After homeschool this morning, John and I headed out for a 45 ride South and East of Borrego Springs that included Yaki Pass, a 1200 foot climb.   On our way out, we passed a Read Tailed Hawk sitting on the side of the road, taking flight as we passed.  A few miles from the end, a rabbit ran across the road about 40 feet in front of us, followed an instant later by a coyote that was in hot pursuit.  John pointed out that, on the bright side, at least there aren’t any deer out here to hit.

We also stopped by a private airport community where the houses were built along the runway have airplane-sized hangers.

Riding in 70 degree weather with views like this in the middle of winter makes this cyclist feel pretty lucky:

We were treated to another beautiful sunset tonight:

Tomorrow we hope to explore a slot canyon or two.

Today in Arduino class, our son and I wrote a bit of code to display the current value of a thermistor, the little blue fellow in the photo below.  We intend to create a program to turn the bathroom fan on and off automatically based on air temperature:

In the afternoon we drove into town and filled a propane tank as well as our 45 gallon fresh water bag.  We then drove to the visitor center to begin our hike into Palm Canyon.  The clouds cast interesting shadows onto the mountains:

The first half mile or so from the visitor center to the campground is paved:

The kids brought their cameras along:

After walking through the campground, we entered Palm Canyon:

Interesting leaves:

At last we reached a point where the stream that creates the palm oasis above flows down towards the valley:

Looking upstream:

At last, we could see the palm oasis.  Apparently, natural palm oases are quite rare:

As the sun set, we hiked back on the “alternate trail”, which gave us great views of the valley with a beautiful sunset as company:

Unfortunately, my phone ran out of power before the hike completed, so the track below is not complete:

Shabbos was windy and restful.  We went for a short walk and looked out over the now-dry Clark Lake.

Today we homeschooled for most of the day, then drove into town to get rid of our trash and pick up some groceries.  On the way back to the RV, we visited the metal sculptures on the South side of town:

Tomorrow we hope to get an earlier start so we can get in a hike before sunset.  Now that we’re back in the Pacific Time Zone, we’re back to sunset around 5pm.

The wind has been howling since last night, which was OK for our cozy homeschooling day.  It doesn’t look like the winds will be letting up any time soon:

Good Shabbos from Anza Borrego State Park!

This morning, John and I went for a 31 mile ride with a 1,700 foot climb into the mountains on the West side of Borrego Springs.  We couldn’t see our RVs from the viewpoint where we turned around:

After lunch, we drove out to view the Galleta Meadows sculptures, an art installation spread over a wide area in the desert North of Borrego Springs:

After finishing our tour of the sculptures, we visited the Anza Borrego State Park visitor center:

We then stopped at the library and checked out some books.  Throughout the day, winds from the West have been intensifying, and during the drive back to the RV we had to slow way down as visibility was reduced to a few dozen feet due to blowing sand.

There’s something cozy about being in an RV during a storm, especially when the RV rocks slightly as the winds howl past.  We’re looking forward to the cooler weather these winds are supposed to bring.