Winter Escape to the Desert

December 27, 2025 - January 1, 2026

       In November 2025,  atmospheric rivers hovered over the Golden State. Perhaps you heard about the inches of rain, floods, wind, mudslides, road closures, and communities cut off. 

     Then there were the 3 weeks of a nice tule fog blanket over the entire 430-mile-long Central Valley, brought on by all the moisture in the air and ground.  The San Joaquin Valley where we live is in  the southern half of the Central Valley. It was rather gloomy, with no sun, no moon, no stars. Just gray.

    After all the rain and fog, we were more than ready for our annual winter escape to the desert. We wished for a break from the low temps in the 30s and highs in the 40s and on a lucky day 50s! What with our yearly averages of 275 days of sun and 7 months above 75, we were being unduly trounced by the weather! So we were off to Joshua Tree National Park and Anza Borrego Desert State Park.

The drive from Bakersfield to Tehachapi in the Southern California foothills is stunning at any time of year. The hills were green from November rains.  If you're lucky, you might see a train on the Tehachapi Loop.

Lone oak against the sky on winter green hills. So lyrical, emblematic of our area.

Firebreak along hillsides, which will be covered in wildflowers, mainly California Poppies, in spring & golden in summer. (Some might say brown, but this is the Golden State.)

Marilyn got to appreciate watching the changing fog & cloud formations more than Doug, our Pilot.

Cool flat-bottomed cloud low over a field of wind turbines.

    By the time we reached Mojave, it was sunny and a little warmer, but the wind was blowing ferociously, so like many drivers, we turned south rather than bucking the headwind.  

Winding down Cajon Summit on I-15/Rte 66 between the San Gabriel Mountains to the west & the San Bernardinos to the east.

    When we reached I-10, traffic was backed up due to an accident. Both Google and Waze suggested an alternate route, so we joined a line of vehicles wandering through a small town with many roads closed by flooding and mud. Eventually we returned to I-10, probably not having saved any time. Our destination was Indio to visit friends Judy and Brian from Colorado who were camped there with their kids and grandkids. 

    Traditionally known as the Date Capital of the World, Indio is now known as the City of Festivals: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Stagecoach Festival, Riverside County Fair and Date Festival, and Indio International Tamale Festival. 

    Indio is in the Coachella Valley, an area of agriculture and tourism, of wealth and poverty, of owners and farmworkers. It's possible, if not probable, that many of the thousands who attend the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals know nothing about the area, its history, culture, climate. The average temperature in April when the festivals take place is 87, pleasant and dry, not humid, but it can rise to 100-plus.

Canals & aquaducts such as the Coachella Canal make agriculture possible in the desert. 

Water allows date palms...

...& row crops in Mecca...

....vineyards...

...& citrus in Thermal.

Many crops are harvested by Farmworkers.

    Journalist and historian Jeff Crider, commented in an NPR interview, "...festival goers who complain about the Coachella heat likely don't realize that there are farmworkers harvesting produce in that same sun just miles away, or that many of the people putting the food on their restaurant tables rely on food banks themselves."

What the land looks like without water.

    We enjoyed a good visit with Judy and Brian at their campsite in Indio. They were taking advantage of rock climbing and hiking in nearby Joshua Tree National Park, not to mention the warmer weather than at home in Colorado. After a wonderful visit, we headed up to the BLM camping area just south of Joshua Tree for the night. Thankfully, numerous campers had arrived before us, their vehicles indicating where we could safely camp. Early the next morning, we continued north into the national park.

 Ocotillo grow leaves & bloom after each rain, then go dormant againt. Unforutnately, we missed the bloom—it must have been gorgeous.

Cholla were soon evident as we drove north on Pinto Basin Rd.

    Walking along the paths of the Cholla Garden, care must be taken not to brush against the cacti, which will attach themselves to their victims at the slightest contact. Hence the names of the garden's varieties: "Jumping Cholla," which seem to attack even without contact, and "Teddy Bear Cholla," which look furry and cute but are anything but.

    Arriving early, we were lucky & found a campsite at our favorite campground, first-come-first-serve White Tank.

 

Marilyn's photos of flora near our campsite.

 

    Departing campers forewarned us of the multitudes of walkers who would descend on the campground to visit Arch Rock and Heart Rock, which are not far from the campground. We are of dual personalities on the national parks: they need people to visit and folks should enjoy them as we do, but we don't relish the crowds. We couldn't exactly blame people for not knowing campground etiquette (even if it seems rather obvious) but we did tire of asking them to please not walk right through our site. 

This is not the heart-shaped rock that folks hike to, but next to our campsite.

Amazing rock formations surrounding our camp site.

    Leaving the crowds behind for a while, we drove down the hill to Twentynine Palms to go to the Joshua Tree Visitors Center, find a bank, and go to coffee. We were successful on 2 of the 3: we did not find coffee.

 

Twentynine Palms has pink street signs. I keep wondering if there's a guy known as Old Dale or if there's a New Dale Rd. somewhere. 

Doug in a nook in the rocks, shielded from the cold & wind.

    Unfortunately, the wind decided to pick up. At 3,800 feet, wind + cold = colder. Between the weather and the crowds, we decided to head south the next day, to Anza Borrego Desert State Park east of San Diego. 

The desert can be dangerous when it rains. These signs were everywhere & we saw many areas where the water had breached the road in the recent downpours.

Passing under I-10, we continued south on Box Canyon Road to the Salton Sea.

Box Canyon Road.

Salton Sea.

Desert Shores on the Salton Sea.

    Soon we were at Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Our first stop was Borrego Palm Canyon Campground. Unfortunately it was full but we were able to make a reservation for the next night. We headed out to boondock by the Peg Leg Smith historical marker. The sun was out and it was warm! What we'd come to the desert for!

Among other tales, Thomas "Peg Leg" Smith was said to have found a treasure in gold in the nearby hills that he left behind to pick up later. He never found it again & many since have tried in vain to locate it.

Our site at Peg Leg was perfect, with no one near. Though basically boondocking in a primitive campground, it has a flush toilet! 

One of many OHV sites out in the desert, full of RVs & toy haulers.

    Peg Leg campsite was mostly vans, while about a half mile away across Borrego Salton Sea Way were encampments of large RVs and toy haulers: trailers with sleeping arrangements plus room for motorcycles and other motorized desert toys. Often the RVs are circled, like wagons in former days.

The following morning started out sunny, but by the time we checked in at our Borrego Palm Canyon campsite, clouds had taken over. 

    Note the ramada next to our van, which most sites at Borrego Palm Canyon now have. Originally roofed with branches, these are made of wood beams spaced apart. Thus ramadas provide some shade from sun, but no protection from rain. The next morning we were able to reserve a site for that night, New Year's Eve. 

    Anza Borrego is known for its fields with masses of wildflowers in the spring. Due to a warm fall and rain storms, the flowers were already in bloom. It was only misting and sprinkling, so off we went back to the wildflower field near Peg Leg.

Wildflowers, Anza Borrego, December 31, 2025.

I was amazed at the wildflowers we saw on New Year's Eve Day. Marilyn did a great job of taking pictures.

Brown-eyed Primrose.

    More wildflower photos are in our earlier post, New Year's Wildflowers.

Throughout Borrego Valley are the large metal sculptures of Ricardo Breceda. One area, Galleta Meadows, includes a large collection of Breceda's art.

    From the wildflower fields, we went into Borrego Springs. We found a grocery store and decided we should celebrate the birth of Doug's granddaughter to his daughter, Katie two days before, on December 29, 2025. Sofia joined big brother, Diego, and their parents, Mom Katie and Dad Javier. 

Celebrating Sofia's birth with a Malbec from Javier's home, Chile.

Doug's video: "Flowers for Sofia"

The green is not typical of Anza Borrego but a reminder of the major rains in early December. We tried to pretend it was still warm, hence Doug in shorts, but we were soon inside the van with the house heater on. 

    The campground's sand mixed with dirt was already muddy and soft in places. The picture does not show it, but we parked the van sideways on our new site to be level. As the rain began to pour, the question was could we get out quickly if necessary. Fortunately it was no problem in the morning, for the area was almost dry though the rain was still pounding.  

By 5:00 PM, fog & clouds concealed the view up Palm Canyon.

10:00 PM

New Year's Day, January 1, 2026, 7:30 AM.

    With rain forecast for the next few days, we reluctantly cut our trip short and headed toward home. As Doug says, the joy of having an elastic itinerary.

Rain was falling in buckets as we drove through Borrego Springs.

Wonder if the ocotillo will bloom again with the new rain.

It's a steep, curvy road from Anza Borrego to Julian. Because the ground was already saturated from earlier rains, there were a lot of rocks on the road, which kept us on our toes.  

Drive from Anza Borrego to Julian.

    Why were we going to Julian? For apple pie, of course! It's the perfect breakfast! We even went to Mom's, the best-known apple pie shop in town. On previous visits, Mom's had always had lines out the door and down the street, but as we arrived at 9:00 AM on a very rainy New Year's Day, we were able to enjoy a quiet breakfast of pie and coffee at Mom's.

Yum! Though Julian is know for its apple pie, which Marilyn had, à la mode, Doug had pecan pie. We bought an apple pie to take home, too.

    Julian is also known for daffodils all over town, the surrounding fields and hillsides, but it was too early in the year for them. 

Driving north through the San Jacinto Mountains.

Winding down into Palm Springs.

Another scraper removing rocks from the roads.

Some parts of Palm Desert have desert plant landscaping.

Other areas of this desert town are green with water-hungry grass.

Rain water channeled between golf courses.

Flooded streets in Desert Hot Springs.

Fog & wind turbines, North Palm Springs.

Soon we were enjoying the road through Yucca, Johnson, & Lucerne Valley as the rain continued to fall.

As the rain subsided, cloud formations were awesome.

Then we hit a patch of dense fog, actually a very low cloud, driving through Johnson Valley, Hwy 247.

Water along Hwy 247 in Lucerne Valley.

As we drove Hwy 58 from Tehachapi down to Bakersfield, the sky performed a glorious sunset.

January 1, 2026, 4:50 PM.

    Though we were rewarded with an amazing sunset as we drove back down into the San Joaquin Valley, it had been a very long day of driving for Doug through rain, rocks, and fog on two-lane roads with curves and few shoulders. No complaints from Doug as he commented, "We could have taken the LA Freeway system, but where is the beauty?"

    The new atmospheric river brought more rain, flooding, and mudslides to California. In the Sierra Nevadas, feet of snow meant road closures and accidents, but joy to skiers as soon as they could get to the slopes. 

Our New Year's Desert Trip

Blue: Home (Visalia)-Tehachapi-Mojave-Indio-Joshua Tree-Twentynine Palms-JT. Red: JT-Mecca-Salton Sea-Anza Borrego. Purple: Anza Borrego-Julian-Palm Springs-Barstow-Tehachapi-Home.

California's cities are population dense, but we're always in awe how much open space in our state is protected & how many of those places are so close to home. 1) Joshua Tree National Park. 2) Anza Borrego Desert State Park. 3) Mojave National Preserve. 4) Death Valley National Park. 5) Sequoia National Forest. 6) Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks. 7) Los Padres National Forest. 8) Angeles National Forest. 9) Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.