Anza Bonaza 8

Our annual trip in search of desert wildflowers in Anza Borrego yielded more than just pretty flowers. This year Shawna organized the best bonanza of all past Anza Bonanzas, filled with close encounters of the vertebrate and invertebrate kind.

The trip started out with its usual stops. A quick look at the Visitor's Center to ask what everyone asks "where are the flowers?" This year's bloom brought a line to the the overflowing Vistor's parking lot. And with flowers everywhere you didn't have to go far. just a few mile northeast were fields of sand verbena, desert dandelion, and desert chicory. So we all (Shawna, Dale, Jeannine, Brian, Wendy, Ben, Angela, Heather, a sick Dorothy, and I) set off for the death march up Alcoholic Pass. Up we climbed the steep rocky slope under hot desert skies leaving the flowers below. Well, we did find some purdy little Bigelow's monkey flower and blooming beavertail cactus. The views of the rarely seen green hills of the desert were worth the ascent, but we ready to get back to ground level and start passing the alcohol. Maybe that was why it was called Alcoholic's Pass?






At camp, Angela brought out not just chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers... no, we were treated to s'mores with Reese's peanut butter cups and Cadbury caramel chocolate. After all that sugar I was ready for another beer. Luckily I didn't drink so much as to unsteady my nimble scorpion-catching hands. While Ben was enjoying some brew he calmly mentioned that a lizard had crawled up beside him as he sat on the ground by the camp fire. Then his voice jumped a few octaves as he jumped a few feet when he noticed that it was not a lizard but a large 5-inch desert hairy scorpion. Of course the scorpion immediately ran towards Dale and Jeannine's tent. To Dorothy's protest, I snatched up the scorpion by the tail just under the drop of poison poised on the tip of the stinger. This was the largest scorpion I had ever seen. The little bugger was also quite strong and was able to bend himself up and pinch me while he dangled by his tail. With help from Brian we escorted the scorpion to safe place away from of tents. Brian commented that maybe the beer dulled my senses enough to make me feel that picking up the scorpion was a good idea.

The next day we decided we hadn't had enough punishment yet so we went for a hike up Palm Canyon to find the endangered big horn sheep. The sheep are hit or miss since they stay hidden up in the boulder and rock strewn hills above the canyon. But, I had seen them here before so we were optimistic that we might get a fleeting glimpse. The red rocks and green shrubs of the canyon were dramatic in the morning sun. And, as the trail approached the northern slope of the canyon wall another hiker informed us that a couple sheep were visible up the hill. We anxiously searched the hillside and saw a stout male crouched on a ledge. He had large set of horns suggesting he was full adult. As all ten of us gathered around the base of the hill a second male appeared. He was a bit younger with a less intimidating set of horns. The two of the them hopped around on the rocks undecided for a bit then slowly made there way down the slope towards us! I figured they would take one look at the gaggle of on-lookers and take off over the hill and out of site. Within a couple hundred feet they veered down and to the left behind the rocks. We all scampered around the bend in the trail to follow the sheep with Dale in the lead. Dale lost site of the sheep for a second and then found himself within thirty feet of the larger of male as he bounded up onto a boulder in front of him. The male with the horns did not appear scared. The male with the Czech accent did. As we stared and took photos the sheep just stood there like statue mounted on that boulder. Even Angela's wild laughter did not evoke a reaction out of him. The larger male eventually bounded off across the wash while the smaller and more sheepish male took the longer route away from the wildlife paparazzi. We were so in awe of this close up viewing that we didn't bother reaching the palm oasis at the end of the trail.

We hurried back to the campground to break camp and end our happy little gathering. Jeannine, Shawna, Dorothy and I headed straight back to SD for the girl's practice... well, we did make one stop... at Dudley's! This time we didn't go for the yummy baked goods but rather had some delicious deli sandwiches. All-in-all we were all totally beat by the end of the weekend but you know you've had a good weekend when you're more tired going back to work on Monday!