Fall 1989: California Desert and Mountains

Patti and I took a camping trip to (mostly) southern California. First stop was Anza Borrego State Park down near Mexico, a place we've visited a number of times since. Then the Salton Sea, plenty of birds there, and Joshua Tree, where we had a beautiful hike in among the rocks as the sun was setting. As we were driving back from this hike we heard on the radio about the earthquake in San Francisco (which delayed the World Series), causing some worry about Andra and Jennifer, but all was okay. We had a buggy camp alongside the Colorado River just north of Yuma, Arizona. But the bugs also attracted bats, which arrived in a tremendous swarm just as the sun set. By this time Patti's week of vacation was up and I dropped her off at the airport in San Diego. I headed over to Death Valley, then worked my way north a bit, ending up at Sequoia NP, where the photo above was taken. One final and absolutely necessary stop was at Edwards Air Force Base to watch the space shuttle land.

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