Details of yesterday's hike to Clark's Well will have to wait. Today we did the "tour" that many visitors to Anza-Borrego State Park do: Blair Valley. We hiked the steep one mile up to the very isolated Marshall South home site, which is where Marshall and Tanya South lived and raised 3 children in the 1930's. The site is at the top of a mountain; the adobe house is only ruins and a rusty bed frame; the vistas and the landscape are stunning. We visited the "Morteros," ancient grinding stones that sit beneath huge boulders and speak of cultures so tightly knit to the land that is it almost beyond our current understanding. And we pushed onward to the last stop (despite chilly winds and threatening skies - and we were wearing shorts, no less!): pictographs and a peek down a dry waterfall into "Smuggler's Canyon."
The Marshall South home site:
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| This Barrel cactus was growing near the site |
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| I don't know why I can't stop taking close-up photos of Barrel Cactus... |
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| These tiny blossoms were found along the trail, as we descended from the home site |
We caught a blooming agave plant along the "Morteros" hike. Agave plants take 75 years to bloom, and then they die. More agave plants grow up from the original plant:
Our last hike of the day, past the pictograph boulders and on to the canyon/valley/mountain vista from Smuggler's Canyon, was the most spectacular - we're definitely going back on a sunny (and warmer!) day to get photos of the canyon! We did find some flora to shoot on the trail out:
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| This plant was growing up between boulders, in desolate surroundings |
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| Close up of the blooms |
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| These are mistletoe berries clinging to a host shrub in the desert canyon |
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