Anza Borrego camping

Anza Borrego is a huge desert state park with developed campgrounds, primitive campgrounds, and off road camping where you can pull off the road almost anywhere and camp. Borrego Springs, the small town within the park is part of the International Dark Sky Community, with minimal light pollution good for star gazing and one of the reasons we wanted to go check it out.



We headed out Friday afternoon to beat the traffic out there. Took us about 2 hours and we got to the Culp Valley primitive campground around 2:30pm. Luckily for us, there were only 2 other sites taken, probably because the weekend was forecasted to be 90+ degrees. We pretty much hung out in the shade until it got cooler, waiting for the JJ's to arrive.

Site setup

After it cooled down, I headed out on the Culp Valley loop trail that starts at the back of the campground to scope out areas for sunset.



I stayed up at the top of the trail for sunset, with a view 3000 ft high overlooking Borrego Springs.



Came back down for some kabobs that the JJ's brought; shrimp, chicken, and veggies.



There are no fire rings at the primitive sites, but they are free so you can't ask for much. All they have are pit toilets and a flat spot to pitch a tent. The JJ's brought a metal trash lid which worked out well.

S'mores!

As the night went on, most of the clouds blew away and the stars became visible. However, for some reason it never really got that dark. While you could still see a lot of stars, light was still visible along the horizon washing out a lot of them. I still took some that night, and woke up again at 4am to take some with the Milky Way facing south.




The next day we were planning on hiking down in Borrego Springs, but by 9am it was already 85 degrees. So we decided to just check out the visitor center and the town. There are various sculptures around town where you can just drive up to.


Had to take a picture of the camel with my Sahara gear on hahaha.


The snake one was pretty cool as it stretched out on both sides of the road.

We stopped by the store in Borrego Springs to eat lunch and have some ice cream before hitting the road.



A few of Nixon

I wish the park was a bit closer, as it is huge with many areas to explore. We will probably end up coming back for a full weekend trip sometime in the fall/spring when the weather is a bit more tolerable.

We'll be heading out for another 1-nighter to Wheeler Gorge next month, but we will be bringing Georgie so that should be fun.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com

Red Rock Canyon State Park

Red Rock Canyon is off the 14, about 25 miles past Mojave. We always pass by on the way up to Mammoth Lakes and have always wanted to check it out so we took a 1-night trip out there and camped at Ricardo campground.



We got there on Saturday so luckily there were a few spots open. We ended up getting a nice corner spot that was a bit secluded from other sites.


It was a HOT weekend and there were no clouds or shade, but after getting settled we took off and went exploring on a few short hiking trails around the area. The first was the Red Cliffs Trail, a mile or so loop that hugged the side of the rock formations.


We followed a wash out further and went to explore some more rock formations.

Jaime taking pics of me taking pics

A view from the top of the hike

Lastly, a panorama while we were back at the car eating lunch.

Next we took a short drive to the Hagen Canyon trail, another short 1 mile hike.

It was pretty similar, a few named landmarks but nothing that really stood out. There was a spot that had a hole in one of the formations that looks out to the red cliffs trail. Nixon decided he wanted to be in the shot.



After hiking we headed to the visitor center to get some firewood and relax by the benches in the shade. There were some birds flying around so I took out my 300mm and walked around taking pics.

Snapped a few of a woodpecker and some other bird that was perched way up in the trees:



Got one of these things too.....

We headed back to the site to relax. Luckily our side had a big rock cliff that provided shade.

Even though there were no clouds I went back to the Red Cliffs trail to snap some sunset pics. Only stayed for about 20 minutes as the sky was boring and flat.



Headed back to the site for some dinner. Normally when we camp we eat good, but for an overnight trip it was easier to just bring some dogs and cook them over the fire.



Brought some bacon to wrap around the dogs.....cause bacon makes everything better right?

Nixon yelling at the fire...

I was planning on taking some star shots that night, but the moon washed out pretty much the whole sky. So I set my alarm and got up the next morning at 4am and took some pics facing south towards the Milky Way incorporating the tent into the foreground. Couldn't really fumble around with the lighting too much as Jaime was still sleeping, but next time I will have to tone down the brightness of the headlamp.



The sky was clear with no clouds in sight so I didn't bother to stay up for sunrise. Got up the next day, ate a quick breakfast, packed up and left.

The JJ's "tent"



Photographing the stars and Milky Way has really peaked my interest. Nixon did good too, so we will all be heading out to Anza Borrego in a few weeks. A bit further, but hopefully a bit darker for some nice night shots.

Brandon Yoshizawa
B.A.Y | photography
Landscape and Wildlife photography
www.bay-photography.com