It’s road trip season! For this four day escapade, I enlisted a research assistant, my momma, to travel with me deep into the heart of California’s water dreams, to the desert at the Southern end of the state. It is there that the vision of taming the vast desert, of creating a lush oasis out of sand and heat, came to pass.

It was pretty striking- the contrast between my last adventure in the upper reaches of Northern California’s emerald green river country, and the tumbleweed strewn desert that our ingenuity/hubris brought water to. Sometimes it baffles the mind how us humans could want so much to do the impossible, to test our wit and skill against the might of nature. An attitude that, while producing impressive monuments to our intelligence and pride, now begins to bear fruit of questionable flavor.

For our route, we chose a loop passing by one of the last free-flowing rivers in Southern California near Fallbrook, through Palm Desert and down the eastern side of the Salton Sea, into the Imperial Valley where my great-grandparents met and married, and finally, to pay our respects to the Colorado River.

This trip will be split into a few different segments over the next few weeks. Enjoy the stories and pictures!

The Santa Margarita River

The Santa Margarita River is one of Southern California’s last free-flowing rivers. Though Southern California isn’t known for its abundance of water, there are a good number of rivers native to the area. The San Diego and Los Angeles Rivers, the Santa Clara (also free-flowing), the Ventura, the Santa Ana, the San Luis Rey, the San Gabriel, the Colorado (which forms the border of California and Arizona), and of course the namesake of this project, the Sweetwater, almost all of which have been put into concrete channels and/or dammed.

On its journey to the ocean, the Santa Margarita flows 27 miles unimpeded, surrounded by lush riparian vegetation, providing a home for animals. Nestled in canyons behind the small avocado-growing town of Fallbrook, the Santa Margarita winds its way through the arid canyons of SoCal from its headwaters 15 miles east of Temecula to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean near Oceanside.

We visited part of the river near to its headwaters. Surrounded by arid, rocky hills checkered with avocado trees, the river meanders through a river gorge lined with white alder and oak woodlands. Its lushness contrasting with the dry hills surrounding it.

My lovely research assistant and I took a hike along the river. From a bank above the river, we spotted five-inch trout treading water, tadpoles hiding in the shallows, a momma duck and her ducklings making their way down small rapids- one of the babies catching a fish and gulping it down along the way. An abundance of life.

We found a trail right down to the river’s edge so that we could sit and listen to the stream’s murmuring. The Santa Margarita has a good feel to it- like you could see a river nymph at any moment dancing on the top of the water with bells on her ankles.

To understand water, rivers, and imagine the waterscape we want to see in California, there is nothing more important than experiencing live, flowing rivers. Dipping your toes in. The pleasure we take from their sight and sound. The abundance of life you can find if you sit still for just a moment and listen.

The Santa Margarita Trail is located off Sandia Road right outside of Fallbrook. Highly recommended for those of you who live in or near San Diego. Check out Friends of the Santa Margarita for more info about the river.

Next week, we shall journey to the strange and haunting lands of the Salton Sea. Join me.

I am ever grateful to my research assistant/momma/friend for her assistance and companionship on this trip! Here comes the chuckwagon!