As I have done every year for about 15 years or so on New Years Day or a few days after, today I went again and hiked the Palm Canyon out of Borrego Springs in the Anza Borrego desert.

This year I didn’t go by myself, but Trisha and our two good adventure friends, Linda and Dick, came along.

Here is a map of our hike. We took an alternative route back, which was very scenic. The total hike was 3.34 miles long and we were out for 2 hours and 22 minutes. It was very leisurely, and we took lots of stops to look for bighorn sheep (no luck, otherwise I’d be boasting off the pictures here) and to take in the scenery.

Here is a group shot of us at the palm grove after the hike up:

Hmm, what were we thinking? Two couples in black glasses? Maybe we should have taken our hats and glasses off and you could have actually seen us!

Here are the only two mountain goats you would have seen out there today:

The grove has grown in substantially since last year. Here is last year’s shot from Jan 1, 2023:

And today from the same spot, myself not included.

The undergrowth is much thicker now a few years after the fire.

Finally a parting shot done by Trisha in her artistic ways: