Badlands masquerade

November 1, 2021

Borrego Springs loop, take 6

We were treated to a spectacular sunrise this morning due to the many bands of clouds in the sky! I stayed outside for nearly 45 minutes, taking picture after picture as the colors constantly changed.

Don was up for a long ride today so after we had a bite to eat, he got the tandem ready to go. We were out on the road before 9 but due to our earlier start and the partly cloudy skies, I wore a light jacket for a while.

He wanted to ride some of the roads we've already done but in reverse. That was ok by me, as long as we didn't try to ride up that Yaqui Pass Rd! Maybe another time, but not now. Don still wants to do some tweaking to our gearing to help give us some decent climbing gears.

We meandered around, heading first south, then north as we made our way around town. I was able to take some different pictures of the metal sculptures with the earlier morning light.

Part of our ride took us back into the citrus orchards and from there we headed east on Henderson Canyon Rd to a new area that we hadn't yet explored.

We followed this road through the desert next to the state park until it connected to the highway going to Salton City and then turned back to Borrego Springs. There wasn't a lot of traffic but we did have a bike lane.

This area is known as the Borrego Badlands and we could see why when we saw some rock formations in the distance that looked like those in the South Dakota Badlands. This valley sure has been interesting to ride, with different things to look at every time we go out. You would think it was just stark desert scenery but not always.

As we rode along, I'm always looking around at what I see along the highways. Today I counted 9 Covid masks - NINE!!!!

Most of them were those cheap disposable ones but there were a couple of cloth ones. We've seen these in other states and they appear to be the "new" roadside trash item.

It used to be you only saw plastic water bottles, aluminum cans or those mini liquor bottles. But now I guess we have to add masks to the list! I wondered if people were just pitching them out their car windows as they drove along rather than putting them in the trash?? Just another side affect of Covid, sigh..........

Back home by noon, we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, showering and beginning the pack up of our camp site so that we can leave tomorrow. It's been nice to stay put for a week, but we're now headed to southern AZ for the rest of November. We'll be back in familiar territory to finish out our trip.

As we ate dinner at the picnic table, we enjoyed watching yet another gorgeous sunset over the mountains. It was a great way to cap off our time in California!

Just one of many sunrise shots I took today!

These squirrels are roaming around everywhere in our campground. I'm not sure of the species, but they have a white ruff around the neck. Even the coloration in the body looks different.

South of town we found this Aiolornis in a nest.

So many of the sculptures are done with movement in them. This one makes you expect the horse to galloping away at any second from the Sabertooth cat.

This is called the Indian Head and looks very Aztec or Mayan to me.

We passed by this dragon/serpent again today and you can get a sense of just how massive this sculpture is by using that guy as perspective.

The tail on the creature looks like a rattlesnake! Appropriate for the desert.

Another by product of the pandemic are these masks that are discarded everywhere we go. So sad that people choose to litter this beautiful land with these pieces of trash.

Another beautiful sunset in Borrego Springs!

Today's ride: 28 miles (45 km)
Total: 335 miles (539 km)

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