Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Weekend Activities

* Awesome PIPE event at San Mateo. Perfect weather, great food and good friends. Picked up 4 geocaches on the trail from the camp to Trestles beach.
* Slipped away from camping to see Jaya in here Alice in Wonderland performance. She was great!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Backcounty Drive

The family took a nice road trip to the back country. We started heading east on the 78, through Escondido and its numerous lights and through the San Pasqual Valley into Ramona. We took a quick stop at the Santa Ysabel Open Preserve West to stretch our legs. This somewhat new trail is something we will surely want to come back to. Back on the road, we turned north at Santa Ysabel and took the 79 past Lake Henshaw.
The meadows here were spectacular with flowers and green grass. A right on S2 and S22 took us down the curvy road into Borrego Springs.
We stopped in at the Anza Borrego Park headquarters and checked out the nature center. It was very educational for us. We then headed up a bit to do the Palm Canyon hike. However, the rangers at the site informed us that dogs are not permitted on park land. With nowhere to hike, we drove around a bit to see if we could some wildflowers from the road.
Along Borrego Springs Rd., a landowner has installed life size sculptures of pre-historic creatures. The statues are made of steel and very impressive. We caw sloths, camels, turtles, smilodons, pigs and even velociraptors. Thanks to the Galleta Meadows people for displaying these. We tried heading up a dirt road, but thought the better of it and heading out of Borrego Springs.
We headed south to catch the 78 into Julian. I love going to Julian and it very nice weather there and not crowded at all. The dog got a walk through the old cemetery and the kids got ice cream at the soda fountain on the main corner. On the way out of Julian, we stopped at the Inaja Memorial Park and did a dusk hike on the nature trail there. Wonderful views!
We then headed home the way we came.