Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

We left Yuma the last week of February and headed west into southern California. We decided the Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) near Holtville would be a good base of operations for our daughter's annual visit. We sure enjoyed her stay with us, as we always do. While she was here, we arranged to meet our son, who lives in California, for the day at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We took a short walk, enjoying the desert in bloom and had a picnic lunch at the park in the center of Borrego Springs. What a treat for us to spend the day with 2 of our 'kids'.
Just outside Borrego Springs we saw some large, unusual animal sculptures scattered in the fields. It turns out this is a privately owned desert estate which allows, picnicing, horseback riding, photography, bicycling, and camping for 3 days. A new adventure awaits around every bend in the road.

A large bird preparing to take off.

One of the many horses running through the field.

Adult and baby elephants, or perhaps some prehistoric ancestors.

Our picnic spot at Christmas Circle.

A small sampling of the beautiful wildflowers we encountered on our walk.

Kool Corner - Yuma, Arizona

We spent the middle part of February boondocking on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land just north of Yuma, AZ at a place known as Kool Corner. We took walks, visited with friends, shared meals with our neighbors and ate lots of lettuce. If the center part of the country is known as America's bread basket, this area must be it's salad bowl. It's incredible how fast the vegetables grow, are harvested and almost immediately a new crop is planted. This is amazing as the annual rainfall is only about 3 inches. Water for the crops is supplied by an extensive network of canals connected to the Colorado River. Yuma has the reputation of being one of the sunniest places in the country with over 330 bright days each year. Quite a difference from central New York, where it seems there are over 330 cloudy, dreary days annually. Well, maybe not that many, it just seemed like it. Almost every day was blue sky and sunshine, (we haven't gotten tired of that yet) but we did get one unusual heavy rain. We didn't plan for this and ended up with a moat around our door. Careful placing of some large rocks, provided some stepping stones to get to dry land.

Our spot at Kool Corner overlooking the valley.

This hummingbird was a common visitor.

Hard working laborers picking broccoli. Yum!

Patches of red and green lettuce makes an interesting pattern in this field.

Baby greens are picked by a machine that looks like a giant vacuum cleaner. It cuts off the small leaves and sucks them up.