The Desert Is More Than Just Sun and Sand

I never gave the desert much of a chance. In the past, I simply viewed the desert as a place full of sand and too much heat from the sun. In fact, the brief times I had gone to the desert in the past it was far too hot for me, but the snakes and spiders sure did seem to like the heat as they crawled underfoot. It just wasn’t the place for me. I knew I loved the high deserts, but couldn’t find my love for the desert itself.

It wasn’t until I went to the desert with Tim that I saw some of the beauty that he raved about. The desert is sacred for him. It’s the place he often went to as a child and later as an adult. He knows almost every mile of Borrego and has camped there more times than he can count. So when he said he wanted to take me to the desert and show me why he loves it, I knew I would see a different side to the desert.

Borrego surrounds the city of Borrego Springs and is apart of Anza-Borrego State Park. Anza-Borrego State Park is the largest state park in all of California, containing 600,000 acres. The area is known for its annual spring blooms, bighorn sheep, slot canyons, and endless miles of dirt roads. You can go miles without seeing a single person. There are areas so quiet, you feel like you have the entire desert to yourself.

We often had the entire place to ourselves, make the trip with us and our friends an even better one. For me, the quiet and stillness of Borrego added to its beauty. We often had hidden gems all to ourselves, sometimes for hours at a time. We found this random empty campground that desert tortoises are sometimes spotted at. Our group rounded our trucks together, piled into the backs, and sat in the fall-chilled sunshine to soak it all in. It wasn’t until we were just about to leave that another group of people got there.

Something that truly captured my heart was the number of beautiful desert plants. Other than the giant palms in the Borrego Palm Canyon, desert plants are subtle. Their coloring is often subdued since they aren’t in bloom most of the year. Although some of the plants were slightly blooming when we were there due to some recent rainfall, the colors were muted compared to the plants I’m used to. The shades of green were that of sage and olive, with shades of greys, browns, and yellows. Although the plants appeared soft, they often had thorns to protect themselves from the animals of the desert.

I was also surprised by the variances within the desert. Within a couple of days, we drove on open roads without an end in sight in either direction, hiked through a slot canyon, stumbled upon hundreds of ocean shells, drove through what looked like Mars, and walked through a large ‘pumpkin patch’. The large ‘field’ of circular rocks appeared to be that of a pumpkin patch. These large pumpkin-like rocks are formed by the natural cementing of sand particles to other particles, revealing themselves due to erosion and water run-off. I always find myself in awe of what beauty mother nature can make.

Although a short trip, I quickly learned that the desert is so much more than just sun and sand. It’s filled with untouched beauty, stillness, and examples of resilience and strength. It has hundreds of years of history in the sand and signs of what the land was before. The rising and setting of the sun felt like it froze time and the stars were some of the brightest I’ve seen. I see many trips to the desert in our future and I’m more than ok with it.