A storm in the desert

You never know where you’ll end up spending the night on a trip with Mohita.  We don’t really have a schedule or a destination so we’re open to the winds of chance.  Yesterday we heard from our friends Ches and Allison, who we first met in 2008 on our long motor home trip to Mexico.  They’ve been constantly on the road and whenever we’re in southern USA or Mexico we connect up with them.  When they found out our location they recommended a side trip to the Salton Sea, south of Palm Springs.  So this morning we put off meeting up with Konrad and Heather for a couple of days and headed off for Niland on the east side of the Salton Sea. 

Apparently there are couple of very cool places to see, one called Salvation Mountain and one called Slab City.  But a chance encounter in a coffee shop changed our plans once again.  We ran into a couple who live in Borrego Springs, a little town up in the high desert west of the Salton Sea.  From their description we thought it was worth a detour so we drove west for 28 miles to see it.  And here we are tonight in the Anzo Borrego State Park.

This afternoon the weather was nice and we took a bike ride about a kilometer to the visitors centre to learn about desert life in this area. I really love desert plants and had a good time taking photographs.  One our way back we were buffeted by some winds coming over the pass and once we were back at our campsite a squall blew in.  It’s amazing how quickly the weather can change in areas like this.  

Here are a few photos to show some of our lovely surroundings.

Driving west from 86S the clouds cast moving shadows on the hills.

Cholla in the sunlight at the visitor’s centre

First sign of mist over the mountains, followed by a mighty wind.

Palm trees in the wind

The storm buffeted Mohita from the west with gusting winds that rocked us like a ship at sea.  But outside the east window all we saw was incredible light on clouds as the sun set.

UPDATE:  Tuesday morning.  Just posting this now as there was no internet at the state park.  We're heading over to the other side of the Salton Sea today to resume our explorations.  Happy Valentines Day.