Butterflies and Blooms

We had escaped the snow, survived the rain, and dodged the winds… what could mother nature possibly throw at us next?  You’ll never guess…. BUTTERFLIES!!  Leaving Desert Hot Springs we were pelted by Painted Ladies! They were hitting the windshield so fast and hard it sounded like rain. ICK!! 

The desert is blooming and that has the Painted Lady butterflies out in droves. Alas, many of the ladies apparently have overwhelming suicidal tendencies. We made it to our next destination, a boondocking area off Rockhouse Canyon Road outside of Borrego Springs around lunchtime on Sunday, 3/10, and pulled into a likely spot. We hopped out to survey the mess.  I swear the front of our rig looked like a Jackson Pollock masterpiece, albeit with a limited palette.

Ick, just ick!!

The Rockhouse Canyon boondocking area is huge and very popular. There were scores of RV’s spread out on a maze of dirt roads. We were happy with the spot we’d nabbed but decided to explore a little further down the road.

The Rockhouse Canyon boondocking area is large, but also VERY popular.

A couple miles past the main camping area and we found an excellent spot next to Clark Dry Lake Bed. You used to be able to pull out onto the lake bed and park, but it’s now closed to motorized vehicles. It worked out great – no close neighbors, Riley has the whole lake bed to play on, the mountains are beautiful, and we have quiet and solitude. Perfect! Well, maybe not quite perfect. We have absolutely no cell service here. Sigh, guess that’s a good thing. We wouldn’t want to get too comfortable. 😊

Ahhhh... so much better!

View from our coach.

Salt and mineral deposits on the dry lake bed.

The boys are chilling.

Riley's playground! 

Beautiful evening light. 

Monday we went into town and hit the visitors centers for Borrego Springs and the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We gathered up lots of information on the wildflowers and fun things to see and do in the area. It rained all Monday night, but Tuesday dawned clear and sunny. We decided to check out the wildflowers and another thing the area is known for. Yes, I’m being coy. I took about 200 pictures, so you’re going to see wildflowers today and I’m saving the other thing for my next post. You’ll just have to wait. Lol.

The wildflower peepers are out in force.

The wildflowers did not disappoint. We took Riley along since the main flower viewing areas weren’t on the state park trails and he could walk with us. Riley wasn’t too impressed, although he tried to be helpful by watering as many flowers as possible. 😊

It's a family affair. Lol.

So, here’s a sampling of what we saw. Many of the flowers are tiny but beautiful and the sheer volume is incredible. The normally brown and barren hillsides are green and decorated with huge swathes of purple and yellow, with pops of pink, red, and white. I’m sure you’ve seen more impressive gardens and floral displays – but geesh, this is the desert and it’s beautiful!

Fields of gold!

Purple Sand Verbena

A Painted Lady escaped the carnage. Lol.

Brown-eyed Evening Primrose

Desert Lily

Desert Sunflower

Fremonts Pincushion (L) and Desert Chicory (R)

Yellow and purple dominate.

Dune Evening Primrose

A mountain backdrop for the fields of flowers.

Spectacle Pod.

Desert Dandelion

Pygmy Gold Poppy

Ocotillo, not quite in full bloom yet. 

In our next post I’ll show you what we saw on the rest of our drive. 😊

Happy Hour and Hot Water.... Ahhhhhhhh

Desert in the springtime… the sun is shining, the wildflowers are blooming, and the damn wind is BLOWING. On Sunday, 3/3, we pulled into Caliente Springs RV Resort which is located in Desert Hot Springs on the windy side of the valley. It was blowing like crazy and Rog was sure there must be a storm or wind advisory in effect. Nope – just the normal craziness. We're guessing it has to hit 40 or 50mph before the locals get excited. Lol.

Thousands of these "wind generators" line the valley.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised it's been blowing like crazy!

I swear the winds here can be a ripping 20-30mph and you drive across the valley to Palm Springs and it’s dead calm. On the up side, we have amazing hot mineral spring fed pools. We are booked for a week and feeling like life is good. We have made our pilgrimage to the pools to soak for an hour or more. Every. Single. Day. For that I can deal with a little breeze. 😊 

We are enjoying the hot mineral spring fed pools!

The daily Water Ball games are a kick.

Breezy but beautiful!

View from the clubhouse - love the snow dusted hills. 

We’re not generally huge fans of private RV parks since you are usually crammed in like sardines with little to show for it other than hookups. The spaces here are fairly typical, but the amenities rock! The pool system really is amazing and there are always activities and classes going on. We’ve done yoga classes three times this week and that is a rare treat on the road. 

Yoga class- 8AM Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Yep, we did it.

Riley has perks too, a spacious off-leash dog park with grass and fun new friends to play with.  We’ve been hitting that nearly every day too. 

The resort has it's own dog park and Riley had a blast!

One of the reasons we decided to hang here in Desert Hot Springs was that my Happy Hour accomplice, Elaine, was going to be in the area visiting family. We managed to rendezvous for a little soaking and sipping. 😊 Elaine, her cousin from Ohio, Gail, Rog, and I had an excellent happy hour at Trio in Palm Springs. We started with margaritas, but then watched as the bartender mixed this incredibly complex and yummy looking cocktail. He called it a Trio Fizz and said it was his creation and that it had won a bartending competition. So, Elaine says give us four of those! I cannot begin to tell you what all went into it, but the end result was something like a very adult orange creamsicle – dangerously good! (Thank you, Elaine!)

Outside Trio with Elaine- Happy Hour here we come!

The award winning (and yummy) Trio Fizz. 

Those are some happy (hour) campers.. Lol.

We haven’t just lazed around in the pool. On Tuesday, 3/5, we took Riley on a four-hour driving tour of Joshua Tree National Park. The Park includes areas of both the Colorado and Mohave Deserts. The Colorado Desert is lower in elevation, dryer, and hotter. You see lots more cholla cactus (over 200,000 specimens in the area around Cholla Gardens!). Interestingly, the best wildflowers were at the lower elevations too. At the south entrance the flowers were just fabulous!

Spoiled much? Rog rigged a fan so Riley stays cool. 

The desert is blooming!

Wildflowers for miles. Such a treat!

Rog in the Cholla Garden.

Close up of the Cholla buds. Yes they are edible, but ouch!

Give us a hug!
Nope!

The Mohave Desert area of the park is higher in elevation (over 3000 ft) and that’s where you’ll find the Joshua Trees, scrub oak and juniper. Oasis of fan-palms are also found wherever the groundwater hits a fault line and comes to the surface. Since the trails are off-limits to the pooches, we just enjoyed the pull outs and views. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the base of some really cool boulders.

Joshua Tree. Gotta say, I do prefer the redwoods. Lol.

Love the huge piles of granite boulders.

Yes! Riley finds shade in the desert. 

Mr. Sandy Lips dropped his cookie and half the Mojave stuck to his face. Yuck.

Thursday evenings Palm Springs hosts a street fair called VillageFest. It’s dog friendly so we loaded Riley up and headed over to check it out. With over 200 vendors, live music, a dance competition, and crazy crowds it was a bit overwhelming for both him and us. He did great though and was a solid hit. He is so patient and handled all the adoring fans quite well. For being such a good boy, he talked Mom & Dad into getting him his own dish of ice cream. Clearly his favorite part of the evening. Riley attracted the attention of a videoblogger at Joshua Tree National Park and at VillageFest he had lots of pictures taken with The Great Bambino, a well-dressed Sharpei with his own Instagram following. Riley may be a media sensation yet. Lol. 

 At VillageFest in Palm Springs. 

Good dogs deserve a treat. :) 

Saturday, we drove back to the town of Joshua Tree for their farmer’s market, which is also dog-friendly. We picked up produce, local cheese and baked goods while Riley charmed the ladies yet again. Lol.

Joshua Tree Farmer's Market.

Such a charmer.
Takes after his daddy. :) 

This has been a fun and relaxing week but we pull out tomorrow (Sunday, 3/10) with plans to boondock somewhere around Borrego Springs, CA. We’ve read so many good things about the area, we’re excited to check it out. Don't be alarmed if we're out of touch for a bit, we may not have much in the way of cell service or internet connectivity (yes, I will miss the resort's wifi!).

Almond Orchards and Orange Groves

As we left Grandma’s on Wednesday, 2/27, we saw the aftermath of the nearly 8 inches of rain that had fallen in the last two days. In the valley some roads and vineyards were flooded.  Even more rain had fallen at higher elevations causing more serious flooding. We made it out of the valley and headed south without any problems.

The road out of St. Helena was partially flooded.

We saw several cars along the vineyard roads under water.  Ouch.

Our next stop was something new for us. We recently joined Harvest Hosts, an organization that allows you to stay overnight at participating wineries, farms, and museums free of charge. The catch, if you want to call it that, is that campers are expected to patronize the host’s business. Hmmmmm… pay $30 for a campsite or spend $30 and take home a bottle of wine, almonds, jam, etc. That’s a no brainer!  Most of the time it’s dry camping, but our first experience with the program was at Vista Ranch & Cellars in Merced, CA and it was deluxe. Vista put in water and 50-amp electrical hookups behind their tasting room.  We had a lovely view of the almond orchards in full bloom.  The tasting room and gift shop were fun, and it was no hardship to leave with a bottle of wine and a bag of goodies. We also got permission to walk Riley in the almond orchard and he enjoyed some off-leash playtime with Daddy. Overall an excellent introduction to Harvest Hosts that we hope to repeat soon! 

Our giant kitty playing with his teaser toy. 

The almond orchards were in full bloom.

So pretty and it smelled wonderful too!

Walking back to the RV - you can just see it parked at the end of the row.

The next day (2/28) we continued on to Bakersfield, CA for two nights at Orange Grove RV Park. Orange Grove lives up to its name – there are orange trees everywhere - between every site, all along the perimeter, and if that isn’t enough, there’s a whole grove out the back gate. Best of all, campers are encouraged to pick as many as they want. We stayed here last year but it was later in the season and we’d missed the oranges. This time we hit it just right and loaded up on amazing fresh picked oranges. We’ll be drinking fresh squeezed orange juice for a week!

Orange Grove RV Park lives up to its name!

We can pick as many as we want! Yum!!

Today's harvest of delicious tree ripened California oranges. 

Riley guards our booty.

We spent Friday hitting Costco, Home Depot, getting groceries, etc. That dang compartment door broke again, so Rog bought a whole new locking latch and installed it. Hopefully that will do the trick and there will be no more roadside duct tape dances.  Before leaving, we also took advantage of the free washing station at Orange Grove to get both the RV and the Acadia shiny clean.

Ok, I couldn't resist.  These monstrosities are at the campground entrance.
This is how NOT to prune a tree... any tree.   Only Dr. Seuss would be proud. 

On Saturday, 3/2, we swapped our full-hookup private RV park for a dry campsite situated a mile or so down a dusty dirt road. (Ask me again why we just washed the car and rig?? Lol.)  But I have to admit, Sawtooth Canyon BLM Campground was totally worth it.  It was so quiet - no traffic, no trains, and the night sky was spectacular. The campground was a find too. It’s well maintained, several of sites have ramadas with picnic tables, there’s a cute little playground, and pit toilets. And it's totally free!  It’s a favorite of rock climbers and we got to see some deranged folks defying death on the rock pinnacles. We were happy to hike up the hillside above the campground – great views and both feet still firmly on the ground. 😊

Walkies among the rock formations. 

I will totally pass. 

Finally found some Riley-sized bones! Lol. 

View of the campground from our hike up the hill.

Dusk on the trail.

Heading back to camp.

Evening light on the hills.

Ahhhhhh. Peace and quiet.

Our next stop in Desert Hot Springs was recommended by a couple we met at the Harvest Host site and saw again at Orange Grove. They raved about the hot mineral spring pools at Caliente Springs RV Resort. Since my good friend and happy hour accomplice, Elaine, was visiting the area just when we'd be passing through, I called to ask about reservations. Lucky us,  they were running a ½ price special on RV sites, so we booked a week!  Sounds like happy hour karma to me!

So we escaped the snow and survived the floods, guess what's coming next....