More Desert Journeys- Anza Borrego to the Mountains to Palm Desert to Amboy Crater to Mojave Desert Preserve!

Sunday, February 16, 2014



First a quick update to my last posting. The gentleman who started Salvation Mountain has actually been in a nursing home for the last few years. We learned that he died two days after our visit. The LA Times posted an interesting article about him. Greg also learned while researching the geology of the area, that we spent the night on top of the infamous San Andreas Fault when we camped on the shore of the Salton Sea. Last night we boondocked by the Amboy Crater which was formed 6,000 years ago, and last erupted 500 years ago, which makes it about the youngest volcano in southern California. While researching the crater Greg discovered that this one has a high likelihood of erupting again. Guess we like to live geologically dangerously!

Sunset in Anza Borrego

Amboy Crater in background vented 24 square miles of lava beds

How did we get here to Amboy Crater, which we visited last winter in our wanderings? After a night and a day of being stuck inside the rig back at Clark dry lake bed, near Borrego Springs, the wind died and we were able to sit outside and watch the sun go down. That left us the next day, Tuesday, to explore. Greg rode his bike way up past the lake bed to the base of the mountains. I attempted to ride up there with him in the afternoon, but the fine sand was too deep and soft for me, even with Turbo Bike, and I got frustrated and gave up.

Looking across Clark Dry Lake

We spent Tuesday night in the valley with all the other snowbirds and decided to leave Wednesday morning for Blair Valley farther south in the park. It had been recommended by Bob, our neighbor at the Quartzsite rally. Before heading there we drove into Borrego Springs and then just north of town to Galetta Meadows. A private landowner has set aside some property for public use including picnicking. The most interesting area is where he has allowed a sculptor to erect large welded structures of animals; present day, such as camels and elephants, prehistoric dinosaurs, and a fantastical sea monster, who appears to be diving under the road! We stopped to walk up to that one and examine his work. The scales are all individually welded on. See the photos to get a feel for the size and detail.

Mural in Borrego Springs

 

After appreciating the art work, we drove back into Borrego Springs, which turned out to be more of an upscale desert community than we expected. There are art galleries and restaurants. After buying groceries and filling our five gallon water jugs at a coin operated dispenser, we stopped for lunch on the enclosed patio of Pablitos. No margaritas today! We still had the drive to make to Blair Valley. Instead just some good tamales that our waitress recommended.

Pablitos Restaurant in background

The drive to Blair Valley took us south, up over a mountain pass and out of the valley that encloses Borrego Springs. After some twisty, winding roads we finally emerged at the dirt road into Blair Valley. We were wishing we'd found it first. Since our tanks had not been emptied since the Salton Sea, we decided we could stretch them for two nights, so two nights we stayed. The dry lake bed is surrounded by mountains, but the lake bed is not a dusty mess like the boondocking spot in Clark Valley. We settled in a spot about ¾ of a mile from the main entrance area, with a beautiful view across the grassy lake bed and the mountains beyond. We were nestled up against the mountain amongst the granite boulders near the old Butterfield Stagecoach trail. Just above us in the cliff we watched a red tailed hawk build it's nest and then soar overhead with its mate. The only other trailer we saw was across the wide valley.

Blair Valley boondock site

Moon Rise

The little white dot is our rig

Greg biked. We took a few walks and at night we marveled at the brilliance of the full moon. We could have read outside. At night we could hear the coyotes howling from the dry lake bed. Thursday a few more RV's drove in for the long holiday weekend, but no one camped near us. Saturday morning we were ready to move on. We needed dumping, water and showers. I needed some cooler mountain weather and some trees! We drove up into the mountains to William Heise San Diego County Park, and hoped we would get in. It was still another 50 miles to San Diego, but, being a long holiday weekend meant we might get skunked.
 
They had one electric hook-up site left. It was on a paved parking lot striped to create parking spaces for RV's. I don't think two RV's with sliders on the same side would have been able to open them! After days of boondocking with lots of space around us, we opted for a $24 spacious non-electric site and relied on our solar panels. We were not allowed to run our generator either, so one hour of local TV Olympics watching was about all we could spare on the battery. We have been streaming Netflix on Greg's tablet, which we can recharge later off the battery, when we can't get local TV, but were hoping to catch some Olympics.
We took a hike together along the campground nature trail. Ahh,...trees! I love the desert, but sometimes I need to see water, or trees, or both! Then I can go back to appreciating the desert. On the hike we also saw a flock of wild turkeys and three mule deer crossing a field near our site. Greg got up early yesterday morning and walked for two hours up to the desert overlook. From there he could see the desert and the Salton Sea in one direction and the Pacific and San Diego in the other. I would have enjoyed the view, but seriously? A 7 am nature walk...?

Trail through Canyon Oaks, recovering from 2003 fire

Counting Tree rings

Wild turkeys frustrated by fence...Did they forget they could fly?

View toward San Diego, 45 miles away

After Greg's hike Saturday morning it was time for a change of venue. California had rain farther north and we are hoping to see some desert wildflowers. And to be honest, it has been too hot during the day. Friends and family back East, don't hate us! Yesterday became a travel day. We passed another flock of wild turkeys on the way out of the park. Nearby we saw the airport where Greg and our friend Tom had sailplane rides when we lived in California in the early 90's. We drove up and over the Santa Rosa mountains and down an insanely twisting road to the desert towns of Palm Desert, Indian Wells, and Indio, near Palm Springs. It was so bizarre to drive through the extremely watered and irrigated desert towns, and see all the green grass, flowers, trees, golf courses, ponds, lakes, and artificial waterfalls, and feel the humidity! The lack of sustainability to keep this an oasis is mind boggling! There is a lot of population there, and obvious, by all the new construction, that it is growing rapidly.

Sailplanes

Crossing the Santa Rosa Mountains with Palm Springs valley towns below

The 5,000-foot descent into Palm Desert. That ribbon is the road below us!

This should look like the Mojave Desert

When we reached the desert again, we hopped on I-10 for 22 miles and exited north into Joshua Tree National Park. We spent a night here last winter. We wanted a “shortcut” through the park to exit out the north side and drive north to Amboy Crater. In Twentynine Palms, we found some groceries and left to cross the desert and salt flats as we raced the sunset.

Arriving as the sun went down, we barely saw the sign in the darkening desert and found an empty parking lot to boondock for the night. We also had an overcast sky which made the cinder cone crater especially ominous. As we ate dinner we realized that even though we were well off the road, the rail lines ran along them. All night long we felt the vibrations and heard the rumbles as literally dozens of Union Pacific freight trains rolled past in both directions. We were in the middle of nowhere along old Route 66, with a small falling down town several miles away, and Twentynine Palms 50 miles to the south.

One of the few remaining motels on Route 66

The trail to Amboy Crater

The Union Pacific mainline

This morning, Sunday, Greg took a quick hike to the base of the Amboy Crater cinder cone. We hiked up into it last winter. I wasn't feeling it for a repeat this morning. We were both anxious to move on, so we drove through the small town of Amboy, and a short while later turned north directly towards Mojave Desert Preserve 18 miles away. We crossed I-40 and into the park. This is the last of the three big desert parks we wanted to visit last winter. We made it to Death Valley National Park, and Joshua Tree National Park. Mojave is the most remote and least visited of the three. Passing the Granite Mountains, (Greg loves him his granite!), we took the turn to see the Kelso Dunes, 45 square miles of 700 foot high dunes. The over three mile long road was so badly wash boarded, that we turned around halfway there. Neither of us planned to hike them, so we admired them from a distance. We drove further down the road to the Kelso Depot Visitor Center. It was built in 1920 for the Northern Pacific Railroad that still runs many trains a day on the tracks next to it. The depot has been restored and we checked out the exhibits about the park. Greg talked to the ranger who told him that the Hole in the Wall campground where we wanted to camp still had room. Having about a half tank of fuel at this point and the nearest station 35 miles away got Greg thinking that we should fill up before we explore the park more, or head to the campground 65 miles away. This is a huge park with few roads, none of the very direct. We found out that we could boondock just off the road on the way to Baker where we could find fuel, so we hatched a plan to drive part way, boondock, go the rest of the way tomorrow to Baker, get fuel, and have lunch at the Mad Greek, featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Then we can drive back into the park by another route and stay at the campground. Phew!

Granite Mountains

Kelso Dunes

Kelso Station, now the Preserve HQ

Old postcard of Roy's Motel. Current picture above.

Cinder Cone National Landmark

We found the boondocking spot just off the main road and up a small wash surrounded by lava flows. We shared the wash with three college kids in a tent, but for now, that's it. We are all the way back up in the narrow part farther from the road and more private. We think we will stay two nights, so that tomorrow we can hike up on top of the lava flows, and just enjoy the desert “ambiance”! We even have our own 18 inch long Chuckwalla desert lizard. He came out to sun himself on his “sunporch”, a lava boulder 15 feet from the rig, and has been keeping his eye on us. “Chuckie” came with the campsite.

Boondock site at end of Lava flow

Chuck

The sun sets soon and it is beginning to cool fast in the shade. We have been watching the bats fly out of the wall of the lava flow and swoop through the air gobbling little insects. Tonight we will need the down comforter even though it was 81 degrees today. After two nights here and maybe two at Hole in the Wall we will head towards Las Vegas and Lake Mead. Or not, who knows where the roads leads...