A few days ago, we decided we needed a break to relax, exercise, and enjoy some solitude surrounded by nature. Friday night, we loaded up Blue with our car camping gear and headed to the desert in the morning, returning Sunday evening.
To get to the desert, we drove through snow - what irony! The town of Julian is at about 4,200 feet, and received about 6 inches of snow last Tuesday.
Only if Nick was here, I would have gotten him good!
Snow!
The murals around the tops of these walls were painted by Marshall South in the late 1940's. Followers of this blog might recall my description of Marshall South's experiment in living on the top of Ghost Mountain. This little building was the town library, but is now a real estate office.
Well, we said goodbye to Julian, and headed down the other side of the mountains to the desert - about a 20 minute drive.
Here I am doing manly road clearing as we drove the few miles of dirt road through the Little Blair Valley Cultural Preserve.
We found a little wayside area to make our camp. Lunch time!
Nearby, Gail found this cantaloupe size rock. We thought it might be a geode, so we split it open with a screwdriver and some pounding.
Whoa! It sure looked like a fossil of a fish inside, complete with scale patterns.
After lunch, we hiked cross country up to the top of a ridge. You can just see Blue in the middle of the picture.
A small barrel cactus starting to flower.
The view looking over the other side of the ridge.
Could you design a more elegant cactus / rock garden?
Past a Kumeyaay seasonal village site, we spotted this ancient pictograph.
The black dye the Kumeyaay used was made from charcoal and wild cucumber seed oil. It sure is durable!
We headed down this ravine a ways, and decided to come back in the morning for a longer day hike. The sides of the ravine were basically boulders resting at the angle of repose. We felt like ants in gravel. It would be incredible to see an earthquake here!
The sinking sun backlit the cholla cactus making them look soft and fuzzy. Hah!
Setting up for dinner, it started getting colder. The full moon was spectacular, though. We tried some night photography, but gave up early, as the wind and cold air were too much.
The next morning, we headed over to hike down the ravine for some exploration.
Gail modeling a cactus spine in her thumb. Practically all the desert plants are armed and dangerous it seems!
This canyon was so peaceful, and without any signs of humans.
Just like a 1,000 years ago!
We thought this boulder looked like a Smurf!
Rocks anyone?
We discovered a mortero on this massive flat rock. Coyotes apparently think it is a toilet bowl!
A few plants were flowering in this warmer, sheltered ravine.
That is snow on that distant mountain.
My Lawrence of Arabia pose.
The required hand held self photo.
This barrel cactus seems to be doing just fine growing out of granite.
The baby cholla cactus had no trouble sticking into our hiking boots.
That is a bird nest in the middle of a cholla cactus. You wonder how many animals lose eyes to these and other cacti!
These seed pods on an agave stalk look to be bitten into - some critter's supermarket?
We drove out on a different road - a bit challenging in spots. We stopped for pizza on the way home for one last little hurrah. The desert weekend was just what we needed.
