Anza-Borrego Desert State Park - Day 2

So, we were lazy Saturday morning - enjoyed coffee, a leisurely breakfast, and then spent an hour at the Visitor Center looking at the exhibits and buying an updated guidebook. Then over lunch, Patrick picked our adventure for the afternoon - Fish Creek.

We followed him to Ocotillo Wells, then south on Split Mountain Road until the turnoff for Fish Creek. Then we followed the Fish Creek wash upstream several miles until we came to an area to park for a hike to the Wind Caves.

Our friends and guides, Patrick and Patty (6-year-old Max is in the back seat)

I saw the sign for the Wind Caves pointing to the east - up a steep hill - but Patrick said we were going to go back down the canyon a little bit and hike up a small canyon. He said he'd remembered this from a previous visit. 

Patrick and Don lead the way back down the canyon.

Don looks at where a huge segment of the canyon wall had fallen down. It must have been undermined during the massive December rainstorms.

Some poor deer met its demise here.

This is the head of the canyon - though at first we though we were going to be hiking around it.

Don almost had to get on his hands and knees.

Max hates getting sand in his shoes - and had to stop often to empty them out.

When we got to the end of that little canyon, we realized we needed to go back to the beginning. By the time we got there, numerous others were there, and were hiking up the steep trail I'd seen when we first arrived.

At the top of the first and second climbs.  That's Don in the distance.

I decided at this point (or my thigh muscles decided) that I wasn't going any further. It was rather demoralizing to look over and see yet another climb - and yet today I'm a little ashamed I didn't continue. It'll get better as I get more in shape.

Don and my Liberty

This is an often-photographed anticline (folded rocks) in Fish Creek

In site #7, looking north

In site #7, looking west. That's Palm Canyon.

Saturday night was our night to cook dinner, so we had schwenkbraten and kartoffelsalat (German potato salad).