(Ignore the byline; text written by Leslie!)
We took advantage of the lovely weather & one of Mike's weekdays off by making a trip to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. What a great day!
It's about 1.5 hours from our house, so it's a do-able day trip. We drove up to Julian & got an apple-mountain berry pie on the way, and then dropped down the other side of the mountain along a twisty-turny road, dropping about 5000 ft in 10 miles or so. Yes, Mike & Elijah weren't feeling so well! :)
Here are just a few of the 161 pictures that we took.
First we went to the Visitor Center and a nearby canyon for a picnic lunch. This cute little guy came around begging (no, we didn't feed him--we know better than that!)
After lunch, we packed up & drove south on the 78 toward an area called "The Slot". The ranger at the Visitor Center said that she thought we could make it out there if we had high enough clearance in our van. Well, no way to find out except to try, right? (Folks, don't try this at home. The driver is a trained professional...well, not exactly, but having grown up in the desert, she's done her share of driving in sand & is confident of her abilities--both in driving and in digging!)
Here is a link to a map of the Park. The Slot is on the right, about the center of the page (look for the red asterisk).
When we first arrived, Elijah had to check out the canyon (and give Mama a heart attack) by standing on the edge & looking down. No, I don't think we'll be making any family trips to the Grand Canyon any time soon!
Rachel gets ready for her ride.
The crew heads down into the canyon.
One last look at the "lay of the land" before heading down below!
Intrepid explorers!
The kids had to climb the walls, of course--and find out the hard way that it's not very sturdy!
Surprisingly, Rachel had SUCH a good time; it's as though the canyon was just the right size for her. She walked along saying "Up! Up!" and occasionally trying to climb the walls to follow her older siblings; it was very cute! (video coming later)
Entering one of the first narrows
Stop for a quick pic. Rachel hasn't mastered the art of saying "cheese!" yet.
The next few pix are of the true "Slot" canyon. It was amazing!
A stop for a family pic at the furthest point of our hike (we couldn't follow the slot to its terminus because the day was waning too quickly!)
I really like this pic (and surprise, I took it!). Joanna was attempting to follow Elijah & Rebekah, but was on a ridge and separated from them by a big chasm.
Blazing the way back to the van. They were actually singing, to the tune of "We're Goin' on a Bear Hunt", "We're goin' on a van hunt, we're gonna catch a silver one, what a beautiful day, we're not scared!"
Mike took this pic from where E & R were standing, looking down at me (trying to keep Joanna from falling off the ridge she was on in the previous pic)
The reward after our dusty hike? Some yummy Julian pie!
Labels: Anza-Borrego