Desert Southwest

Out There in the Anza-Borrego Desert

Road trip through California's cactus-filled desert wonderland.

I

left Los Angeles in the rain, and when I passed through winding roads of Escondido, I was in Mission Country: great fertile pastures and horses and tiled Spanish churches. After a town of horse-drawn carriages and children playing in the street, the rain grew thicker.

As I rounded a cliff, I saw two bulls fighting on a plateau; and this was a thoroughly stunning scene. But I was getting concerned; the rain was creating a fog as I drove higher into the mountains. Soon, the fog grew to a visibility of 50 feet. Headlights at 70, and on this narrow winding road, this means extreme caution; and so for almost two hours I crept along at 10 miles per hour.

In 1998, El Nino rains padded the Southwest's deserts with moist, fertile sands in an almost scientifically perfect pattern. 3 inches in mid-January. An inch in late January, an inch in February and a slight patter in March. I like to describe the desert as timeless, and barren. Take its sand in the palm of your hand and sift through it - nothing there but sand.

Abandoned gas station along the Salton Sea.