Borrego Springs, CA - Free Standing Art Structures
History is unfolding in Borrego Springs with the placement of the Gomphotherium free standing art structures. These creatures lived in the area about 3 million years ago. Dennis Avery, landowner of Galleta Meadows Estates has added 'free standing art', original steel welded sculptures created by Perris Jurassic Park's Ricardo Breceda.

2008 Wildflower Retrospectives
The 2008 Wildflower Season was the best in several years. Many readers wrote in and sent pictures of the flowers they found. We have made a video retrospective for each area: Arizona | Anza Borrego Desert SP | Death Valley NP | Joshua Tree NP | Mojave Desert & So. California | Nevada & Utah

The Tick
A tick will sneak up on you or your dog, take up a sequestered residence in secret body parts, administer a painless bite into the skin, and engorge itself with blood. A small fraction of an inch in length, a typical tick has a roughly teardrop-shaped, two-part body encased in a leathery, accordion-like, dark brown external skeleton.

Carrizo Badlands: Mud Caves & Canyon Sin Nombre
Some mud caves extend over 1000 feet and feature ceilings as high as 80 feet. Caves have been reported up to 35 feet wide, and others so narrow, you have to squeeze through openings. Multi-level caves with skylights have been found, where erosion has created an opening, or sinkhole, in the ceiling of the cave.

Anza Borrego - Borrego Badlands
Conglomerates, sandstones, claystones and mudstones, compressed and hardened, chronicle a variety of landscapes, fossil life forms and climates that no longer exist at Anza-Borrego. This spectacular area, with its arid rocky geography, sunken mesas and corrugated hills of dry mud, is called the Badlands of Anza Borrego.

 

The Kingsnake
The Kingsnake gets its name from its habit of eating other snakes, and is most famous for eating rattlesnakes, copperheads and coral snakes. But it also feeds on other snakes, lizards, birds and their eggs, small mammals, turtles and frogs. This is one snake you want on your property. more videos like this

The Desert Food Chain
A food chain constitutes a complex network of organisms, from plants to animals, through which energy, derived from the sun, flows in the form of organic matter and dissipates in the form of waste heat. The food chain depends on factors such as seasonal sunlight, availability of water and seasonal temperature changes.

The Black Widow Spider
The female black widow spider is the most venomous spider in North America, but it seldom causes death to humans, because it only injects a very small amount of poison when it bites. Black Widows spin webs that lack shape and form. The silk is stronger than most spiders.

The Rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes come in 16 distinct varieties, all positively identified by the jointed rattles on the tail. Most rattlesnakes, when disturbed, normally try to withdraw. But if they think they are cornered, the explosive sizzling buzz of their rattles is an unmistakable warning to retreat. more videos like this

The Saguaro
Saguaros often begin life in the shelter of a "nurse" tree or shrub which provides a shaded, moister habitat. The largest plants are estimated to be 200 years old and can reach heights of 15 to 50 feet. Saguaros have creamy-white, 3-inch-wide flowers with yellow centers that bloom in May and June.

The Tarantula
The tarantula family includes the largest spiders known. The Goliath Tarantula (Theraposa leblondi) which inhabits South America, reaches a body length of 5 inches with a leg span of up to 12 inches. Watch video of this fascinating creature.