Anza-Borrego - Agua Caliente

On Friday, November 9th 2007, We went camping at the Agua Caliente camp ground in the Anza-Borrego Desert. Instead of tent camping, like we normally do, this time we borrowed a camping trailer from Kaarin's parents. The night was very windy, we were very thankful to be in a trailer. After sitting around the campfire and roasting marshmallows, we retreated to the trailer and played some games before bed.

Chad, Sara and Owen playing "go fish".


The next morning we ate breakfast and then got in the car and headed to the Mud Caves. In the southern part of the Anza-Borrego desert there are many caves near each other. The caves were naturally formed by wind and water. Many of these caves go on for hundreds of yards. We spent a few hours exploring some of the caves.

Sara and Owen exploring a cave


After the Mud Caves, we drove about 20 miles east to the head of the Marshal South Trail. We all made the 1 mile hike up the steep rocky trail to the top of Ghost Mountain, the location of the ruins of the Marshal South home. We carried Emmett 95% of the hike, but Sara and Owen were able to do the entire hike.

Sara, Owen and Emmett. Marshal South Trail Head.

Sara, Owen, Emmett and Kaarin at the ruins

Kaarin and Emmett at the Marshal South home site.


After 2 miles of hiking, we were almost back to the car when Owen brushed his hand against a cactus. He had about 20 little cactus needles (as thin as a hair) in his hand. When I reached down to pick him up, I got stabbed in the leg by a desert agave plant. Fortunately, this all happened about 20 yards away from the car. So, we spent a little time attending to our wounds at the car before heading back to our campground.

We arrived back at the campground around noon. Check out time was 1pm, so we spent the last hour in the hot spring pool at the campground. The hot spring water is pumped into this pool at its natural temperature of 92 degrees.


Owen, Emmett, Kaarin and Sara in the hot springs


We left the campground at 1pm and headed back home. Arriving home around 3pm gave us plenty of time to put away our camping gear and clean up the trailer and return it to Kaarin's parents house. It was a very short camping trip, but it felt like we were able to do a lot of fun activities.