Danielle and I have been saying we want to go to the San Diego Zoo for
several years now. This weekend that finally happened. The morning of
Saturday April 8, 2006 we started driving south at around 11am. That’s a
bit later than we planned, but it can be hard to get up early on
Saturday. We stopped at REI in Arcadia to get
Danielle new running shoes, but that REI doesn’t carry road running
shoes. We managed to buy some stuff anyway, and resumed our journey. We
pulled off the freeway at a sign for Tom’s Hamburgers which turned out
to be Tom’s Farms: what happens when a
roadside fruit stand gets huge. There was a small ferris wheel and a few
other rides, lots of places that sell preserves, fruit baskets, and most
importantly a fast food restaurant. Danielle had a large burrito and I
had a pulled pork sandwich. The food was pretty good and not too
expensive for a roadside diner.
A little
before 5pm we arrived at our lodging for the long weekend: William Heise
County Park. The campsite there is large, with lots of scrub oak. The
sites themselves have the standard table with benches and a firepit that
keeps the heat in with a grill. They’re good size, and fairly private.
We set up the tent and went for a short hike over the desert view trail.
It leads up to a viewpoint where you can see both the Pacific Ocean and
the Salton Sea. It was a bit too hazy to really see the ocean, but the
sea was fairly obvious. The best part of the trail was that it led
through an area that had burned in the last year or two. Towards the end
my back was getting pretty tired, but the hike was over at just about
the right time.
The campsite is at 4000 feet, so it was getting cool and we put on some
layers. I then proceeded to decorate my outer layer with Trader Joe’s
brand Tasty Bites which we had for dinner. During dinner, suddenly an
owl flew overhead! I was quite excited because I’d never seen an owl in
the wild before. We saw it again a few times. One time I tracked it
flying through the trees behind us. It’s quite amazing to watch one
twist and turn through fairly dense foliage. A little bit later another
owl flew over and then two of them went up, circling each other. They
seemed to be climbing higher and higher but soon they disappeared behind
some trees. Meanwhile a 3rd one was hooting in the trees behind us. That
owl’s hoot kept us company throughout the night.
The next
morning I woke up with a sore back from sleeping on an unsupportive (but
soft) air mattress. Danielle cooked oatmeal while I was lazy. Shortly
thereafter we were on our way to Anza Borrego Desert State
Park. The area near
our campground was quite pretty with a mix of rocky hills, scrub oak,
and meadows. We enjoyed an impressive view as we descended the 3000 feet
or so continuously down to the desert floor. At the bottom it was just a
short way to the visitor’s center where we got out of the car. Turns out
it’s hot and sunny in the desert and we’d totally forgotten to pack
hats. The gift store did sell hats, but the good ones were too big, and
the baseball caps were too heavy. So we bought some bandanas (with park
maps on them, no less) and Danielle knew how to attach them to our
heads. To top it off I got mine wet to keep me even cooler.
We
wandered around the garden next to the visitor’s center which sported a
nice array of desert flora complete with signs so Danielle can remember
the plant’s name. Most of the ocotillo in the area was in bloom and some
of the barrel cactus was as well. Afterwards we took a short tour to the
newly built and opened archaeological building. The tour wasn’t terribly
interesting because it was mostly focused on the building, but we did
learn a few things about the local history while browsing afterwards.
We ate
lunch at a bad deli in Borrego Springs before driving on to Tamarisk
Grove Campground. There was a guy with a 300mm L lens (and I believe a
TC stacked in front of it) so we walked over to see what he was
shooting. There was a long-eared owl sitting in a tree that was his
subject. I took a quick picture, and we started on the Cactus Loop
Trail, a short hike that took us up a small canyon. There was a nice
mixture of various cactus and some blooming agave plants. Then we took a
break at the campground. We talked to a bird watcher (identified by the
binoculars around his neck) and he showed us a barn owl that was sitting
in a tree just 100 yards away. Then on the way to grab something from
the car we saw another long-eared owl. This prompted me to drag out my
long lens and tripod while Danielle explored some more. She saw several
more long-eared owls (and I saw some more as well) and we also spotted a
hummingbird in its nest. I had fun taking pictures although none of them
really came out well. The birds were all somewhat obscured by branches
and a stiff breeze made them sway quite a bit.
After
taking a bunch of pictures, we took our rest for real. Then we went on a
short hike on the Yaqui Well Trail. This trail starts out with the
standard cactus and rocks but quickly drops into a wash where the
vegetation has more leaves. It ends close to a natural spring where lush
green grass grows in the middle of the desert. It was getting later in
the afternoon so we drove back to our campsite. Along the way I saw
somebody do the dumbest thing in traffic I’ve ever seen. We were going
up hill, stuck about 3 cars behind a large RV which only managed to go
maybe 25 mph. The truck behind us was tailgating since it caught up with
us. Eventually impatience beat out wisdom and he accelerated past us
crossing a double yellow line. He then proceeded to pass the cars in
front of us and the RV, still on the wrong side of the double yellow, at
the point that the RV was just about to turn a blind corner. Lucky for
him, no cars were coming the other way and we didn’t pass his burning
wreck further along the road either. (I suppose it’s possible that he
was wiped clean off the road into the canyon next to it.)
Back in Julian we bought fajita ingredients at the market there and
inquired about the weather forecast. The boy behind the counter told is
in no uncertain terms that it was supposed to start raining that night
and not stop for 40 days and 40 nights or until all the high mountains
under the entire heavens were covered, whichever comes first. We were
understandably concerned because we planned to be camping for 2 more
nights (albeit at 3000 feet) and visit the San Diego Zoo tomorrow. We
figured we’d wait and see so we drove back to the campground. I sealed
the seams of the tent while Danielle took a nap. After a tasty
chicken-heavy dinner, we spent a short time trying to find the owl that
we could hear around our tent, but every time we walked towards it it
would stop hooting so we never found it.
On
Monday morning my back felt better than Sunday morning because I slept
on an uncomfortable but supportive sleeping pad. It still wasn’t raining
so we went on with our plan of visiting the San Diego Zoo. Laziness made
us decide to eat out for breakfast and find a grocery store to bring
food with us into the zoo. We did eat out for breakfast, but didn’t come
across a grocery store on our way to the zoo. We got there at about
10:45am and there was a pretty long line at the entrance. They made it
sound like we could have printed out tickets at home and gone right in.
8 hours later, just before closing time, we left the zoo. Needless to
say we had a good time. I particularly enjoyed the great apes. {%
illustration crw_8891.jpg %} Their exhibits have fake termite mounds
with holes that hold sugar water or something. We watched one bonobo
take a branch, strip the leaves, and then use the stick to get food out
of the hole. It’s pretty cool to watch an animal make and use a tool
like that. In general the zoo had engaging exhibits where you could
observe animals that were fairly active. Some other things that we saw
were elephants forage for food, an otter catch live fish, a giant panda
cub immitate its mom who was scratching her back, some of the orang
utans playing around, a snake with two heads, really old galapagos
tortoises, and lots more.
In the
last hour we were at the zoo it started sprinkling occasionally. Between
that and the late hour, Danielle convinced me to eat out for dinner as
well. Our AAA book guided us to Anthony’s Fish
Grotto in La Mesa. It’s a large
restaurant and busy, even though it was a Monday night. The decore was
fun, the food was good, and so was the service. It’s a great place to
go.
The drive back to the campsite was pretty hairy. As we went up in
elevation, the clouds came down to meet us and we drove through some
pretty dense fog. At some points visibility must have been less than 40
yards. Eventually we made it to the campground in one piece. Danielle
ready to hit the hay, and me all hopped up on adrenaline. It was
drizzling just a bit and had evidently been doing that for quite some
time. We brushed our teeth and went to bed. In the morning we packed up
quickly and drove home. As we were leaving the park 4 male turkeys
crossed the road. We managed a quick shot before they disappeared into
the forest.
