Jan. 31 – Desert View / Palm Oasis
The desert view at the turnoff to Mountain Palm Springs campsite in the southwest section of Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
The North Grove on the trail of palm groves. A true desert oasis!
Jan. 30- Morteros
From Blair Valley, following the dirt road south along the mountain edge, we rode our bikes to a trailhead leading towards a jumble of huge boulders. This was the site of a Kumeyaay Indian village for thousands of years, where women would grind seeds in depressions on the huge rocks. Eventually morteros or mortars were worn deep into the rocks. The abundant agave plants on the surrounding slopes would be harvested by the men and roasted in pits.
Morteros worn into the granite boulder!
Agave and Yucca were important resources for the Kumeyaay.
Jan. 29 – Foot and Walker Pass
We headed down to the southwest section of Anza-Borrego State Park, roughly following the Southern Overland Stage Route of the late 1840’s-1861. We camped at Blair Valley which is the site of the title pass where passengers had to get out of the stage and walk over the short but steep terrain, and sometimes even help push the stagecoach over the pass!
A map of the California portion of the Butterfield trail can be seen here via Google maps.
Looking north from the top of the pass into Little Blair Valley.
Looking south into the dry lake bed of Blair Valley, the path extending to the right is the Butterfield trail.
A description of Stagecoach Service in the 1860’s is detailed here, real life description as opposed to the cinematic version in the 1939 movie “Stagecoach”!
Jan. 26 – Dramatic Clouds
A wet spell brought dramatic clouds and sunny illumination to the mountains surrounding us, and some rain to lull us to sleep.