greenearthplanet

One word, One world

  • Home
  • Blog–Latest Posts
  • My Backyard Pages
  • Favorite Photos
  • Panorama Pages
  • Workshops
  • Galleries
  • About

The Winter Beauty of Anza-Borrego

February 15, 2016 by Lee Leave a Comment

A great place to visit Anza-Borrego in the winter months is under the crisp, clear skies of the southeastern area of the park.  Soaring hawks, the edges of storms collapsing at the rain shadow, ebullient rainbows disappearing into the blue sky…

The focus of this area is Agua Caliente County Park, tucked against the rocky foothills of the Laguna Range.  There is Indian Gorge and Bow Willow a few miles to the south and Bisnaga Wash and Vallecitos to the north.  Of these locales, Bisnaga Wash has the most feel of a desert garden, with its bright sandy washes bursting with color and desert life. 

Bisnaga Wash is a drainage basin that carries the flow of rainfall from the stately mountain to its north, 5,349′ Whale Peak.  At an elevation around 1,400′, the wash is accessed from County Highway S-2 about 1 mile north of the turn-off to Agua Caliente County Park. There is signage for Bisnaga Wash at a pull-out on the east side of the road with convenient parking for a few cars.  Another 0.9 miles up the road, toward Vallecitos County Park, is Bisnaga Alta Wash, a well-defined bajada no less than 500 feet wide and offering excellent hiking and opportunities to see gardens of barrel cactus along its 2.5 mile length to the foot of Whale Peak.

Bisnaga is an Americanism for the Spanish Biznaga, which refers to tall barrel cactus.

This post is under construction.

Bisnaga Wash is accessed from County Highway S-2 about 1 mile north of the turn-off to Agua Caliente County Park (see map below). There is signage for Bisnaga Wash at a pull-out on the east side of the road with convenient parking for a few cars.  The trek up the wash is to the northeast from parking, around the periphery of the hills to the northwest.

Get Directions

Add Waypoint
show options hide options
Print directions Reset directions
Fetching directions......
Reset directions
Print directions

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Other desert visits

Bisnaga WashTHE WINTER BEAUTY OF ANZA-BORREGO
A great place to visit n Anza-Borrego State Park  in the winter months is Bisnaga Wash, flowing down from Whale Peak under the crisp, clear skies of the southeastern area of the park.  Soaring hawks, the edges of storms collapsing at the rain shadow, and ebullient rainbows disappearing into the blue sky.

Bisnaga is an Americanism for the Spanish Biznaga, which refers to tall barrel cactus.

AMBOY CRATER IN WILDFLOWERS
A volcano flowing with neon green floats on a sea of  yellow desert sunflowers. A season of spectacular rains may come only every five to eight years in the Southwest, producing prodigious blooms that bring sightseers from around the world and their insect pollinators from seemingly out of nowhere.

Amboy Crater was featured in a Huell Howser California Gold episode about Amboy in 1993 and the volcano itself came to life as a set location for the 1959 movie Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Female Phaianopepla guards nestTHE BUSY LIFE OF BOX CANYON
The little narrow canyon  was in the 1840s the best route into San Diego from Arizona and Texas, and still showcases the Mormon Battalion hand-built road which became the route of the Butterfield Stage line.  The stage route can be easily seen today, struggling between the narrowing canyon walls as it makes its way into Blair Valley and once-upon-a-time all the way to Los Angeles.

Somehow, an abundance of wildlife and color have been left behind, and thrive after 175 years, for time has not diminished the richness of the environs here, as they were for San Diego’s early settlers, which include an unusual density of barrel cactii, birds and and buzzing pollinators among a diverse garden of flowering plants and juniper trees.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Taking in Tanzania
  • Glorietta Canyon on a Soft Spring Day
  • The Erie Canal
  • The Tidal Zones at Bird Rock
  • The Salton Seabirds
  • Whale Watching on a Quiet Sea
  • The Big Boardwalk of Little Elfin Forest
  • Point Lobos, Dreamscape-by-the-Sea
  • Rancho La Costa Preserve
  • Mission Trails Floral Expo 2019
  • Carrizo Plain’s Superbloom of 2019
  • Anza-Borrego’s 2019 Superbloom, Mescal Bajada to Indian Valley

Technical Post

This month’s technical post (under construction) explains the preparations and difficulties of photographing the total eclipse of 2017, from site selection to camera specifications, for the shots of the diamond rings.

Recent Posts

  • Taking in Tanzania
  • Glorietta Canyon on a Soft Spring Day
  • The Erie Canal
  • The Tidal Zones at Bird Rock
  • The Salton Seabirds
  • Whale Watching on a Quiet Sea
  • The Big Boardwalk of Little Elfin Forest
  • Point Lobos, Dreamscape-by-the-Sea
  • Rancho La Costa Preserve
  • Mission Trails Floral Expo 2019
  • Carrizo Plain’s Superbloom of 2019
  • Anza-Borrego’s 2019 Superbloom, Mescal Bajada to Indian Valley

In the Works

  • Taking In Tanzania
  • Tips and Tricks along the Green River
  • The Australian Outback
  • Yellowstone in Mid-Winter
  • Flora and Fauna of Costa Rica
  • Maui landscapes
  • Shorebirds of the Southwest
  • A Visit to the Galapagos

A quote for this month

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”

John Wesley

© 2023 · greenearthplanet