The week between Christmas and New Year, I decided to head east of San Diego into the Great Unknown, unknown to me anyway. Anza Borrego State Park and the Great Salton Sea.  Parts of it felt like a strange descent into Dante’s inferno, other parts felt like a prelude to my Baja Sojourn II.

The desert, while certainly prickly and barren, can be visually stunning if you look very close.