Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Dark Desert Highway To Heaven.

Last night (well, technically early this morning) I headed out on a dark desert highway with the cool wind in my hair. This is Highway S2 that cuts through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. This was one of the first roads into the interior of Southern California and became known as the Southern Emigrant Trail. In the 1850s, Gold Rush miners and numerous others, including the Butterfield Overland Mail stage line, traveled through Box Canyon. And finally, modernization reached the desert-the road was first paved in 1929. This particular cure is between the town of Shelter Valley and the Blair Valley area of the park. This is my first still photo shot with my Canon EOS R mirrorless camera. I must say that I continue to be very impressed with this new Canon model. Shot at 15 sec f/2.8 ISO 6400 with a Sigma 15mm EX DG lens at 1:37 AM PDT on April 23, 2020.

Starry Night Over Clark Dry Lake in Wet Mode

Well, the lake isn't so dry lately due to an abnormally high level of rain in the Anza-Borrego Desert. This is the most water I've ever seen in this area. Normally this is a typical dry lake bed with big cracks in the dirt. I had hoped the water and wind would calm down so I could get some amazing reflections, but both kept moving - except for some very shallow portions of water in the foreground. This is about 117 minutes total exposure time shot at f/4.5 and ISO 1250 with a Canon EOS R and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens.

Star Trails Over A Canyon In The Anza-Borrego Desert

I shot this in the wee hours of the morning on February 16, 2020 in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. While I've been exploring the Anza-Borrego Desert for many year, this was my first time discovering and exploring this canyon. Anza-Borrego is such a huge park that I'm still discovering "new" locations in it. Shot with a Canon EOS R and Sigma 15mm EX DG lens. 191 stacked exposures with a total time of 191 minutes f/2.8 ISO 2000. Mountains illuminated by the rising moon. Timelapse coming later.

Lone Ocotillo, Badlands, and Star Trails

A tall skinny ocotillo with orange blooms stands in front of star trails in a partly-cloudy sky in the badlands of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Foreground illuminated by the moon (out of frame). Wide curves of star trails over some badlands seen from my campsite in the southern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on the night of January 4, 2020. Shot with a Canon EOS R and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 124 minutes (stacked exposures) f/4 ISO 3200. foreground illuminated by the moon. Shot on January 3, 2020, this is a 48 minute stacked exposure done at f/3.2 ISO 2000 with a Canon EOS R and Sigma 15mm EX DG fisheye lens (I did a partial correction to reduce - but not completely eliminate - the artsy fisheye effect). I had hoped to capture the much hyped Quadrantids meteor shower, but it turned out to be a dud. I shot around 2000 frames and only managed to capture one teeny tiny baby meteor (doo doo doo doo). Still, a never feel like a camping trip in the desert is ever a "waste of time" just because I didn't get the shots I had originally hoped for. The experience of camping in peace, quiet, and solitude under the stars is always nice regardless of what I successfully photograph.

The Stars At Night Are Big And Bright, Deep In The Heart Of The Anza-Borrego Desert.

Wide curves of star trails over some badlands seen from my campsite in the southern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on the night of January 4, 2020. Shot with a Canon EOS R and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 124 minutes (stacked exposures) f/4 ISO 3200. foreground illuminated by the moon. I had hoped to capture the much hyped Quadrantids meteor shower, but it turned out to be a dud. I shot around 2000 frames and only managed to capture one teeny tiny baby meteor (doo doo doo doo). Still, a never feel like a camping trip in the desert is ever a "waste of time" just because I didn't get the shots I had originally hoped for. The experience of camping in peace, quiet, and solitude under the stars is always nice regardless of what I successfully photograph.

Swell Sparkling Stars Sparkle And Spin Above The Ocotillo.

Some star trails above the desert landscape in the southern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. In the foreground are some ocotillo - which are the taller spindly trees (they're NOT cactuses) as well as a shorter stubby & fuzzy cholla cactus. Shot with a Canon EOS R and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at f/4 ISO 3200 with a total exposure time about 103 minutes. Foreground illuminated by a 65% moon. I'm VERY pleased with the performance of my new Canon R. In this photo, I had to remove a LOT of very intense airplane trails - especially in the upper two-thirds of the right side of the frame (you may notice a bit of distortion there). I had hoped to capture the much hyped Quadrantids meteor shower, but it turned out to be a dud. I shot around 2000 frames and only managed to capture one teeny tiny baby meteor (doo doo doo doo). Still, a never feel like a camping trip in the desert is ever a "waste of time" just because I didn't get the shots I had originally hoped for. The experience of camping in peace, quiet, and solitude under the stars is always nice regardless of what I successfully photograph.

Camping On the Edge.

Panorama of my campsite at sunset in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for the past couple of nights. Please click to see the full image. Shot with my Canon EOS R and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens. This panoramic image was made from 18 vertical frames stitched together. Though it's close to the highway, this is a great spot with breathtaking views (as seen on my recent breakfast photos). I'm still looking over my frames again to see if I happened to capture any Quadrantids. I must say that this was one of the most disappointing meteor showers I've ever experienced. Still, a camping trip in the Anza-Borrego Desert is never a disappointing experience, to put it mildly. The weather was quite mild. Unlike some of my recent trips out here, there was no wind at all on Friday night and very little wind on Saturday and Saturday night.

Geminid Meteor Fireball Over The Anza-Borrego Desert.

In the foreground is a cholla cactus - the kind with lots of spikes that seem to jump (actually when blown by the wind) onto your skin and clothing. Because the spines have millions of tiny barbs in them, they are difficult to remove without ripping the skin. It was quite a challenge to capture meteors this past weekend due to the moon still being nearly full and quite bright. This was the best capture I got out of 3058 frames shot at various compositions around this part of the park. With the bright skies, it was a balancing act of using high enough ISO and a large enough aperture to make the meteors bright, but not so bringt that the moonlight washed out the exposures. I shot this at 12:51 AM PST on December 14, 2019 in the southern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Canon 6D and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 13 sec f/4 ISO 800.

Rainbow Over Borrego Springs.

Nice rainbow in the Anza-Borrego Desert this morning. In the foreground are some ocotillo and in the background are some snow capped mountains.

Rainbow Over Borrego Springs.

Nice rainbow in the Anza-Borrego Desert this morning. In the foreground are some ocotillo and in the background are some snow capped mountains.

Snow Capped Mountains In the Background and Desert Landscape In the Foreground.

Snow Capped Mountains In the Background and Desert Landscape In the Foreground. This afternoon's view from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The spindly plants in the foreground are ocotillo and are trees - not cacti. After the rain last week, the ocotillo have some nice orange blooms on them. These mountains are to the north.

Snow Capped Mountains In the Background and Desert Landscape In the Foreground.

This afternoon's view from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The spindly plants in the foreground are ocotillo and are trees - not cacti. After the rain last week, the ocotillo have some nice orange blooms on them. These mountains are to the north.

Native American Cave Paintings In the Anza-Borrego Desert Blue Sun Cave

My exploration of these ancient Indian cave paintings in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. These are pictographs and - unlike petroglyphs which are carved - they are painted using pigments and often multicolored. Most notable here is the blue sun. From what I've learned, blue is a rare pigment for this sort of thing. The remote location and shade from the sun have managed to keep these paintings looking good after many years. These cave paintings are believed to be over 2000 years old.

Native American Cave Paintings In the Anza-Borrego Desert Blue Sun Cave

My exploration of these ancient Indian cave paintings in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. These are pictographs and - unlike petroglyphs which are carved - they are painted using pigments and often multicolored. Most notable here is the blue sun. From what I've learned, blue is a rare pigment for this sort of thing. The remote location and shade from the sun have managed to keep these paintings looking good after many years. These cave paintings are believed to be over 2000 years old.

Native American Cave Paintings In the Anza-Borrego Desert Blue Sun Cave

My exploration of these ancient Indian cave paintings in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. These are pictographs and - unlike petroglyphs which are carved - they are painted using pigments and often multicolored. Most notable here is the blue sun. From what I've learned, blue is a rare pigment for this sort of thing. The remote location and shade from the sun have managed to keep these paintings looking good after many years. These cave paintings are believed to be over 2000 years old.

Native American Cave Paintings In the Anza-Borrego Desert Blue Sun Cave

My exploration of these ancient Indian cave paintings in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. These are pictographs and - unlike petroglyphs which are carved - they are painted using pigments and often multicolored. Most notable here is the blue sun. From what I've learned, blue is a rare pigment for this sort of thing. The remote location and shade from the sun have managed to keep these paintings looking good after many years. These cave paintings are believed to be over 2000 years old.

Milky Way and Stars Reflecting On Lake Kevin

A couple days ago I headed out to the Anza-Borrego Desert to chase some thunderstorms. While I got to enjoy the storms with my own eyes, I wasn't able to capture them as the lightning stopped around the same time I found the perfect location to set up my camera gear. The trip was not a waste, however, as I shot a nice sunset reflected in a puddle (posted recently) and now this partly cloudy Milky Way reflection shot. Shot in the Blair Valley area of the Anza-Borrego Desert, "Lake Kevin" is actually just a little puddle shot at a low angle to make the body of water look much larger than it really is. This is a blend of a 15 sec f/2.8 ISO 3200 exposure for the sky and a median noise reduction stack of 17 exposures each at 25 sec f/2.8 ISO 6400 for the foreground. The camera was kept in exactly the same position for all exposures. I did the stacking for the foreground so that I could lighten things up without too much noise. Due to the clouds, I couldn't successfully stack images for the sky, but I'm still happy with what I was able to produce here.

Reflection Sunset In The Anza-Borrego Desert

Reflecting On A Day Trip To Anza-Borrego. At around noon today I first headed to the mountains in hopes of catching and photographing some lightning. I started out by heading to Mount Laguna, but then moved on to Ranchita and into in the middle of a storm that had lots of strikes, but they were difficult to see - much less photograph - since it was in the middle of the day. I then headed down the Montezuma Grade to Hellhole Palms where the center of the lightning action was occuring. It was raining, but not windy, so I set up my folding table to protect my camera rig from the rain. Well, I had just finished setting up when the storm decided to move on. The lightning relocated to northeast of Borrego Springs. Meanwhile, there was a decent thunderstorm taking off between Ocotillo (the town with the windmills - NOT the offroad park) and Shelter Valley. I then headed over there. Unfortunately the lightning stopped while I was heading over there. The day was not lost, however, as I got this nice sunset reflection shot at Blair Valley and then later shot some reflection Milky Way shots as well. I'll be posting them later, but enjoy this after-sunset shot for now.

Guardian of the Galaxy

Self-portrait of me standing on top of a hill with the Milky Way behind me. I shot this in the Borrego Badlands in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the wee hours of the morning on June 2, 2019. This is among my very first few shoot with my new Omegon MiniTrack LX2 low-cost mechanical astro tracking mount. The background containing the Milky Way was shot with a Canon 6D and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 244 sec f/4 ISO 1000 and tracked to minimize motion blur and star trails. The foreground containing the silhouette of myself and the hill was shot at 20 sec f/4 ISO 6400. I then blended the images in Photoshop. Note that I did not move or resize anything in the blending process. I prefer to work this way with my nature shots. Everyone has their own style and some will move things around from where they really were. That's fine and some people do so as an artistic expression. I prefer to present a realistic representation of nature as it is, however.

Beam Me Up

Martians are about to beam me up to their spaceship. Shot in the badlands of the Anza-Borrego Desert with a Canon 6D and Sigma 15mm EX DG lens at f/2.8 6 sec ISO 6400. Foreground softly illuminated using the display of my mobile phone and a color picker app. Spent two nights camping in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and enjoyed every minute of it. This was my first time camping at this location. One of many things I love about this park is that it's huge and there's always something new to be discovered and new places to camp.

Top of the desert selfie

Enjoying the sunset from a mud hill overlooking my campsite and the badlands in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Intense warm orange tones produced by the setting sun (out of frame).

Milky Way Over Marslike Badlands

The Milky Way galaxy over some jagged hardened mud badlands in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. I first discovered these amazing badlands while photographing the wildflowers here a couple months ago. At that time, I couldn't wait to head back out here to shoot the Milky Way when it would be in the desired position in the sky. While I've been exploring this park for many years, I didn't really notice this scenery until recently. Perhaps the above-average rainfall earlier in the year helped sculpt this landscape? While the galactic core of the galaxy "officially" rose at around 11:35 PM, it wasn't in a good position to be seen or photographed until about 1:15 AM. This was due to the clouds, haze, and light pollution on the horizon to the southeast. Also, a tiny blob of a cloud is covering part of core slightly right of center. I illuminated the foreground with a Nichia 219BT LED. Shot with a Canon 6D and Sigma 15mm EX DG lens at 15 sec f/2.8 ISO 3200. Anyways, once the galaxy rose into position, I couldn't wait shoot it with these epic badlands in the foreground. @weddingmandk joined me and we got some amazing shots.

Palo Verde Milky Way

Silhouette of a nice spooky palo verde tree under the Milky Way galaxy in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Palo verde is Spanish for "green stick". In the daytime, these trees are nice and green thanks to lots of rain this winter and spring. This panorama was made from 9 vertical frames shot with a Canon 6D and Sigma 15mm EX DG lens at 20 sec f/2.8 ISO 4000. The white blob to the right is Jupiter. I met up with a former coworker in the desert to shoot the Milky Way for the second time this season. The weather ended up being awesome by about 2:30 AM or so. Prior to that, conditions kept alternating between good and bad. At sunset, the sky was nice and clear and kept getting clearer. Then a haze rolled in on the horizon to the east and obscured all stars. Also, the haze carried the light pollution from El Centro, Brawley, Salton City, and other communities. Ironically, the haziest and most light polluted part of the sky was right where the Milky Way core was. Fortunately the core moved away from the haze and light pollution later in the night. This was among our last subject shot of the night. We stopped shooting shortly after morning twilight started to cause the stars to fade away.

Flowers Before the Storm

White California evening primrose (Oenothera californica) and bright yellow desert sunflowers (Geraea canescens) in the foreground and rainstorms and mountains in the background. I shot these along Henderson Canyon Road. These were on the southern side of Henderson Canyon Road and probably won't last much longer as the ground was already very dry here - despite the rainstorm in the distant background. It looks like the flowers on the northern side will last a bit longer though.

Assorted Wildflowers In the Anza-Borrego Desert

A bunch of tiny little wildflowers in front of the big badass boulders here. Purple/blue common phacelia, adorable little pink Bigelow's monkeyflower (Diplacus bigelovii), cute little white & yellow Wallace's woolly daisy (Eriophyllum wallacei rubellum), and I'm not sure of the name for the yellow flowers.

Tiny Little Rainbow In Anza-Borrego

I was so preoccupied with shooting wildflowers in the Anza-Borrego Desert the other day, that I almost didn't notice this rainbow before it quickly disappeared. Shot with a Canon 6D and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 1/600 sec f/8 ISO 200 40mm.

Wildflowers and the Storm

Wild canterbury bells (Phacelia minor) in the foreground and ominous clouds and rain in the distant background. I shot this on March 21, 2019 in the south side of Henderson Canyon Road in Borrego Springs. If these flowers look mostly pretty - but with a hint of wilting - it's because the soil here was already very dry. Several other flowers in the area were showing more obvious signs of distress. So, it's likely that the flowers south of Henderson Canyon Road will be gone soon, while those north of the road should remain a little while longer. Most people - myself included - prefer to shoot north of the road, but at the time I was here, I had to shoot south in order to capture the rain and clouds in the background. Canon 6D and Canon 17-40mm f/4L lens at 1/400 sec f/13 ISO 400 40mm.