Anza-Borrego Desert State Park- Saturday, March 30, 2013

Again today we struck out traveling south from the campground.  The area around Indio is known for growing dates.  We did stop at a roadside date store to purchase some dates to take home with us.  We continued south on the western side of the Salton sea that we had visited on Thursday on the eastern side of the lake.  Our destination today was Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. To get to the Visitor’s Center of the Park we had to pass through  Borrego Springs, a pretty town with lots of green grass and flowers.  This small town has several campgrounds that are used mainly in the winter months by snowbirds.  The Park surrounds this town.  In the Visitor’s Center we watched a short film about the park and then obtained some information about where to go within the 650,000 acres.  Many roads in the park can only be traveled with 4-wheel drive vehicles.  We drove a short distance up the Coyote Canyon Road looking for a picnic area that we did not find.  We then saw metal sculptures in an open area that we drove to, took some pictures and then ate our packed lunch in the Jeep.  Font Point was an area that was pointed out to us so we drove the 4 miles of a sandy, rough road to the Point.  This point overlooks the Badlands of California that is somewhat like the Badlands in the Dakotas.  Bighorn Sheep (borrego- the park’s namesake) that inhabit this area are endangered and unfortunately we did not see any today.

On the return to the campground in Desert Hot Springs we stopped at Sam’s Club to replenish our supplies.  After returning to the motorhome we decided to go out for dinner.  We had trouble finding some place that suited our taste but finally we returned to Palm Springs and the restaurant Maracas that we had eaten at before.  In addition to Mexican food, they have wonderful dinner salads which is what we ate this evening.