Spring break outings are upon us and we decided to go to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park today. Living in San Diego, we are lucky to be able to travel from the ocean to the desert in about 2 hours. We decided to check out the desert flowers since we've had so much rain this season. They were beautiful. And our children had never been to the desert and they were curious. There were a lot of misconceptions about the desert that we clarified with our trip.
We stopped in at the visitor center and learned a bit about the cacti, the animals from centuries past, the people from long ago and picked up a book and a flower chart. We decided on a hike and headed out after lunch under the ocotillo plants. There were flowers and cacti everywhere. We saw lots of barrel cacti, ocotillo, rock daisies, desert trumpets, wild heliotrope, chuparosa, desert cassia, brittlebrush covered in ladybugs, and so many more. It was such a difference from the last time I was there searching for flowers.
The day was perfect, the weather was beautiful and we all had fun! We stopped to have pizza at Wynola Pizza on our way home, yum! What a great way to start the Easter weekend!
4 kid hikers
Ben and Rebekah
Noah the turtle
Hannah loved the flowers
A Cholla (Silver or Devil, not sure which)
Barrel cactus
Beavertail cactus with flower and view of desert from the top of the hike
Large eagle
Ocotillo in bloom
Iron mammoths running through the desert (there were wild horses too)
