A favorite travel destination for us

If we were to rank our favorite destinations, the list would most certainly include great scenery with birds and blooms. Add to that warm weather and plenty of sun. That’s why we made a return trip to Borrego Springs, in the desert of southern California.

It’s too early for the spectacular desert spring blooming season, but we found enough blooms to make us happy.

We hiked at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park where the vista usually includes mountains and cactus. We appreciated being able to see miles into the distance — after having grown up in places where hiking involved seeing no more than the few trees surrounding us.

We heard bees buzzing before we even saw blooming fishhook cactus. The small cactuses lined the path for a ways, and we now saw bees hopping from one flower to the next. Just as we got our cameras ready, a bee flew into the photo.

A 40-minute drive to the east from Borrego Springs is the Salton Sea.   For those interested in seeing (lots of) birds, it’s a good destination.

After parking at the visitor center of the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, we headed down a nature path. In the field next to us, a mixed flock of red-winged blackbirds and yellow-headed blackbirds swirled through the air.

We watched the blackbirds for quite awhile as they settled in the field and then suddenly lifted off – almost as one – into the sky. A minute of soaring through the air and then they landed almost as one before repeating the cycle over and over.

It wasn’t just blackbirds we saw in large flocks. Snow geese appeared, as if large snowflakes which drifted through the sky.

We chose this area for the birds, blooms, the warm weather, and sun, but now we realize that being outdoors for most of the day in a quiet place was a large part of the appeal. At night, we went back outside to view the stars in a vast and dark sky. The town is small but had just enough stores and restaurants to keep us happy. We’d say Borrego Springs is one of the calmest, most peaceful places we’ve stayed.

 

February 2017