Week 3 Continued

We set out to take a ride into the surrounding mountains and decided to go visit the town of Julian. High up in altitude at 4300 feet, it is a very cute town with much cooler temps. It was only 53 degrees when we were close to 80 in the valley.

The ride was full of different scenery.

There was a little more vegetation as we went along.

The Julian "main drag."

The pies were terrific. We took 2 pieces home.
Actually, someone had told Kirt about this place when we were in Palm Desert.

We might have to return sometime and take a train ride.

The Historical Society had a unique bldg on a hilltop.

With a name like this you know Holly wasn't about to drive by.

They had a nice assortment of walking sticks. Our fiend Rose is looking for one so I sent her this picture.

Bird "stuff" all around.

And more bird stuff.

I even found an item to buy.

Cool old Hotel.

The road back went through the state park.

With twists and turns.

And 15mph corners.
 (Glad we took the car and not the motorhome.  We have already done too many of these twists and turns in the Road Runner going uphill and downhill with no shoulders on the side.)

And views of the desert floor.

In town there's a nice looking resort.

The sign says it's a "mall." Cool shops but I'm not too sure about a mall.

Just down the road from our campground is a cactus farm.

And dates, oranges and flowers.



Sugar Cane for Sale
The town hosts a farmers market in Christmas Circle each Friday. It was larger than we had anticipated. We picked up some tamales, brocolli and as reported earlier, strawberries.

 

Sugar cane being harvested.  This man thought I should show a picture of how the cane looked before it was harvested :-)

Dan has a mobil bike shop just off the circle that was well stocked and supplied for repairs.
 

We found more walking sticks for Rose in the historical society store in town.
Note the Big Horn Sheep stick.  This area is known for Big Horn Sheep in the mtns.
Did you know that Borrego means "Lamb?"

Looking for the "Art" and trying to take a picture on his phone

As seen in the previous post, there's some unusual art all over the place in the desert. We checked out the story behind it.The story of how Ricardo Breceda's artwork came to be located here is as fascinating as the artwork itself.  Originally from Durango, Mexico, and not an artist, there were many twists and turns in Ricardo's life.  One day he made a dinosaur statue for his daughter. That's when he became an artist. But there is much more to the story.  As happenstance would have it, Ricardo eventually encountered Dennis Avery (Avery Labels), land owner of Galleta Meadows Estates in Borrego Springs.  Dennis had the vision of using his land as an enormous outdoor gallery, home to Breceda's Artwork.  Avery owned about three square miles of undeveloped property throughout Borrego Springs. He commissioned Breceda in 2008 to create a collection of metal prehistoric creatures.

The display, dubbed “Sky Art” by Avery, grew to include sculptures of animals that were once found in the area, like sabertooth cats, giant tortoises, prehistoric camels, Columbian mammoths, Merriam’s tapirs, extinct horses, ground sloths, and massive birds. In all, there are 129 figures of Breceda's creations.

The latest of Breceda's creations is probably the most spectacular - a 350-foot sea serpent that seemingly burrows and emerges from the desert sand. With the head of a dragon and a rattlesnake's tail, the serpent, which cost around $40,000, took four months to craft, and it took another three months to erect it in Borrego Springs.

On Sunday we went for a hike in the State Park. The hike took us up over the valley floor overlooking Borrego Springs and the campgrounds in the state park.


A canyon path.

Our road to the top.

Maybe we should have taken the low road.

The state park RV campground below.

Yep, the low road was the right road.

The view overlooking Borrego Springs.

At least we have each other if we're lost in the desert.
It's hard to tell but we are on the edge of a cliff - high up the mtn trail.

And lost is always a possibility.

Cool rocks on the path. Blue-purple colored.

Tent camp and yurts (in the bottom right) in the state park
Now you can see how high up we were :-)

Close to the top.

"The" top.

We made it.

But now we have to go down.
The path is narrow with mostly loose rock.  The rocks were like pieces of slate.

A very nice day in the neighborhood.

And back to Mr Fix-It in the motorhome. Needed to add some hinges to the medicine cabinet.

Tomorrow we head out. We're going to go north and east to a town called Desert Center, California. I don't expect too many trees but it should be warm and dry and that's not a bad thing at all.