Today, my friend Mike and I went on a hike in the Anza Borrego desert, near Borrego Springs. The hike is listed as the Borrego Palm Canyon hike. The “improved” trail ends at an oasis. If you have ever pictured an oasis in your mind — and never seen one — this is the one they are all modeled after. In the middle of desolate dryness, rocks, sand, and temperatures in the 80ies in February, there is a stand of palm trees, deep shade, a year-round creek splashing down the rocks into the pools nearby.

Mike and I, before the hike, at the trailhead.

Mike came to visit from Albany, New York, where they have 20 degrees Fahrenheit right now. He didn’t complain one bit about “heat” in the upper 80ies.

Here you can see the oasis, looking uphill from the trail. We’re still quite a distance away from it.

Here we’re closer. That’s Mike standing in the foreground.

One more closer look at the same picture, zoomed in. We ate our peanutbutter sandwiches right there.