Road trips in California is something everyone should be doing if given the opportunity. It really is one of the great privileges of living in this great country of ours. If you hate America, just go on a road trip and you’ll probably feel differently afterwards.

Me and my better half went on a three hour journey to Anza-Borrego this past Saturday. We’d had only driven through previously and never took the time to explore. Winter in the desert is a dream for photographers. Simple minimalist backgrounds, pleasant weather and good light all day as the sun is never too high.

Although on this day, the first two hours of our trip was gloomy rain, followed by beautiful sun but then quickly followed by extremely windy conditions. Wasn’t the ideal weather for hiking around but made for some interesting and beautiful conditions.

I’ll start off the trip with our entrance heading east onto the Temecula Parkway. It was our first time on this stretch and it’s a gorgeous drive. Highly recommend. It was mostly raining the entire stretch, but as we got closer to the desert, the sun started to peak out.

As the sun started to finally peak as we approached the Anza-Borrego desert, we were on the lookout for rainbows. A good stretch of our drive was in the rain with sun shining on us so it was only a matter of time. We saw three different rainbows on our drive. What luck and a great way to start the day.

From here we went on a hike in the Borrego Palm Canyon. It was a nice hike, but I didn’t like any of the photos. It’s a beautiful canyon that leads into a large patch of palm trees. There was enough water flowing through the canyon, that we saw a few waterfalls. I’m sure it’s a rare occurrence in the desert. Afterwards, we drove around and checked out all the animal metal art scattered throughout the desert. But as we were walking around, the wind started to pick up. This for me would be perfect for some street photography, but the wind was so strong I couldn’t handle the sand battering me. Maybe if we ever go back, I can try to get some layered shots with people wandering around the animals.

After leaving all the metal art, we checked out some wildflowers. This was Gisela’s main mission. They did not disappoint. There was a large field full of millions of different color flowers. Really cool scene, but not so much for any photos I took.

And we decided to check out Vern Whitaker’s horse camp. Went down a sandy road and passed a huge lemon grove. Picked one and it tasted delicious. Not much to see at the horse camp, but still worth the journey.

And next we headed to an old dry lake bed. On our way I saw a kite flying in the distance. Turns out a guy was out on the dry lake bed flying this kite. The street photographer in me quickly turned into action as I knew there was some potential for a killer photo. I worked the scene, something I rarely do and ended up chatting with Curt, the guy flying the kite. Cool dude. He let me fly the kite and I apparently did an advanced move on my first try. A figure 8. Guess I’m a natural.

Now on our way to Fonts Point down another sandy four mile road. This was a fun drive as it was sandy and soft. Most of the offroading we do is on a very uncomfortable terrain making the drive annoying. But this was a nice peaceful drive through sand. We were going about 30 mph the entire stretch and got to Fonts Point in no time at all. Luckily we have a Subaru and it handled the drive no problem, but a 2wd car would most likely have issues.

By this time, it was 4 o’clock and time to head back to Santa Monica. Surprisingly the trip back was quicker going through the Salton Sea and Palm Springs. So on wards we went. Ended up raining again and blasting us with more strong winds. Some stretches of the drive were a bit tense as the wind was really strong but we made it home safe.