too dry for cactus. So barren that the best thing the U.S. could think to do with it was to practise dropping bombs there (The Carrizo Impact Area hasn’t been “used” since 1959, yet is still closed due to unexploded ordinance ranging from 3 to 1,000 pound bombs, rockets, 20mm cartridges and 50 calibre bullets, ranging from the surface to 30 feet into the ground). You get my point. Yet, you go two ranges west, and range by range, things get greener. Like continuous grass ground cover, marshes with bullrushes, and honest to god trees! At least in the valleys, for a while. We stopped at a couple of private RV Parks, and a couple of county parks, including Agua Caliente, which as you can tell from the Spanish name, has hot springs. We thought Agua Caliente might be worth a stay, however, we found it to be busy, with tight camping sites, and relatively expensive. It has small, developed outdoor and indoor pools, but suffers from being too close to San Diego.
The Century Plants (a type of agave) are sending up their flower stocks, which can be 15 feet high.
On the way home we went over and checked out the free boon-docking off Peg Leg Road, named after famous bull-shitter Peg Leg Smith, an early mountain man with a “secret” gold mine. ATV’s are banned, which minimizes dust, and the entrance road is in good shape, so all in all, a pretty good alternative. Several large new class A’s have obviously been setup there for some time, so it’s a reputable joint.
The airport was on the way home from Peg Leg, so I stopped to get a picture of the hardworking Shorts Skyvan which has been steadily lugging parachutists to altitude. There was a surprise; I heard something fancy cranking and banking at the airport yesterday, and it was still there this morning.
Grumman F8F Bearcat, the pinnacle of United States piston-engine fighter design
It was 30 C this afternoon, so there was nothing for it but the pool and beverages….
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