Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [311]
Krazy Coyote Saloon & Grill ( 760-767-7788; 2220 Hoberg Rd; mains $10-36; dinner Wed-Sun; ) The bar and grill at the Palms at Indian Head serves famous martinis and classics like chicken cordon bleu, alongside newer fare like sesame-garlic pork tenderloin. The atmosphere is fun and the views terrific.
Butterfield Room ( 760-767-5323; 3845 Yaqui Pass Rd; mains lunch $10-16, dinner $14-28; breakfast, lunch & dinner; ) The fine-dining restaurant at La Casa del Zorro is very fine indeed. A changing menu provides fresh takes on standards, plus plenty of local ingredients (the kit fox salad combines lettuce, citrus, walnuts and dates), and there’s an enviable if pricey wine list. Desserts are off the wall. Dress code is collared shirt, dress pants and shoes for men, ‘appropriate attire’ for women.
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HOT TOPIC: SALTON SEA
It’s a most unexpected sight: California’s largest lake in the middle of its largest desert. The Salton Sea has a fascinating past, complicated present and uncertain future.
Geologists say that the Gulf of California once extended about 150 miles north of its present shore to the present-day Coachella Valley, but millions of years’ worth of silt flowing through the Colorado River gradually sealed the valley off, leaving a sink behind. Occasional overflows from the river came to rest in the sink, eventually evaporating. By the mid-1800s the sink was the site of salt mines, and geologists realized that the mineral-rich soil would make excellent farmland. Colorado River water was diverted into irrigation canals.
In 1905 the Colorado breached its banks once again, and thus the Salton Sea, today about 35 miles long, 15 miles wide and with nearly a third higher salt content than in the gulf, was born. It took 18 months, 1500 workers and half-a-million tons of rock to put the river back on its course.
By mid-century, the Salton Sea was stocked with fish including tilapia and corvina, and marketed as the California Riviera, with vacation homes along its shores. The fish, in turn, attracted birds, and the sea remains a prime spot for bird-watching, including migratory and endangered species such as snow geese, mallards, ruddy ducks, white and brown pelicans, bald eagles and peregrine falcons.
These days, if you’ve heard of the Salton Sea at all it’s probably due to annual fish die-offs. These, along with the sea’s distinctive odor and poor publicity from 1980s environmental studies, have significantly diminished it as a tourist destination (though recent environmental studies have refuted some of the 1980s results). The die-offs are due to phosphorous and nitrogen in runoff from surrounding farmland. The minerals cause algae blooms, and when the algae die they deprive the water – and fish – of oxygen. Even if farming were to stop tomorrow, there are still generations’ worth of minerals in the soil, waiting to reach the sink.
One obvious solution would seem to be to cut off the water to the sea and let it die, but that carries its own dilemma. A dry Salton Sea would leave a dust bowl, with projections of a permanent dust cloud devastating air quality valley-wide. The debate rages.
To see the sea for yourself, try the Salton Sea State Recreation Area ( 760-393-3052; www.parks.ca.gov; Hwy 111, North Shore), or Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge ( 760-348-5278; 906 W Sinclair Rd; 7am-3:30pm Mon-Fri year-round, 8am-4:30pm Sat & Sun Nov-Mar) is off Hwy 111 between Niland and Calipatria.
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GETTING THERE & AWAY
You’ll need a car to get to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. From San Diego (approximately 2½ hours), I-8 to S2 is easiest because it mostly follows freeway. Alternatively, take the scenic and twisty Hwy 79 from I-8 north through Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and into Julian, then head east on Hwy 78.
From Orange County (via Temecula),