BLAIR VALLEY, CALIFORNIA AND A QUICK TRIP TO JULIAN

For now, I am going to skip a few days of events.  I have a camera full of photos taken to share.  But, the camera is missing, AWOL….I think (hope) it is hidden in the crevices of our daughter’s car or in her trailer. 

Monday, we said good-by to Borrego Springs with it’s high temperatures and mighty winds.  We said hello to Blair Valley with cooler temperatures and less wind. We are looking forward to visiting Ghost Mountain (Marshal South home/Yaquitepec), Morteros Trail, Pictographs/Smuggler Canyon and Oriflamme Canyon. 

All explorations must wait until daughter, Jojo returns next weekend.  Jojo has lived in southern California for almost
twenty years, but has not had the opportunity (excuse) to visit all the sites we are exploring.  She has visited many, but not all. 

Meanwhile, we rest, rest some more. John climbs the foothills around us.  We take short day-trips to Julian for groceries.  

The winding road to Julian is decorated with the blooming of Lilacs and  yellow Brittlebush and another bush with red blossoms that I have yet to identify. 





Our trips to Julian are abbreviated.  Neither of us enjoy countless shops selling things manufactured in China, etc.  One stop we did make for a was at the Miner’s Diner established in 1928.   Some of the décor dated back to the Gold Rush in Julian in 1867.  We were there for a milk shake for John and a chocolate soda for me.  

The milk shake was delish and plentiful.  The soda was a disappointment.  It was not like the ones I remember.  

Gold was not the only thing discovered in Julian.  It was discovered that the climate, soil and elevation teamed together to provide an ideal place to grow apples.   Apples and apple pies seemed to be the theme theme of the town.  We have yet to purchase a pie.  We want wait to share one with Jojo and Cathie when they come next weekend.  Otherwise, we would be putting on more extra pounds. 

We returned to the Blair Valley Campground.  Instead of driving straight to the motorhome, I find another dirt/sand road to explore.  This is what we found. 

Look at the size of this critters head!

All photos were taken by standing on the drivers seat of our car.  


Thank Goodness for convertibles!

Today, we are off to explore Palomar Mountain State Park. 

The End......







Until next time......God Bless

‘I GOT YOU BABE!’

Saturday found us Southbound on CA 86 to Westmorland, CA.  We were en route to the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge.

  

All I could hear in my head was Sonny & Cher's "I've Got You Babe"  It is really hard to think of this man as 1.) a politician and, 2)  as being concerned about wild life.  That is other than Cher.

At the Visitor’s Center, we visited with the volunteers.  During the winter they are here at the Salton Sea and their summers are spent volunteering at Yosimete National Park. 

As soon as we left the V.C, The first treat was to find a Barn Owl high up in a Palm Tree.  He was too busy taking his siesta to bother with us.   


The walk, at first, was a disappointment.  Many of the Corkscrew Mesquite trees had died from a mysterious disease.  They were being cut down and left in plies to be picked up at a later time.   

Later, we came upon an informational sign saying that the dead trees were being replaced by the hardier Honey Mesquite.  Those looked like our Honey Locust back in Indiana. 

    

Further along the path, we found this beautiful .......... 

White Heron or Great Egret.  

Help! Judy, Help!
 

Soon we arrived at an area where there was a fresh water pond. Water was pumped to this pond with the intent of providing migrating birds a safe haven for rest and reproduction without the fear of preditors such as skunks, raccoons, and coyotes.   It was a coconophy of bird sounds.Everyone was singing their own song…kinda like marching to your own drum. 

I believe I have found an American Avocet.

Hey Judy, this is fun!  






I have enlarged this photo in order to see the different birds.  But...now it is fuzzy.  Will someone tell Santa that I want a nice camera for Christmas or Halloween, or Thanksgiving, or maybe even Forth of July?  
         

“The Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR is geographically located within the southwestern edge of the Colorado zone of the Sonoran Desert biome. This location, coupled with an elevation of 227 feet below sea level, results in extremely low annual precipitation and extremely high day time temperatures. 

Despite the harsh environmental conditions, theSalton Sea supports one of the most diverse avian compositions in the United States as well as a host of endangered and other wildlife species.

Habitat diversity on Refuge lands provides for the needs of resident wildlife species as well as numerous seasonal residents and migrants of the Pacific Flyway. Over 400 bird species have been recorded at the Refuge and at least 93 species have nested on the Refuge. In addition, 41 species of mammals, 18 species of reptiles, 4 species of amphibians and 15 species of fish have been identified in the area.”

There is concern that the Salton Sea’s concentration of salinity is increasing from it’s already high of being twenty-five percent saltier than the Pacific Ocean.  

If the salinity increases the fish and birds that can withstand this high level will be unable to survive in a higher level of salt.
     







Northern Shovler? Cinnamon Teal?    ?             ?

Blue Heron  
     
   

   

The one mile walk to this hill ended here






On our way back to the Visitor's Center, we discovered new sights that we had missed by looking in only one direction.  



This Desert Cottontail is not doing chin ups, he is eating his dinner.
          

                                                             
 He takes a breather before going for more.                          


    






The Gambriel Quail  is playing hide and seek. 















THE END.



Thanks for stopping by 

God bless you all!

MAKING, NO, CATCHING UP IS HARD TO DO!

Oh, my!!!! This has been such a strange week! 

Monday...
brought our 4.7 earthquake, unseasonable heat.  We have been running from the heat all week in one way or another.

Tuesday....  
We decided to drive to Coachella to have some of John’s prescriptions filled.  We put the top down on the Miata and drove with the wind in our hair.  That’s a long stretch for John’s hair since I gave him a Buzz cut while he was still in Critical Care and he has kept it since! 

The first Walgreen's, in Coachella, CA, did not have everything John needed.  We were off to the second about a mile away. in Indio.  Eventually, we were heading back on 111 to 86 with the thought we would stop at the Salton Sea and see what bloggers are talking about. 

By the time we arrived in Salton City, our minds had shifted gears.  We were hot and had consumed all our water. We stopped in the Arco Station to buy cold drinks.  On our way to the counter to get our ice cold beverages, we detoured to the cooler where beer and wine was being stored.  We did not go in for either beer or wine, but to cool off a bit.  THAT was a great decision.  I wondered if someone was going to chase us out, but they were too busy with a tour bus crowd. 

After spending a few minutes in the cooler, we proceeded to get our cold drinks and were back on the road, heading back to Clark Dry Lake area, totally refreshed.


Not long after we turned onto S22 toward Borrego Springs, we made an impromptu decision, a detour.  There were some canyons of the Santa Rosa Mountains that we could see from the road.  We wanted to see them up close.  Especially since two motorhomes were parked at the top and overlooking the canyons.  What a view they must have had.

Add caption

The Santa Rosa Mountains end close to the Salton Sea, therefore the canyons are deep but very narrow, resulting in the poor photos. 
    

This last photo is taken of a wash with what looks to be some kind of shelter built into the mountain. Interesting.  We wish we knew when and who built it or if anyone built it.  We left with more questions than answers and with our still cold drinks. 
     
Wednesday.....
We stayed home.  The temperature was hovering around ninety-five degrees.  Neither John no I had any desire to do much more than take Oliver and Olivia out and come right back in. 

Tuesday’s heat affected us more than I thought.  I woke up still very tired.  Exhausted might be a better term.  After I was up for about five hours, I went back to bed and slept like a log.  When I awoke, I felt like I was coming out of anesthesia.  It took me about an hour to fully wake up.  

THURSDAY...

We were eager to get out and explore again even though the temperature was predicted to reach ninety-seven.  It reached ninety-nine!  But who is counting, right?

Al of the Bayfield Bunch has replied to someone’s blog, telling them where to find desert flowers in bloom. After a stop at Seley’s Borrego orange, lemon and grapefruit grove for a couple of three dollar bags, we were off to find the flowers.  

Of course, with the low clearance of the Miata, the heat, and John’s lack of stamina, we did not venture as far as we would have liked.  Yep, Al, it takes a four wheel drive! But I did manage two flower photos.  What I need is a camera like Al’s to get some good pictures of these flowers.

After we abandoned our search of flowers, we just drove.  When we could come to an intersection, I woulds say “right, left or straight,” John would choose and off we went.  This is a throw back of our adventures before motorhome days.  

Suddenly, we found ourselves at the Galleta Meadows Estates owned by the Avery family of the Avery label company.  What a lucky turn the last one turned out to be.  We had wanted to see the metal sculptures.  In 2011, when we were in Borrego Springs for a short time we saw only one of the metal sculptures.


Dennis Avery was quite a man.  A quote on the Galleta Meadows website shares his philosophy “Blessings are meant to be shared.”  And shared he did.  The purpose of Avery commissioning sculptor Ricardo A Breceda was to motivate learning.   These prehistoric animal depicted in sculptures  take us back three million years when these animals lived in the Borrego Springs area.  

Breceda's work is breathtaking! The attention to detail as shown  in these photos is astounding.  Each eyelash, fold of skin, muscle was individually created.  The tongue is anatomically correct. Research, patience, creativity, huge, tenacity are a few of the words that came to mind as we roamed for one piece of artwork to another. 

I shudder to think that schools are removing art from their curriculum's due to lack of funding.  The arts make an education well rounded.  What would have happened if this talented artist were not encouraged by his art teacher at school?
 
Below are more of Breceda’s work at the generosity of Dennis Avery.
                                             
   


 

We then went to the Visitor’s Center.  It was a disappointment to find that their projector was out of order and we could not see the presentations. One Barrel Cactus was in bloom.  The volunteers said that there are hardly any desert flowers this year due to the lack of rain.  Maybe next year. 

FRIDAY... 
found us back at the motorhome to recoup from Thursday.  Do you see a pattern emerging here?  Once again, the temperatures were right up there at one hundred degrees.  The air conditioning in the motorhome is a life saver!  Many have left Clark Dry Lake area, but we are still here cool, calm and collected as the saying goes! 

TODAY, SATURDAY...

A sunrise to behold and the sun just hitting the mountains in the west.  It is still terribly hot. 
Last  night we were rocked by the winds.  It is hot 


again and the air conditioning here in the Tiffin just keeps working! 
           



TONIGHT AND TOMORROW...
Tonight brings more wind.  It has started already at seven o’clock.  Gusts up to 50 mph again.  Another night of not sleeping well.

Tomorrow?  More searching for metal sculptures in……… drum roll please!!!!  Eight-five degree weather!  Whooppeeee!  We can live with that….easily.



How do the animals like the hot, hot weather?  Well, this is Oliver, Olivia and Noah.  The two O’s just came in from a walk with John.  They love the tile floors.  But so do I.  Just not for the same reason.  It’s a tough, rough world when you are a spoiled member of our family!


Oliver, in the middle, is telling you……THE END!   Olivia and Noah, oblivious!

Until next time….God Bless