Anza Borrego Desert State Park

At the V-shaped junction where California S-3 swings north toward Borrego Valley from California 78, are a tumble of low ridges and canyons, a campground and a trio of nature trials that make up a scenic section of Anza-Borrego State Park. One path begins atop Yaqui Pass; the other two begin opposite Tamarisk Grove Campground, a pleasant place to stay or to picnic. From Yaqui Pass, Kenyon Overlook (1 1/4 mile round trip) leads a quarter-mile to a viewpoint.

Jeff Sewell's paintbrush chased the slanting light across a field of desert sunflowers. Gold. Ocher. Flecks of palest yellow. Then the sun sank behind the San Ysidro Mountains, and the only field left glowing was the one on Sewell's canvas. Even so, the seascape painter from San Juan Capistrano could hardly bring himself to pack away his easel. "This is like something I've never seen," he said, waving at the carpet of wildflowers laid out before stark hillsides of dirt and rock.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing state regulators to sign off on a high-voltage power line that a San Diego utility wants to build through the middle of California's largest state park. Proposed for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the project puts Schwarzenegger again at odds with environmentalists -- and some state officials -- who believe he is allowing California's unrivaled collection of public preserves to be threatened.

Harriet Allen, an environmentalist who mentored generations of desert activists and played a key role in the 1994 passage of the landmark California Desert Protection Act, has died. She was 95. Allen died Sept. 30 of complications related to old age at a Kaiser hospital in San Diego, her family said. "She waged a decades-long battle to educate everyone that the desert matters," said Elden Hughes, a longtime desert-protection activist. "The fact that the desert has sustained itself as well as it has is a tribute to Harriet Allen.

Anza-Borrego is in bloom Wildflowers already? Anza-Borrego Desert State Park northeast of San Diego reports blooms of sand verbena, popcorn flower, desert lily and other plants along roadsides after the recent rains. Right now at the park, sand verbena is blooming along Henderson Canyon and desert apricot in Plum Canyon. Flowers also seem to be popping in the lower elevations of the park, including the Carrizo Badlands, Sweeney Pass, Bow Willow Campground and Indian Valley. Michael Rodrigues, the park's visitor center manager, thinks flowers at Anza-Borrego will peak between the third week of this month and the second week of March.

There was a hotel room available in Borrego Springs on Saturday night. But it cost $380 at the most luxe resort in town. At the cheaper motels, the waiting lists were 10 deep. "You know," one clerk said, "the flowers." Let Japan flaunt its cherry blossoms and the Netherlands boast about its tulips. Here in California, we have a months-long flower festival that rolls slowly northward 400 miles through our deserts.

OFFICIALS at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park are scheduled Oct. 7 to reopen the visitors center, after completing a $1.5-million renovation. The underground center, which was closed much of the summer, now includes paleontology exhibits, videos and Native American artifacts. Before the renovation, some displays were broken and dilapidated, such as an earthquake exhibit that didn't shake.