Anza Borrego Part III - Where Did the Mountain Go?

On the third day of our trip, something happened that never occurred in all the years I went to Anza Borrego. After a chilling night, I opened the tent and the first words out of my mouth were “Holy $#@&! Where did the mountain go?” Now for those of us who have been to Agua Caliente before, you’ll remember that Whale Peak is about 5 miles directly across the valley floor from the campground. It’s a dominating figure in the Borrego landscape, but not on this day. It was shrouded in a veil of white. Clouds swallowed the peak, and snow (that’s right, snow) was about half way down the mountain. I couldn’t believe my eyes, and without the aid of media, we had no idea that an Alaskan front had stalled on the Laguna Mountains to our west and the Vallecito Mountains to our east. We were in for a wild two days.

Snow Covered Whale Peak

Not knowing how trail conditions would be throughout the park due to the storm, we decided to do Moonlight Canyon trail and try to get to the Inner Pasture (BLM land) via an offshoot trail. We struck out on this old family favorite under a light drizzle. I remember many hikes on this trail, whether day or night. It seemed strangely unfamiliar to me, perhaps because I was using sunlight instead of moonlight to guide the way! We were never able to find the correct canyon to the Inner Pasture (even with topo maps, and a GPS receiver – which convinces me that early explorers like Lewis and Clark didn’t find places, they stumbled on to them). We did try a canyon that had a huge “Do not Enter” sign (like cocaine to a hiker), but that ended in a 30 foot dry waterfall, no thank you.

Good Old Moonlight Canyon Trail

After we finished Moonlight Canyon, we talked to the Cute Ranger, as Analee called him (he did have piercing blue eyes), to find the closest place to get gas. (Side note: I have a phobia of going offroad without enough gas, so if it was close to half a tank, it was time to fuel up…so we ended up getting gas about every day, oops). Cute Ranger told us that the closest place was Julian, and with the snow, we thought it would be fun to taste old man winter and Julian’s World Famous hot apple pie. It sounded like a good plan…

Check out that angry sky

As the trusty Blazer chugged up the Laguna Mountain towards hot apple pie (Can’t you almost taste it?), we hit our first snowflakes at 2,800 feet (Thank you Mr. GPS!). What a beautiful and unexpected site to see snow on our trip to the desert. Then the snow came quicker and wetter, and the roads became icier. Soon we saw a warning sign that said “Chains Required”. Of course, we were not equipped with chains, and if someone can please tell me how you can turn around on a two lane, winding mountain road with no guardrails in white out conditions, I’m listening. So, we soldiered on to Julian. We were greeted in Julian by 8 inches of snow already on the ground, but dang it, we wanted apple pie.

We found a quaint restaurant called the “Julian Café” (what marketing geniuses!). Roast beef and hamburgers to dine on, hot tea and cider to drink, falling snow in a mountain town. Sounds lovely. It wasn’t. Our (mainly my) nerves were shot by the storm. The wait staff kept murmuring news of a “blizzard”, “two more feet of snow”, which did not sit well with the appetite. Convinced we were about to get snowed in, we hit the road (not without stops for a $12 box of Dayquil and gas – for your information: Quant Mountain Town = Highway Robbery). Me, now totally useless, sat terrified in the passenger seat while Analee began the “Great Descent of 2006.”

The Great Decent of 2006

Now we were almost under complete “white out” conditions, and we had 6 miles of mountain roads ahead. Analee threw the Blazer into first gear, and we practically idled at 10 miles an hour down the mountain. She was amazing. Soon we were safe on the valley floor.

Needing some supplies (i.e., beer and peanut M&Ms), we stopped at a local store in some blip ranch near the park. Here we were accosted by the ranch/general store owner for staying at Agua Caliente. His exact words were “I don’t care what people say. That water ain’t natural. They put all that chlorine in it for safety.” To which Analee later quipped to me, “What’s unnatural water then?” Good point. (By the way, the General Store by Agua Caliente is out of business – it’s up for lease if anyone is interested).

Eventually, we made it back to our campsite (we had to move campsites). We were supposed to be in Vallecito Campground that night because some Father/Daughter group reserved the entire park for the weekend (yet, only 10% showed up due to the weather). We checked out the campsite, which had no shelter from the wind and rain, no showers, a creepy neighboring camper that Analee thought was a statue, and most importantly NO INDOOR HOT POOL. We quickly made it back to Agua Caliente, found a non-reserveable site (#13) and set up camp.

After dinner, we made our routine trip to the pool house bathroom, when we noticed that the pool was still open (during the week it closed at 5:00, however, on weekends it was open until 9:00…thank God). We hurriedly donned our suits and were in 102 degree water for the next hour and a half. What a welcomed treat after the snow, the wind and the rain. Yet, at 9:00 we were evicted from our sanctuary and had to cuddle up in the tent while it rained and the temperatures dipped to un-vacation like conditions.

We had a wild day of snow, rain, wind and ice, but we were safe, except that we forgot to eat apple pie in Julian, which was the reason we went there!!!

UP NEXT – Anza Borrego Part IV: Women's Intuition