Borrego in Bloom

April 5, 2005

It was our 31st anniversary. With all the rain we received over the winter months the desert was in bloom. We had not been to Julian or Cuyamuca State Park since the big fire of a year ago had almost burned through the town, and in fact, had burned through 80% of Cuyamuca State Park and even destroyed the old ranch house which had served as park headquarters. Was there a better way to spend the day together than hopping in the old Mercedes and cruising up to Julian for some apple pie, stopping at Cuyamuca to see how the park was doing, stopping in at the lake to check out the trout bite, and then heading over the mountains to see the desert flowers in bloom at Borrego Springs State Park Nature Center. Nancy agreed with my suggestion, so we packed a picnic lunch and headed east towards Ramona and the mountains. Ramona has a certain romance to it. It is still a very rural area in east county, but tract homes are starting to pop up here and there in the area. There are still lots of ranches in the valley raising everything from thoroughbred racing horses to turkeys.

About 10 miles east of Ramona is a junction in the road and the small village of Santa Isabel. There are a few houses, a gas station, a couple of antique stores, and, of course, Dudley's bakery. We always stop there for fresh bread and pastries, but unfortunately the sign on the door said it was closed on Monday's. Bummer. They must have had Monday off to recover from the weekend crowds who line up to buy all those fresh baked goods right out of the oven.

We pressed on to Julian and in about 30 minutes had climbed up the mountain and were at about 4500 ft. It was a sunny and bright day and could not have been more beautiful in Julian. Since the fire last year, tourism had dropped off considerably and many of the merchants had been faced with a big drop off in business. Since it was a Monday, the main street was relatively quiet, but there were some obvious visitors like ourselves walking the street and wandering in and out of the shops looking for that special deal on locally crafted doo-dads.

We walked up and down the street, and as we walked the north end noticed the old cemetary. We wondered why we had not walked among the old tombstones on one of our many prior visits. While sunny, it was kind of a windy day, and as we walked up the hill to the cemetary I had to hold onto my cap. It seemed that the spirits were afoot and howling as they rode the winds around the hill. We tried to find the oldest marker, and found some from the late 1800's, and traced the dates all the way to a recently dug hole waiting to be filled. It wasn't a very big cemetary for its age. But then, I suppose that not many people chose to be buried there. Most of the population is seasonal and I would expect that only permanent long time residents end up on that windy hill. As we left the cemetary, a group of pre-teens from the local school was being led onto the hill by their teacher for a local historical tour. As we passed I told them to hold onto their caps and watch for the howling ghosts whirling around the hill. Nancy said I didn't used to be so talkative, and wondered about my aging brain!

We hopped back into the car and headed south towards Cuyamuca. We came to the lake and were amazed at how much water had accumulated. We had not seen the lake so full for at least 12-15 years. we stopped at the cafe and ranger station and asked the ranger how the fishing was going, and like every good fisherman he gave a positive picture of our prospects if we were to come up fishing.

We pressed on towards the park and Paso Pacacho Campground.

Every time we have gone to the park in the past, we have spotted some deer, and as we came around a curve we spotted 3 deer in a meadow near some willows. That was a good sign. The park was rapidly recovering from the fire. While there were alot of pine trees which were burnt and black, most of the underbrush and grasses had recovered and the forest floor was lush with greenery. We reached the campground and drove through and found that alot of pines were burnt, but the Oaks seemed to be recovering, and other plants had recovered and provided a green carpet to the forest floor. The campground buildings had escaped the fire, and all the damage to the rest of the facilities had been repaired--it almost looked as we remembered it.
I thought that we needed to come up for a weekend and go fishing.

It was a relief to see Cuyamuca on the rebound, so we turned up the road to head over the mountain to Borrego. We had never really been to Borrego during a year when there was a big bloom of desert flowers. A big bloom depends on the amount of rain that gets over the mountain in the fall and winter months, and this year was the second most rainfall in the area's recorded history. The bloom was even a bit early. As we climbed the mountain and neared the crest we saw large swaths of yellow blooms on the mountain plateau. We headed down into the desert and looked out across the valley and saw patches of color here and there on the desert floor. We knew that in a month or so everything would again be brown, but for now, the desert was alive with life and color. We rolled into the small town of Borrego Springs around noon. In the summer it would have been about 110 degrees, but on this day in April it was still in the low to mid 80's. Nancy said something about an ice cream, so we stopped and she got a big scoop in a cup, which lasted her the two miles we drove out of town to the State Park Nature Center.

When the desert is in bloom, there are always lots of visitors. Tour buses come from all over, and everyone looking for a fun destination takes a drive out to see the cacti flower. Even during the week the parking lot at the Nature Center was almost full. Most of the visitors during the week are an older crowd. I thought we were among the youngest couples! We took the hiking trail around the desert garden, sat on a bench while Nancy finished her ice cream, went shopping in the nature center "store", and then broke out our lunch of cheese and fruit and ate at a picnic table under a canopy of palm fronds. There was a family with younger children at a table near us that reminded me of the times we had camped at the campground with Matthew and Sara when they were younger. As a family we had visited the Nature Center and saw the fossilized bones in the nature lab, hiked the Palm Canyon trail to the "oasis" up in the canyon, and all slept squeezed together in one tent with the wind blowing the side of the tent over Nancy, who always seemed to get the worst location when it came to sleeping arrangements. Borrego was always our winter camping spot because the weather in winter was so mild.

It was about 2:30 and time to head home, so we decided to start climbing the mountain. We took a different route back up the mountain that climbed rapidly by switchback right up to elevation within about 15 minutes. We were soon over the crest and the Borrego Valley was behind us. We stopped at a viewpoint on the top where we could view the expanse of the Salton sea about 60 miles to the east. We cruised down the mountain and through the windy canyons lined with California Oaks until we reached a junction with the road leading back to Santa Isabel. Dudley's was still closed as we turned towards Ramona and headed west to the ocean and home.
Anniversaries should always celebrate wonderful shared memories. Our 31st anniversaary trip to Julian, Cuyamuca, and Borrego was a reminder of all the other great family times we spent together in our prior camping visits as a couple and with Matt and Sara.

M. Worden