Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Anza-Borrego camping: a review
Desert camping apprehension overcome.
Sunset from an Anza-Borrego slot canyon.
Being a little nontraditional when it comes to Thanksgiving (I hate turkey and brown food, and avoid it like the plague), we were thrilled when our friends, who feel the same about Thanksgiving, invited us camping in the Anza-Borrego Desert. They made it clear that there would be no bathrooms. No streetlights or electrical outlets. No paved roads.
For some reason, we agreed anyway. I’m glad we did.
Weathering the desert
As you likely know, it’s cold in the desert this time of year. I was apprehensive about sleeping in 30-40 degree weather, but once I saw a local Craigslist ad selling used camping equipment and got our super-snuggly sleeping bags, I was pumped.
Turns out, it wasn’t that bad. It was about 40–45 degrees at night, and downright pleasant during the day. So of course, I took too many coats, hats and mittens. But a girl can never be overprepared, can she?
Rocky roads ahead
I should have been warned when my friend asked if we had 4-wheel drive.
"Uh… why do you ask?"
The roads aren’t just unpaved, they’re also covered in precarious boulders that threatened to rip out our radiator from beneath our feet (at least in my mind). My husband knew better than to ask me to drive as I grabbed the OS handle with white knuckles. We drove for what seemed eons before settling into an isolated canyon and setting up camp.
Roughing it.
Exploring slot canyons
Before we camped, we took a hike among the slot canyons. They’re unlike anything I’ve experienced. Imagine being at the bottom of a canyon, but you can touch the sides. And in some cases, you’ve got to squeeze through that slot. The kids (ranging from ages 5 to 9) had a blast scurrying up sandstone formations. The dogs, too.
The canyons near our campsite were completely insular. I went for a walk by myself and couldn’t hear the kids just a few rocks over.
But the real highlight...
Breathtaking nature aside, the most fun was cooking award-winning meals (er, supervising said meals with a glass of wine from a distance) of lobster and bacon-wrapped shrimp, and then steak and potatoes. And then drinking. And staying up to what seemed to be late but was really 10 p.m. talking and laughing with good friends. Oh yeah, and a little game called Cards Against Humanity. Look it up. Unless you’re my mother. Because if you are, you will be offended with its off humor.
And the stars. Oh, the stars. You haven’t seen stars until you see them from a canyon in the desert. Velvet black sky with pinholes of light. The occasional shooting star just out of your peripheral vision. The feeling like there is no human civilization anywhere but right here.
Back to life
Coming back to reality after 2.5 days of going off the grid was hard.
The first shock came when we got lost on the dirt roads headed home and ran into hundreds of RVs, ATVs, and motorbikes. I think they call them “desert rats.” They had a much different experience in the desert than we did. For us, it was about solitude (together, as it were) whereas these folks wanted the more, the merrier. No thanks.
Having been on a digital-free diet for that long was refreshing, though I was happy to dive back into my ebooks on my tablet.
I was dehydrated for days, despite having drank plenty of water (I guess the alcohol countered that). And I was so happy to take a hot shower and roll around in my bed.
Would I camp in the desert again? Absolutely. It was a singular experience that I can’t compare to anything else I’ve done in all my travels. It was definitely the roughest I've ever had it (hey, don't knock the Marriott; at least I don't have to bring a shovel behind a bush to relieve myself there), but sometimes getting out of your comfort zone is the best thing you can do to appreciate the comforts of life.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Anza-Borrego camping: a review
Desert camping apprehension overcome.
Anza-Borrego camping: a review
Desert camping apprehension overcome.
Sunset from an Anza-Borrego slot canyon.
Being a little nontraditional when it comes to Thanksgiving (I hate turkey and brown food, and avoid it like the plague), we were thrilled when our friends, who feel the same about Thanksgiving, invited us camping in the Anza-Borrego Desert. They made it clear that there would be no bathrooms. No streetlights or electrical outlets. No paved roads.
For some reason, we agreed anyway. I’m glad we did.
Weathering the desert
As you likely know, it’s cold in the desert this time of year. I was apprehensive about sleeping in 30-40 degree weather, but once I saw a local Craigslist ad selling used camping equipment and got our super-snuggly sleeping bags, I was pumped.
Turns out, it wasn’t that bad. It was about 40–45 degrees at night, and downright pleasant during the day. So of course, I took too many coats, hats and mittens. But a girl can never be overprepared, can she?
Rocky roads ahead
I should have been warned when my friend asked if we had 4-wheel drive.
"Uh… why do you ask?"
The roads aren’t just unpaved, they’re also covered in precarious boulders that threatened to rip out our radiator from beneath our feet (at least in my mind). My husband knew better than to ask me to drive as I grabbed the OS handle with white knuckles. We drove for what seemed eons before settling into an isolated canyon and setting up camp.
Roughing it.
Exploring slot canyons
Before we camped, we took a hike among the slot canyons. They’re unlike anything I’ve experienced. Imagine being at the bottom of a canyon, but you can touch the sides. And in some cases, you’ve got to squeeze through that slot. The kids (ranging from ages 5 to 9) had a blast scurrying up sandstone formations. The dogs, too.
The canyons near our campsite were completely insular. I went for a walk by myself and couldn’t hear the kids just a few rocks over.
But the real highlight...
Breathtaking nature aside, the most fun was cooking award-winning meals (er, supervising said meals with a glass of wine from a distance) of lobster and bacon-wrapped shrimp, and then steak and potatoes. And then drinking. And staying up to what seemed to be late but was really 10 p.m. talking and laughing with good friends. Oh yeah, and a little game called Cards Against Humanity. Look it up. Unless you’re my mother. Because if you are, you will be offended with its off humor.
And the stars. Oh, the stars. You haven’t seen stars until you see them from a canyon in the desert. Velvet black sky with pinholes of light. The occasional shooting star just out of your peripheral vision. The feeling like there is no human civilization anywhere but right here.
Back to life
Coming back to reality after 2.5 days of going off the grid was hard.
The first shock came when we got lost on the dirt roads headed home and ran into hundreds of RVs, ATVs, and motorbikes. I think they call them “desert rats.” They had a much different experience in the desert than we did. For us, it was about solitude (together, as it were) whereas these folks wanted the more, the merrier. No thanks.
Having been on a digital-free diet for that long was refreshing, though I was happy to dive back into my ebooks on my tablet.
I was dehydrated for days, despite having drank plenty of water (I guess the alcohol countered that). And I was so happy to take a hot shower and roll around in my bed.
Would I camp in the desert again? Absolutely. It was a singular experience that I can’t compare to anything else I’ve done in all my travels. It was definitely the roughest I've ever had it (hey, don't knock the Marriott; at least I don't have to bring a shovel behind a bush to relieve myself there), but sometimes getting out of your comfort zone is the best thing you can do to appreciate the comforts of life.
Comments