Erosion forms deep ravines in the packed earth of the badlands in Anza Borrego, as seen from Fonts Point overlook. Kevin and I started in Death Valley National Park and then drove south through Antelope Valley (previous post) and Joshua Tree, through the Coachella valley and on to Anza Borrego following the trail of the 2019 superbloom. I was struggling somewhat with compositions here so I finally decided to just embrace the raggedy erosion lines of sedimentary conglomerate (my geology-studying daughter has me finally learning the terms) leading down from the overlook. They were just catching the first rays of the rising sun and even though in harsher daylight they are pretty ugly, I found a certain rough beauty in the warmer dawn light. Of course I blew out the sun so I cut the top of the image off to let the aperture blade rays do the talking.
If you are ever in the area, Fonts Point is a soaring overlook with Ocotillo plants clinging crazily to the edges of these eroding cliffs, and is well worth the 30 minute drive from Borrego Springs. A river bed meanders through the badlands towards the Salton Sea. As an interesting aside for the curious or paranoid, the recent discovery of another fault line near the existing San Andreas fault that runs along the edge of the Salton Sea has raised speculation that this could be a likely location for the next "big one".
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