Monday, April 23, 2012

Inner Pasture / Myer Valley

A quick 24 hour trip to the desert in unusually high triple digit temperatures...pictures are worth a thousands words...good thing I have a camera....

Fishhook Cactus in Inner Pasture
Fishhook Cactus Bloom

Snakes are out
Rattlesnake in Inner Pasture

Up close
Rattlesnake in Inner Pasture

The Turbines are coming...fight the Ocotillo Wind Project!
The Turbines Are Coming

Myer Valley artifacts
Signs of undocumented travelers in Myer Valley

Snakes are still out, this is a great reason why you should not put your hands in the rocks where you cannot first see what's there
This is why youdon't put your hands in rocks where you can't see first.

Another close up
This is why youdon't put your hands in rocks where you can't see first.

Some blank rocks and DStretch






The meteor showers were not as vivid as the press made it out to be, I only saw a few meteors and photographed this picture of the Milky Way
Milky Way from the Carrizo Badlands Overlook

Ants are a curious thing, these guys were hard at work at sunrise. Amazing to see thounsands of them toiling away making their home. Too bad projects like the Ocotillo Wind Project will kill them off
Ants building their home
Ants building their home


Total Mylar Balloons this trip - 4

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Wildlife of the Week

Spring is here in San Diego and the birds are back in my yard

Hooded Oriole
Hooded Oriole
Hooded Oriole

White Crowned Sparrow
White Crowned Sparrow

House Finch
Red House Finch

Spring also means snakes, here is a nice Gopher Snake in Jacumba
Gopher Snake

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Indian Valley / June Wash / Diablo BM - ABDSP

Like many of my trips to Anza Borrego Desert State Park I usually will have one thing I am going out to do and then I will usually find other things along the way to do also. This trip involved photographing some pictographs near the In-Ko-Pah mountain range. Using Indian Valley as my base camp I packed up my gear and was ready for a 2 day backpack trip to try and find the pictographs. The weather was great and I only saw a few cars the first day I arrived and then only a single person when I left, none of them were camping.

The pictographs proved to be worth all the effort, here are few photos of them.

DStretched enhanced circle motif
XRay Pictograph DStretched Enhanced

I have seen some refer to these next two pictographs as the Xray pictographs
XRay Pictograph
XRay Pictograph

DStretched enhanced version
XRay Pictograph DStretched Enhanced

To learn more about pictographs in Anza Borrego Desert State Park pick up a copy of Manfred Knaak's book The Forgotten Artist: Indians of Anza-Borrego and Their Rock Art

You can find more books about Rock Art in California on Amazon

Before heading back to Indian Valley I figured I would summit False Sombrero, it has been just over a year since Scotty "C" and I went up there.

Looks like the Cliff Bar and the Cholla Ball Combs we left are still in the jar
Cliff Bar and Cholla Ball combs Scott and I left in the False Sombrero Peak Register jar over a year ago

And someone may have actually used Scotty's combs!
False Sombrero register, somebody liked Scott's Cholla Ball combs

One small dime sized macro wildflower bloom in Indian Valley before I left
Wildflower in Indian Valley, this is about the size of your pinky fingernail

Before going home I decided to go over to June Wash and try to hike up and over to Sandstone Canyon as described in Jerry Schads book. The effort proved too much for me after the backpack trip and I stopped at Diablo BM instead and called it a day. It was still a great hike and the views were awesome, recommended hike for sure to anyone thinking about it. Do read the trip description in Jerry's newest edition unlike myself. I only took his 1986 copy and the description was outdated and I ended up hiking the wrong wash.

June Wash sign at the S2 turn off
June Wash sign near the S2

Heading up June Wash, it is easy going for the first 1-1/2 miles or so and then it gets bouldery
Going up June Wash

The Diablo BM register
Diablo BM Register

Heading back down June Wash, Sombrero Peak waaaayy off in the distance
Looking down June Wash on the way back

Here are links to (2) 360 degree panorama images from Diablo BM. One is just the view and the next is the view but with landscape features annotated for reference. I recommend you download the full versions of the photos and zoom in and pan around, they are about 22MB each.

View only - Download full version
360 panorama from Diablo BM in Anza Borrego Desert State Park

View with landscape features - Download full version
360 panorama from Diablo BM in Anza Borrego Desert State Park with landscape names

Congratulations, it's a boy! - From The Desert
Congratulations, it's a boy! - The Desert

Total Mylar Ballons this trip - 2
Total old faded beer cans - 2


Monday, April 2, 2012

Carrizo Gorge / Mason Valley / Red Hill - ABDSP

I have a pretty long list of places I keep telling myself I will stop and check out "one of these days" and this week I knocked out a few of them. First stop was Carrizo Gorge, among other reasons for the visit I wanted to get some pictures of the pictographs with my good camera. ABDSP is really stepping up the efforts in Carrizo Gorge, they have recently added many new big, thick wooden posts and signs blocking access to the Rockhouse Canyon road, many self made side trails/roads and also at the end of the road itself. These are all for the better, people have been driving off the road in too many places damaging many parts of the gorge. Tamarisk removal is also obvious, the road is almost void of brush scraping your vehicle.

According to Stellarium, this photo shows the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Orion, Sirius, Pleiades star cluster (M45) and more. Sombrero Peak is in the far distance just to the right of the tree, False Sombrero can also be seen further to the right - Carrizo Gorge
Moon, Venus, Jupiter, Orion, Sirius, Pleiades star cluster (M45) and more. Sombrero Peak is in the far distance just to the right of the tree, False Sombrero can also be seen further to the right.

Teddy Bear Cholla Wildflower - Carrizo Gorge
Teddy Bear Cholla Bloom

Pictographs in Carrizo Gorge
Pictographs in Carrizo Gorge
Pictographs in Carrizo Gorge

To learn more about pictographs in Anza Borrego Desert State Park pick up a copy of Manfred Knaak's book The Forgotten Artist: Indians of Anza-Borrego and Their Rock Art

You can find more books about Rock Art in California on Amazon

Three coyotes walked up to my campsite near dusk while I was reading, I broke one of my own rules by not having my camera with me so the next best thing is the prints they left (starting in the bottom right corner going to the top left). You can see how close they came up to me. They really had no fear or concern about me, we made eye contact and then they calmly continued on their way - Carrizo Gorge
Coyote prints near my camp, three coyotes stopped by to check me out while I was reading a book next to my truck. I did not have the camera nearby.

Mason Valley is one of those places I drive by all the time and have wanted to go check out. I spent almost all day wandering around the valley and still did not see everything I wanted, I did not get over to check out the old mines for example. Technically Mason Valley (where I went) is private property owned by the Butterfield Ranch and BLM land. When I was out on the trail I had the opportunity to meet the owner of the Buterfield Ranch and help her with horses and some riders with her. I really liked the area. All the photos from Mason Valley can be seen here

Some great old vehicles and farm equipment at the Butterfield Ranch
Old vehicles at the Butterfield Ranch
Old vehicles at the Butterfield Ranch
Old vehicles at the Butterfield Ranch
Old farm equipment at the Butterfield Ranch
Old farm equipment at the Butterfield Ranch
Old farm equipment at the Butterfield Ranch

Out in Mason Valley there is an old rockhouse built into the hills that I believe early ranchers used.
Old Rock House in Mason Valley

This is a dugout in the corner of the house that was probably used for storage or a dry shelter when raining
The bedroom of the rock house

This is looking out the front door into the valley
Looking out the front door of the rockhouse

This must be where the stove or fireplace must have been, you can see the steel exhaust vent pipe above and it channels out to the chimney outside
This is where the stove/fireplace must have been. You can see the metal exhaust pipe above which leads to the outside chimney.

This is a small dam next to the rockhouse, it was used to block a small stream nearby
This is a small dam near the Rockhouse

Indians definitely favored Mason Valley, there are some great morteros in some interesting rock
Nice deep morteros in volcanic rock

Somebody must know why animals love to leave their crap in holes in the rocks
Scat in the morteros again

I found several cupule boulders in the valley
Cupule Boulder

There was pottery in the area also, including this very thick, large piece
A really big thick piece of pottery

Here is a very interesting rock wall that hugged the edges of a wash, it was much, much longer than what the photo shows
A very long rock wall, maybe to channel the wash but I am not sure

There were many wildflower blooms in the valley, you can see more wildflowers here
Desert Apricot - Mason Valley
Desert Apricot

Beavertail Cactus - Mason Valley
Beaver Tail Cactus Bloom


Making my way back home I stopped to climb Red Hill. I swear I have told myself a million times I would stop and climb it real quick before going home..well that was today.

From the S2 highway looking at Red Hill in the distance
Looking towards Red Hill

As I neared the summit the terrain turned to mostly volcanic boulders and required using my hands to get up
Almost to the top, pretty much all volcanic rocks at this point

Here we go again, scat in a nice hole in the rocks near the summit
Scat in a hole way up on Red Hill. Ocotillo is in the background

On the summit of Red Hill looking towards Ocotillo. If the Ocotillo Wind Energy Project succeeds this view will be of 150+ 450' tall Wind Generators
Top of Red Hill looking towards Ocotillo

The last entry in the register was over a month old
Last entry in the register was over a month ago

Some beautiful blooms were on the sides of Red Hill
Ocotillo - Red Hill
Nice Ocotillo Bloom

Beavertail Cactus - Red Hill
The bees were full of pollen from the new blooms. Beavertail Cactus

Gorgeous Ocotillo blooms were everywhere - Red Hill
Ocotillo plants were all blooming bright red
Ocotillo plants were all blooming bright red

Happy Sweet Sixteen little darling...total mylar balloons this trip - 6
Happy Sweet 16 Darling, 6 mylar ballons this trip

Sunrise Powerlink laydown area in Ocotillo. This is what is left now that they have finished and gone. It will take thousands of years for the "Restoration" to return back to the way it was before SDG&E raped the land...way to go SDG&E!