The Best Bad Weather

After going to Mass at St. Richard’s in Borrego Springs, we geared up for a day of exploring and went to the visitors’ center to get the low-down on the weather. It rained off and on Saturday night, and there was a 50% chance of rain on Sunday in addition to high winds. I asked if our planned excursions, to South Palm Wash and Font’s Point, would be okay. They said sure.



The park is very big. We drove 15-20 miles to get to our first destination, a slot canyon. We had specific instructions from a ranger about where to look for the turn-off. After passing a steeply sloping gravel clearing, we realized that was the parking lot. We turned around and pulled in. There is a jeep road that wraps around a steep ravine and heads down to the bottom of the wash. At first, it didn’t look like the truck would fit, but once we walked a few yards I decided it would be fine. Danine and Elise walked to the bottom to take pictures while I raced back up to get the truck. I put it in the low four-wheel drive mode and first gear, then let the truck do the rest. It crept easily down the ravine. No problems. The rest of the half-mile drive through the wash was flat, sandy and fine.



It’s easy to tell where to stop in the wash, because the canyon becomes too narrow to drive a truck (or VW Beetle) through. We then hopped out and hiked into the canyon. It was narrow with a sandy floor, and in many places the occasional water and the frequent wind have carved smooth curves and patterns along the walls. Much of the canyon is not rock so much as compressed sand. You can pick up pieces and crush them in your hand. At some points the canyon narrows to as little as two or three feet across.





Elise enjoyed the scrambling opportunities this hike presented and we took a few detours up rockfalls and cave-like offshoots. The sky remained incredibly blue above us and the wind moderate. During the whole two and a half hour adventure we saw not one other person. We did see an energetic lizard and some beetles!



The truck crawled neatly back out of the wash and we headed to another off-road track. This was a four-mile stretch through a wide, sandy wash. It leads to an overlook called Font’s Point. We timed it to be there near sunset. Danine got to the overlook first and told Elise and I to stop and close our eyes. Being very trusting, we did this and she lead us by our hands. Once she told us to open our eyes, we saw first that we were four feet from the edge of a cliff! And then we looked out over an vast expanse of badlands: a labyrinth of wrinkled and crenulated red and brown hills. We lingered for a long time.


On the left horizon, the bright blue is the Salton Sea.



We ended our evening eating at the cheap and delicious Jilberto’s back in town. Jilberto’s is Spanish for “piles of Mexican of food large enough to bury a basketball.” We then watched the second half of The Sound of Music and called it a day.