My 2019 First Day Hike


Some years back, I joined guided New Year's Day hike at a South Carlsbad State Beach Trail  for the First Day Hike.  Since then, I made it a point to  hike  on a New Year's day. The concept of First Day Hikes started in Milton, Massachusetts as way to get out people into the parks during winter.



 For 2019, I got  only as far as Warner Springs and opted to see an old friend instead of driving the icy roads to Anza Borrego State Park to hike the Alcoholic Pass Trail which was listed in the 2019 First Day Hikes Park list in CA.gov parks and recreation website.




It was refreshing to see snow-capped hedgehog cacti and chollas at a place I have always thought of as a desert in late summer. Warner Springs is somewhat halfway between Julian and Anza Borrego Desert and this must be how it would be for a landscape to turn bi.



With the Hot Springs Mountai which is  the highest peak in San Diego county in the vicinity, this area must be a rain shadow. National Geographic defines a rain shadow as a patch of land that has been forced to become a desert because mountain ranges block all plant-growing rainy weather.

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