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These are the first blooms I’ve seen on the Cholla Cactus this year. The Anza Borrego desert is alive in color, it has been a spectacular wildflower season. I’m sad to say that we have to leave soon, but anxious to get back to work in my studio in Alaska.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

The cactus are beginning to bloom in the desert, I especially love the vivid magenta of the Beavertail flowers. It is fun to hike and search for the early bloomers, it reminds me of an Easter egg hunt.

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

I find myself returning to the Anza Borrego Desert Palm Canyon often, it is one of my favorite places in the park. On a hot day the clear, cool springs at the end of the canyon make the hike all the more worthwhile.

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist

Another great hike is a 3 mile treck through a winding slot canyon starting near Buttes Pass Road on Highway 78 east of Borrego Springs Road. Two state park volunteer naturalists guided our group as we squeezed and ducked our way through this Disneyesque landscape. We loved this canyon, but don’t want to be anywhere near it during the flash flood season. The weather was wonderful, once again!

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist

Returning back to the Anza Borrego Desert we took a group hike with a state park naturalist up one of the unnamed washes of the North Fork Arroyo Salado beginning about mile 35 on Hwy. S-22, to the Truckhaven Rocks. The sandstone lined wash is interesting, we were delighted to find a new plant or rock formation around every turn. The relaxing 2 mile hike took several hours with the addition of facts, plant identification, geology, and historic information from our guide. The weather was in the balmy mid-seventies, just perfect for transplanted Alaskans!

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape painter

Unlike the California Gold Poppy, the Parish’s Poppy is much smaller and grows in the Anza Borrego desert region of Southern Californina. It is fun to find these tiny golden wildflowers tucked among the boulders, or hidden in sandy washes. The desert is coming alive with yellow colored wildflowers during the peak of the bloom. My daily hikes in the field are a joyous event.

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

With the wildflower bloom at its peak, I’m hiking the Anza Borrego desert daily sketching and photographing. Last weekend the San Diego Union featured this spectacular bloom on its front page bringing hundreds of tourists to the park to see the wildflowers. During the week we have the place mostly to ourselves. It’s amazing to be near such a huge population center and find the landscape and nature relatively untouched, thanks to the California State Park system.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

The desert jackrabbits are big, their ears are half as tall as their bodies. They will hold very still seeming invisible, then suddenly burst out of the brush and tear across the ground lickety split. This one let me get quite close before he took off. They are gorging themselves on the green grass and weeds that cover the ground at this time of the year. A feast before the drought of summer.

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape artist

We spent most of the day today hiking near Palm Canyon and identifying wildflowers, they are nearing their peak bloom in the California Anza Borrego desert this winter. The ground is covered in millions of tiny colorful blossoms.

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Gail Niebrugge, Wildflower artist

The temperature was 80 in Borrego Springs yesterday so we drove to Blair Valley to hike, at this higher elevation the temperature was a comfortable 72. We followed the well marked Blair Valley Road and easily found the trailhead for the Morteros, an ancient American Indian campsite where we saw the bowl shaped holes formed in rocks made by grinding corn into flour using a smooth stone. A fascinating site.

A little further down the road we found the trailhead for the Petroglyphs. This is an easy 2 mile trail and well worth the hike. Along with seeing petroglyphs painted on boulders, the spectacular view from the slot canyon at the end of the trail is something to remember.

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Gail Niebrugge, Artist from Alaska

Yesterday afternoon we explored the Badlands of the Anza Borrego State Park and found the Pumpkin Patch, a place scattered with pumpkin shaped rocks. Unusual and interesting. It was sunset, and the low light gave the rocks a yellow/orange glow. The Badlands are a maze of 4 wheel drive trails that follow sandy washes up and down narrow canyons, some S-turns were so tight that a pick-up truck needed several tries to make the curve. And it was so warm we were in shorts and tank tops! Love this desert in the winter.

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Gail Niebrugge, Alaska artist

Evening light illuminated the wildflower Sand Verbena changing the color of the landscape to fuchsia as it clings to desert dunes. This spot along the Henderson Canyon Road is a nice place to enjoy sunset.

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

So far I’ve only found a couple of these beautiful lilies, both were solitary plants growing near the Di Giorgio Road/ Coyote Creek trail in the Anza Borrego desert of southern California. We drove the Coyote Creek trail as far as our vehicle would allow without high centering on rocks, then hiked a distance up the Coyote Creek Canyon. The road is most definitely a four-wheel drive route, and not for one equipped with standard tires. The only vehicle we saw traverse the rocky grade was a Bronco outfitted with big wheels and tires and even this rig scraped bottom on several boulders. Everyone else turned back after the Third Creek Crossing. Hiking on foot gave us the opportunity to study the area closely, and find the desert lilies.

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Gail Niebrugge, landscape painter

We hiked the desert floor west from the Anza Borrego Visitor Center toward the canyon that lies between Hellhole Canyon and the Palm Canyon and spotted the first blooming California Barrel Cactus! In another week the tops of these plants will be festooned with these pretty yellow flowers!

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Gail Niebrugge, pointillism paintings

The best wildflower bloom at the moment in the Anza Borrego State Park is along the Henderson Canyon Road where lawn sized patches of the blue/purple Sand Verbena cling to rolling ridges punctuated with spots of the soft white Dune Primrose. Lovely to see. During our visit we heard the yelping calls of two packs of coyotes signaling each other, one from a nearby ridge the other on the valley floor. The desert is a beautiful and refreshing place to enjoy at this time of the year.

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower paintings

These tall, fat, California barrel cactus swell up from absorbing moisture after a rainfall and shrivel during the dry season. When cut open they are a good source of water for the desert big horn sheep, but not for humans because the moisture inside is very alkaline and will cause a greater thirst. I love the shape and color of this chubby desert plant, and the interwoven patterns of the long sharp curved thorns. They definitely look like something to keep at a respectful distance and could result in pain for the unaware. It is fun for me to revisit these areas where I spent a great deal of time in my youth, and see the subject matter that inspired my very early paintings.

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Gail Niebrugge, art of wildflowers

Bob blends into the landscape wearing his camo jacket while hiking among the ocotillo cactus on the Cactus Loop Trail in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, California. Although rain, wind and cool weather were forcast for today, it turned out sunny and nice and sure beats the weather in Alaska at the moment. The Cactus Loop Trail is a short self guided 1 mile stroll up the canyon across from the Tamarisk Grove Campground, and is a wonderful way to learn to recognize the amazing variety of desert plant life. Most of the plants are greening up nicely from the winter rains and sport tiny buds that will bloom into gorgeous flowers soon. Unfortunately, most of the cactus flowers won’t bloom until May, so we will miss them, but the other plants are on the verge of a colorful show. We also saw a dozen big horn sheep along the mountain ridge above Highway S-3 at the summit. Life abounds in the desert!

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

Our son, photographer Ron Niebrugge, set up to shoot the waterfall at the oasis at the end of the Borrego Palm Canyon trail. This spot is lush and beautiful, fresh water pools among large boulders, lots of desert foliage and a grove of tall palm trees. The trail to the oasis is scattered with the remains of palm tree trunks from a devastating flash flood in 2004 that washed out half the grove, their skeletons tossed like match sticks along the riverbed. We are always cautious about flash floods when we hike riverbeds in the desert, today it is raining in the mountains and the wind is howling, blowing dust in the valley floor below. But, we were nicely protected in this oasis.

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Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist

Bob and I at the oasis at the end of the 2.6 mile Palm Canyon hiking trail. This hike follows a stream bed and is full of interesting native desert plants and boulders, the stream is often visited by bighorn sheep although we did not spot any on this trip. I plan to visit this spot often while we are in the desert, it is one of the most beautiful and interesting places we’ve visited in the Anza Borrego State Park. I’d like to do some paintings of this desert landscape, and can’t wait until the wildflowers are in full bloom.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Artist of wildflowers

Bob and I at the Maidenhair Falls in the Hellhole Canyon of the Anza Borrego State Park, California. Our 6 mile round trip hike up the Hellhole Canyon revealed a lot of early wildflowers, and the very beginning of red blooms on the Ocotillo cactus. Near the Maidenhair Falls were several cool oasis with palm trees and clear, fresh water springing from the earth. We climbed over boulders and through thickets of palms to find a trickle of water cascading down a rocky cliff dubbed the “falls”. They were a little disappointing, but the hike was good and scenery along the way interesting. A slight overcast sky gave excellent light for photographing wildflowers.

More tomorrow,

Gail Niebrugge, Artist of Alaska