spring in San Diego's desert

Our desert is full of jaw-droppingly beautiful plants that are supported by fragile biocrusts.

strawberry hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii var. engelmannii) is stealing the show here.

strawberry hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus engelmannii var. engelmannii)

desert five-spot (Eremalche rotundifolia)

beavertail cactus (Opuntia basilaris)

This silvery young brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) is finding its way in a crevice.

A perfect bouquet of chuparosa (Justicia californica), multiple cactus species and wildflowers

Mojave desertstar (Monoptilon bellioides)

strawberry cactus (Mammillaria dioica)

teddy bear cholla (Cylindropuntia bigelovii ssp. bigelovii)

There’s nothing quite like backlit cacti at dawn and dusk.

Arizona chalk dudleya (Dudleya arizonica)

Bigelow’s moneyflower (Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii)

California barrel cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus)

California barrel cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus)

Emory's rockdaisy (Perityle emoryi)

Parish’s poppy (Eschscholzia parishii)

This ornate checkered beetle (Trichodes ornatus) was visiting Wolf’s cholla (Cylindropuntia wolfii) to grab a meal and perhaps lay eggs. I’d have liked to stick around to observe a bit more and take additional photos, but I was ready to pass out from the midday heat in this low elevation portion of the desert near the San Diego County and Imperial County lines.

Wolf’s cholla (Cylindropuntia wolfii) in all its glory

Imagine the night skies we could enjoy if we cut the lights when we weren't actively using them. Thankfully, the campground lights illuminating the foreground and skyglow from Calexico-Mexicali at left don't entirely obscure our Milky Way Galaxy when viewed from in this spot. Saving power in this respect would help migratory birds as well.

A March visit to San Diego's desert

On the other side of the mountains from coastal San Diego lies the Sonoran Desert, an ecoregion that spans multiple states in two countries. As Earth’s most biologically diverse desert, its intrinsic and aesthetic value is immeasurable.

ccotillos (Fouquieria splendens) at dawn

ghost flower (Mohavea confertiflora)

Bigelow's monkeyflower (Mimulus bigelovii)

This California barrel cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus) is beautiful even in death.

Gander's cholla (Cylindropuntia ganderi) backlit at dawn

A male Costa's hummingbird (Calypte costae) perched on a creosote bush (Larrea tridentata)

As with many areas of the desert where human activity has disturbed the cryptobiotic crusts, invasive, highly flammable grasses and other weeds from overseas have set up shop in Galleta Meadows. It’s an impressive sculpture park that gets a lot of foot traffic—and car traffic despite the signs asking people to park along the road and walk a bit. There is, or was, a particularly grand desert lily I make a point of visiting there and it was nowhere to be found this spring. Its emergence may have been impacted by the mechanical method used to clear weeds from around the creosote shrubs; it shredded desert lily leaves and unearthed the bulbs of very young plants that were still close to the surface (they sink lower as the plants mature). I wish I'd documented the tiny, unearthed bulbs before frantically replanting them as best I could with my hands, but it didn’t cross my mind in the moment.

Desert lilies (Hesperocallis undulata) have a fragrance that matches the beauty of their blossoms and leaves. The leaf damage is apparent here.

This is the mature desert lily I was unable to find this year.

A male phainopepla (Phainopepla nitens)

A queen butterfly (Danaus gilippus) working Hartweg's climbing milkweed (Funastrum heterophyllum)

This Coquillettapis sp. bee was curled up for the evening in a desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) blossom.

dune scorpion (Smeringurus mesaensis)

There are eight desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis ssp. nelsoni), including two lambs, blending into the pale rocks here. I heard them charging up the mountain before I saw them.

After talking to the rangers about doing so, I set up my camera trap to see who might visit the spring running through the campground during our stay. This coyote walked off with an early morning snack of what was most likely a Baja California treefrog. I hope to “catch” a fox here someday.

Robin Street-Morris. Desert Star Rise. Transparent watercolor and soft pastel on 300lb cold press paper. 14" x 19" (36 x 48cm).