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24 | THE COLONY NEWS | FEBRUARY 2022 | COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS Palm Canyon Trail - Anza Borrego State Park By Kathy Sullivan One of the reasons that Anza Borrego State Park was formed back in the 1930s was to protect the Palm Tree Oasis at the edge of the hot, brutal desert. Now it is the largest state park in California at almost 600,000 acres. The San Ysidro Mountains are just high enough to stop the rain clouds from heading further east and dropping moisture across the Colorado Desert. The Palm Canyon Trail in Anza Borrego, an easy 3.25-mile round trip desert hike/ walk, outshines all the other easy desert hikes I have ever trod along. I enjoy starting the trail from the left side of the parking area. This section has been added relatively recently and you traverse over an alluvial plain in and out of the rock outcroppings. This part of the trail is a bit more strenuous than the main trail, so I like to take it first when I am fresh (don't forget it is still classified as an easy trail). After about a mile or so you join up with the main trail that mostly stays near the dry riverbed. As you head up into the canyon, what a wonderful surprise awaits you to see the dry riverbed turn dark with moisture followed by a little trickle of water flowing across the barren landscape. The path follows the creek as it winds up the canyon through boulder encrusted waterfalls and to an oasis of fan palms. The further up the canyon you walk, the larger the stream becomes and the higher the waterfalls. As is normal for California, a year-round stream becomes tiny in midsummer and can become a river during the very rare desert rainstorm. Last winter I was blessed with my first sightings of the desert big horn sheep for which Anza Borrego Park was named. (Borrego is sheep in Spanish). The sheep come down to the creek to get water and forage on the few tuffs of edible greenery that grow in the canyon. Do you know that those round and round horns weigh up to 30 pounds? How would you like to walk, sit, sleep with 30 pounds balancing on your head! What an amazing sight to be close to those regal, endangered creatures. The Visitor Center is the best place to