We rode our motorcycles out of Borrego Springs up the Montezuma Grade between the San Ysidro mountains and Pinyon Ridge.
A fabulous view overlooking Borrego Valley.
We reached Culp Valley and checked out the primitive campsites up there. It’s about 10 degrees or more cooler up here than down on the desert floor.
Cooler temperatures and more moisture create a seemingly lush and verdant valley.
North Grove palms up close after a morning hike before it got too hot!
Mary’s Grove is farther up the canyon.
The name Mountain Palm Springs is verified in this grove by the trickle of water running down the wash. The shade and moisture was welcome and cooling in the blazing morning sunshine!
Palm Bowl.
This last grove I made it to was like a distant mirage up a brush filled wash.
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!
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.
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”!