Saddleback Butte

Our campsite at Saddleback Butte with said butte in background

The forecast was for snow at Joshua Tree so we thought we'd better move on to somewhere warmer.  Our original plan was to head for the Mojave National Preserve, but it's even higher elevation there.  We checked out the coast but the forecast was for steady rain.

Instead we decided to head for the central valley.  To break up the drive we stopped for one night at Saddleback Butte State Park in the Antelope Valley. It was deserted with one other camper on site.

We set up camp and then hit the trail to the butte.

Its hard to tell in this picture, but the desert is abloom after all the rain recently. All that green foliage is blooming. Its just that the flowers that are abloom are these:

Common Fiddleneck

They are not very showy. We also saw this pretty white flower for the first time:

1. -raYellow-rayed Layia.  The little yellow flowers are California Goldfields.

Also more of these pale blue-lilac Mojave Woody Asters we've seen before at Big Morongo and Joshua Tree.

At the summit we had a great 360 degree view around us.

These yellow patches in the distance are thousands of the tiny California Goldfields shown above:

Leo got a shot of our campsite far below.

It was very blustery up there and ominously dark clouds were surrounding us so we hurried back down.

With all the wind not many birds were about, but Leo got a good shots of this black-throated sparrow.