Eagle Fire / Vallecito Hike - ABDSP

************ Update Aug 1st 2011 ************
According to CAL FIRE the Eagle fire is now 100% contained
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The Eagle fire has burned more than 14,000 acres and spread into the Anza Borrego Desert State park canyons. On a recent trip to the desert I photographed some of the helicopters making water drops on the blaze. They were filling up from the Borrego Community water ponds. It was very interesting to watch, they were flying circles around Indinan Head Peak dropping water onto the fires in Palm Canyon and Henderson Canyon. They were moving very quickly, these guys were really good and busting some serious ass fighting the fire. It was amazing to watch.

You can see more photos of the helicopters in action and a few videos here

This is one video of a helicopter coming in to pickup water




This is the SDG&E SPL Tower helicopter helping out



Two helicopters fill up at once, looked a little sketchy to me but I guess they know what they are doing


Sky Art sculptures near Henderson Canyon, you can see the smoke from the blaze in the background and the many trucks from the fire crew on stand by


On a hike out thru a very remote area of Vallecito I found a few pictographs, pottery sherds, morteros and a Bobcat watching me from up in a small cave. I also had a couple of coyotes dart out away from me while boulder hopping in a few areas. As usual for that area I saw a lot of large mountain lion scat.

You can see all of the pictures from Vallecito here

This Bobcat was watching me while I ate some lunch, this was in a very remote area of Vallecito


This was a very interesting rock, it has the looks of possible carvings but is most likely a natural formation


I saw several large scats that looked like Century Plant pods and seeds


These were pretty cool looking morteros


I was not sure what to make of these prints. I followed them for about a mile thru a wash until I had to turn onto the road. They were large, roundish and deep. Almost like a basketball was thrown down into the sand, my sunglasses are next to them for size comparison and you can see my foot prints to the left, very faint so you know these were made by something heavy footed.


A nice size mountain lion scat


I found some interesting pictographs. Here are a couple with the originals and then with a Dstretch enhancement

Sombrero Peak 07-11-2011 - ABDSP

Sombrero Peak is an iconic peak when you enter Anza Borrego Desert State Park from the south. It is visible from the S2 highway from Ocotillo until you pass the Bow Willow campground. There are a few different routes up to the peak, the two most popular being the shorter approach from Indian Valley and and the longer less steep approach from McCain Valley. Neither approach is easy and you will need some cross country navigation skills to get there. The views from the peak are incredible, you will get 360 degree views of the entire Anza Borrego desert and also of the McCain and Imperial Valleys.

You can download a Google Earth KML file of my trip here.

You will need to plan your own route and be confident in your route navigation skills before heading out to the peak, my GPS tracks alone will not get you there and back.



This trip was mostly to capture panoramic images of the desert from the peak. I had my camera packed away knowing I would make better time if I wasn't stopping every second to take pictures. As a consequence I missed several good wildlife shots. I saw a large coyote, a fox, a 4' rattlesnake, several Turkey Vultures, two large Red Tail Hawks and countless smaller birds.

There are always the intriguing rock formations in McCain Valley that can take whatever shapes your mind can think of, mostly faces for me.

Here is "Boulder Man" East and West side views



You can follow mostly old jeep trails up to the last 1.7 miles to the peak, after that you will need to use your navigation skills and maps to the peak.


1.7 miles to the peak from here, not much trail after this


If you look close enough you can find pottery sherds along the way (please don't take home)


You can see the Jacumba Mtn Peak and the Goat Canyon Trestle from Sombrero Peak


The panoramic views are awesome from the peak. Here are a few panorama images you can check out.

Panorama from Sombrero Peak looking north-east-south-west. This is a very interesting panorama, you will need to download and zoom in 100% and pan around. You can see so much from here, including the Goat Canyon train trestle. This was shot at 75mm focal length.



Click here to download (28MB)

Here is a panorama at 300mm focal length mostly south from Tule Mtn to the west of McCain Valley


Click here to download (24MB)

Panorama of Ocotillo from Sombrero Peak


Click here to download (5MB)

Bighorn Sheep Count 2011 - ABDSP

This was my first year participating in the Bighorn Sheep count for the Anza Borrego Desert State Park. We were required to attend a half day orientation on learning about Bighorn and how to distinguish sex and age. It was very helpful but for a first time counter I had a hard time determining all of those different factors quickly while watching the sheep graze and disappear down into the watering hole areas. My counting partner and I counted a total of 18 unique sheep over the three day event. Mostly it was one large herd that showed up every day. We were about 800-1000' up on a ridge so observing and counting them was difficult without high powered optics. My camera was limited in power so most of the below images are cropped heavily to zoom in.

All of the pictures from the trip are here

Here are a few pictures from the trip. I spent three nights at Culp Valley and one night at Blair Valley.

A Ram, a yearling and an Ewe it looks like. There is actually a forth sheep behind the Ram


Blue or Black collar sheep in the middle on this photo


An older Ram and possible a younger Ram pop up out of nowhere at the west end of the canyon around 12pm on the second day


Seven sheep, one big Ram and the red collar again


13 sheep in this picture. There is at least one older Ram and one younger Ram. Also a Yellow and possible Beige collar. You will need to download and zoom in to find all 13 sheep


Here is the view of the Palms from our count site. You can see how far away we were. High powered optics allowed us to view the Bighorn but my camera suffered at 300mm.


Taking advantage of the new moon on the July 4th weekend I tried once again to take some star pictures. I had some slightly better results but still have plenty of room to learn and improve on taking night pictures.

Polaris Star Trails


Ursa Major - AKA, The Big Dipper hung low in the night sky at 1am


Milky Way **I think**


Great camouflage helps this grasshopper stay hidden in the boulders


Some Mule Deer in Shelter Valley


There were two mother deer and their fawns following close behind


Close up of one of the fawns


Sunset over Granite Mtn in Blair Valley


Banded Rock Lizard in Blair Valley


This little Antelope Squirrel was eating the fruit from a cactus ball, amazing how he handles the cactus and the thorns!


More photos of the Bighorn and other areas of Anza Borrego can be see here