Imperial, Coachella, and Mexicali Valleys into the Salton Sea (25USC1778)

Typically, something during our travels guides me toward a theme for each of our trips, but for our Memorial Day weekend, I am at a loss. The best I can think of -- and it's a definite stretch -- is hot and cold. After I weaseled my way out of riding the motorcycle the four hours to Salton Sea State Recreation Area, just south of the more popular Joshua Tree National Park, I tried to make up for it by planning to drive, in the car, to Mecca Beach to camp in the desert heat for the weekend. 

But despite some temperatures pushing the 100s, it was a pretty chill weekend. Our first full day, we started off staying cool with some famous date shakes from Oasis Date Gardens, in the Coachella Valley (left). Even Sage got in a few licks of what was basically date paste mixed with vanilla ice cream (right).

Since we were so close, we decided to beat the heat by driving up to Palm Springs through its suburbs (Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Cathedral City). We had the dog with us, so we didn't get out and look around too much, but from what we could see in our drive-by, it wasn't our scene. Instead, we headed back to the West Shores of the Salton Sea. We stopped at Johnson's Landing in Salton City for a cold beer (left) and a hot walk along the shore (right).

In nearby Desert Shores, which TJ declared prime real estate for novel-writing seclusion, we picked up some dinner supplies at a little Latino market. We got back to camp just in time to walk along the beach before sunset. Well, "beach" might be too strong of a word. I expected the shoreline to be sharp because of dried salt, but I hadn't counted on a beach made of fish skeletons (left). Apparently, so many fish die that the Salton Sea Authority organizes regular shore clean-ups to clear away rotting flesh. Even the lingering smell of fish wasn't enough to make Sage want to stick around on the sharp "sand" too long (right).

But apparently, the crumbling carcasses didn't bother a lot of people. There were a couple fishermen casting from the coast (left), and we saw at least one guy take his pole out in a raft. Judging by the activity at the fish-cleaning sinks later in the evening, I'd guess they had some success. But for us, we forgot the pisces graveyard we were sitting on as we watched the hot sun go down (right), leaving a cool evening perfect for al-fresco dining.

Poleless, we didn't catch any fish to cook over the grill, but we had brought a good steak, and TJ picked up fajita chicken and shrimp cocktail at the market. I mixed up some guacamole, while TJ tended to grilling onions, steak, and chicken (left). With all the meat and veggies cooked, I constructed most of them into quesadillas, which TJ toasted over the fire. We had a full spread for dinner (right) with plenty of fixings left over for breakfast quesadillas and bean and meat burritos the next night.

The next day, we truly dove into the heat as we headed to the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, which were pretty impressive at least in terms of providing a sandy vista of crops burning in the Imperial Valley (left) and of macho men revving buggies. In cooler seasons, we might have visited the wilderness area, designated just for hiking, without the noise and exhaust of OHVs. Then we drove west to check out the northern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which we didn't get a chance to see when we camped at Agua Caliente County Park in the southern part of the desert. Within an unprotected pocket in the middle of the park lies Borrego Springs, kind of a poor man's Palm Springs; in other words, another town right up our alley. One of the small community's main attractions is Galleta Meadows Estate, huge swaths of land where owner Dennis Avery has contracted sculptor Ricardo Breceda to build larger-than-life creatures, from prehistoric to modern, from imaginary to historical. My favorite among the 129 pieces was the Chinese sea serpent curving in and out of the desert (right).

After a large loop of driving, we got back in time for TJ to do a short run around the campground (while I did Sudoku at the campsite) before another brilliant sunset (top), which started out with the warm tones of yellow and orange (bottom left) before slowly fading to the cooler shades of pink and blue (bottom right).

Luckily, the hottest day of the weekend was the final one, when we would be mostly on the road back to Tijuana. On our way, we stopped at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge (left) before we headed due south to Mexicali, where we crossed into Mexico. On the highway west to Tijuana, we passed another salt lake, Laguna Salada, which is now mainly a dry bed (right), the likes of which the Salton Sea community is trying to prevent. 

To get out of the sweltry desert, we had to follow La Rumorosa, a section of highway famed for its dangerous curves. It didn't seem all that scary to me, except for the propensity of Mexican drivers, who tend to maintain shorter following distances and higher passing speeds than I would prefer. At the top of the winding road, you reach the city of La Rumorosa, which actually can be snowy during the winter months. From there, it was a short and fast trip down to Tijuana, where it was almost as hot as our first day in the desert. Since we had no date shakes on hand to cool us off, we settled for a different frosty beverage instead.