Joshua Tree National Park – The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales

01-15-2015 Joshua Tree Heaven

Current Location: Rocky Point Oregon Current temperature: 45 degrees F and clear

Can you see all the magical people in this pile of rocks? Look close.

When Judy (bird lady of blogland) and I were visiting, we talked about our blogging habits and one of the thoughts that came up was how important it is to write when everything is fresh. Some folks are diligent about this, writing everything on the same day in first person present tense. Others are the opposite extreme, waiting sometimes months to get back to a special trip with tons of information and magnificent photos.

I fall somewhere in between. If we are traveling, I try hard to keep up, but on almost every extended outing, I’ll get behind. Such is the case today. I am once again at home, sitting at the office window looking out through the forest, trying to slip back into how it felt to be camping in the dry sunny almost warmth of Joshua Tree National Park.

Mo and I love to visit Joshua Tree. In 2008, when we first brought the MoHo home to Oregon from Texas, we stopped for a a bit of exploring around the Joshua Tree campgrounds, and almost got ourselves into a tight situation on one of the Jumbo Rocks campground loops.

In 2013, even though we were camped at Desert Hot Springs, we spent some time exploring the National Park and loved every minute of it. I made a mental note that we should try to camp in Jumbo Rocks campground on our trip south in 2014. My planning wasn’t too great, however, since we arrived on New Years Day, and the campground, which has no reservations, was jam packed for the holiday.

We solved that problem with a terrific time boondocking outside the park just south of the southern entrance, within view of I-10. What a great way to see in the new year.

This year, we saved our Joshua Tree time for last. It was hard leaving Arizona after such a short time, but miscellaneous home issues required that we get back on the road north in short order. Finally, after all these years, we managed a night of beautiful dry camping in the Jumbo Rocks Campground at Joshua Tree National Park.

I somehow expected that in mid January, after all the holidays were over, the park would be quiet. While it was much quieter than last year, there were still many people exploring, and we were lucky to find a spot long enough for the MoHo when we arrived around 3 in the afternoon. With a short stop in Quartzite, I was still drooling over some of the new Class A rigs that we toured at La Mesa RV. In spite of all that glass, and all that space, I still love tucking my little 26 footer into tight spaces in national parks, state parks, and forest service campgrounds.

The campground is long, with winding roads and a few side loops, but the majority of sites are sized for tent camping. Sites that are large enough for bigger rigs are built parallel to the road, and require some forethought and jockeying to settle in properly.

We figured out that in order to get our slide out on the private side away from the road, we would have to park facing the opposite direction and accept the slight inconvenience of the doorway opening directly into the road.

It worked out just fine, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be any longer. There were a few big rigs in some of the areas at the far end of the park, but I would imagine that they had to wait around to get a site big enough to accommodate their size.

Both of us have always wanted to camp among the beautiful boulders, and with our windows opening up to a giant jumbled pile of wonderfulness, we watched the evening light shifting colors on the granite, and the next morning enjoyed the changing light of sunrise.

The night was cold, with frost on the car when morning broke. There were people in tents nearby and I was reminded of days camping in cold tents and warm sleeping bags, trying to keep warm making coffee over the fire. Such luxury. I snuggled back into the down comforter, enjoying the morning with no hurry to beat the sunrise. I planned to hike, but I didn’t need to do it while the frost was still hanging around.

The other interesting tidbit about Jumbo Rocks is the generator rules. Generators can be run from 7 to 9 am, from 12 to 2 pm, and from 6 to 8 pm. Different. We still had a good charge, even with our furnace running, but it was nice to top it off with an hour of generator time around 9 am before we took off hiking.

The hike to Skull Rock from the campground is well marked, however it was easy to wind between the rocks from our campsite until we intercepted the trail meandering east toward the attraction. At only 1.3 miles, when we found Skull Rock, we weren’t ready to quit, so Mo and I wandered around the boulders for a time, enjoying all the shapes and shadows of the crazy beautiful landscape.

What a wonderful place! In all our years passing by this trailhead, we had never actually seen Skull Rock. I had no clue until we almost ran into it that the famous face is very close to the parking area right on the main park road.

This section of Joshua Tree is filled with fantasmagoric boulders that people young and old love to climb and explore. It is almost like a giant jungle gym for grownups, or maybe not so grownups. We saw some teenagers doing scary things on high boulders that made me wonder if this park has a high incidence of injuries and rescues. We everything from old folks meandering around the rocks to the aforementioned teenagers, to professional free climbers with some equipment, and other climbers with a ton of equipment. Joshua Tree Morning (33 of 54)

Once again, we passed many sights on our way out that reminded us to put at least a week of dry camping here on the agenda the next time we travel south in the winter. Joshua Tree Morning (14 of 54)

As I was walking along behind Mo in the morning sunlight, I felt myself slip into a state of wonder that is a bit hard to fathom or explain. I was just so incredibly happy, so very much in that moment, so high on the light and the rocks and the sandy trail in front of me. I hope I can remember that moment at times when I am feeling low or bored with the everydayness of life in general. Moments like that are rare and wonderful. Most of the time I am in good spirits, but this was somehow different. Call it Bliss, I suppose, I was there!

We had a wonderful breakfast, a wonderful hike, and a wonderful morning to slip under the belt before we had to leave the clear beautiful desert behind us and head west into the foggy dreariness of the Central Valley of California. Only thing that made the drive tolerable was the anticipation of spending time with friends on our way home.

Next: Visiting Jimmie and Nickie in Nevada City!

1-1-2014 New Year Boondock

South of Joshua Tree NP currently 61F going to 74 and gorgeous sunshine

How could I have been so dumb?! Somehow it never occurred to me that a national park would be completely filled to overflowing during the Christmas break. Duh! What was I thinking?? Mo and I were in Joshua Tree last year just two weeks later than this and it was very nearly empty. We thought, great, lets boondock in Joshua Tree before we head to Desert Hot Springs. Here is the link to last year’s entry about our wonderful visit to Joshua Tree. Seasoned RV travelers would probably laugh out loud at my assumptions.

After picking two bags of sweet oranges at Orange Grove RV park, we got on 58 east early enough to get to Joshua Tree by 1pm, early enough we thought to get a first come first served site in one of the campgrounds. Right. For the first time since we have been coming here, we had to wait in line to get to the entrance station, and then there were people everywhere. Every single Exhibit parking area was jammed and every single campground was full to bursting. Again…what in the world was I thinking??

In a way, it was an incredible blessing. We knew from Mo’s memory of her trip through this area, and from other bloggers that there was a great boondock site between the southern park entrance and Interstate 10, so we just ambled along enjoying the beautiful scenery knowing there was a place for us to land before evening. Although, somehow in the middle of high, bright winter light and a lot of people, the park had a bit less charm than we felt on our wonderful visit early in 2013.

When we passed the park entrance toward the freeway, almost immediately we saw the wide rather smooth dirt road leading west into the desert. There were three other rigs parked in the vicinity, but before very much distance we found a perfect site, level, and a bit elevated above the road, and protected by a man made dike from desert surface flooding.

It is a great spot. I can see RV Sue or Nina or Al and Kelly settling into this place very easily. I am also fairly certain that Rick wouldn’t think that much of it. Some love boondocking, some hate it. Some are fully prepared, and others like Mo and I just hang out for a few days here and there to enjoy the silence and privacy. We went to Quartzite once, and have no need to go back. That is a completely different world of RV fun. I am pretty certain that RVSue wrote about this place and that is why I remembered it was here, tucked away in my blog reading memory, along with Mo’s trip memories.

We had planned for boondocking, since even in the park it is a dry camp, so we had water and empty tanks and all we needed. Except for one little minor thing required for boondocking without solar panels. Fuel. Now I can hear all of you laughing uproariously again at my stupidity. I told Mo, “Let’s just wait to fuel up at Costco on our way out of DHS. We have a quarter tank and that will be plenty to get us there”.

Oops. Generator stops working at 1/4 tank. We were really hungry, so I decided to bypass the WeberQ potato in favor of the microwave while I cooked the steak for our New Year Eve supper. Suddenly the microwave shut down when the generator shut down and I looked at Mo with that sheepish expression that says “oops”.

So instead we turned everything off, I cooked some great fried potatoes on the stove top to go with our steak and Caesar salad and we opened the great bottle of Troon Vineyard Cabernet that Deb gave us for Christmas. The air was balmy and the sunset was simple but lovely. We got a kick out of using the new RV wine glasses that Deb also gave us for Christmas. They just stick into the ground by our chairs and aren’t as susceptible to spilling as they are on the little plastic table we use when we are out.

With temperatures only going as low as 55 degrees last night, we slept without any need for extra heat. Unlike other years, we had no television to watch the ball fall and with darkness thick with stars by 7pm I think I barely made it to 8 before putting my book away. Funny thing happened, though. At just a couple of minutes past midnight a gust of wind blew our single solar panel over, and it woke both of us up. In time to say “Happy New Year” and think of all my kids who usually call me at midnight.

I thought I would be without phone and internet for a few days, but in spite of our quiet boondocking status, we have several bars both on the Verizon MiFi and the Verizon iPad as well as the ATT iPhone. All bases covered for the time being. Oh yes, except for that fuel part and running the generator.

After breakfast this morning, Mo took the MoHo just 6 miles or so toward the closest gas station at Chiriaco Summit, and put in 20 gallons at 3.89 PG. Which is why I can now write and post and read emails and do all those things that might require a bit of generator power. We haven’t had to start it up yet, with plenty of charge on the batteries and the little panel keeping things at least charged enough to use the inverter and the Fantastic Fan. Nice.

While she was gone, Abby and Jeremy and I sat in the sunshine, although Jeremy was really concerned that the MoHo was not here. He sat on the rug by where the entrance of the MoHo should have been, patiently waiting for it to appear. Funny, the one time that I left him with Deborah over at the cottage, he did the same thing, sitting in the spot where the door had been, waiting for us to come home. I think Jeremy thinks he is a dog.

Our beautiful, warm, sunny New Years Day is slipping by with such grace and silence. The breezes are light, and it’s warm in the sun and cool in the rig with the windows open. I am enjoying reading all the “year end reviews” that fellow bloggers are posting. We enjoyed a great bike ride on the reasonably level road that wanders beyond our site into the desert toward the west. Later toward sunset we walked along the man made dike that separates the BLM land from the National Park land. Nice bit of elevation that allowed us to see in all directions. I know it is a trite saying, but I feel it so strongly at this moment: “Life IS Good”!

Back Roads

Desert Hot Springs Sunny Clear no wind Hi 72 F Lo 48 F

There are long captions on these maps so remember to hover your mouse over the image to see them.

Nothing like a good back road to spice up a visit to the desert! Once again we decided to try out some of the roads in Joshua Tree NP designated four-wheel drive only . On this trip I am traveling with a nice laptop with a decent screen but I also have an iPad, and the difference between the resolution of google maps on the two devices is dramatic. I scoped out some roads leading into the park from the south on the iPad and could barely find them on the laptop later when we returned to the MoHo. These screen shots are from the laptop, since getting iPad screen shots to the laptop is time consuming, and if you are looking at the imagery on your own device, you probably wouldn’t see any difference anyway.

It’s also helpful that the battery life on the pad is reasonably long, much longer than on the iPhone even when Google maps is up and running. The other very helpful detail is that if I open the map and load the imagery while I have a good connection, later when the iPad says “No Service”, I can still see the maps and still see that magical little blue dot moving along the landscape letting me know exactly where we are.

Now, of course I can read a paper map. Of course I can find myself on the ground with a paper map. I used paper maps and USGS quadrangles and old fashioned aerial photos to map soils in rugged, often wilderness areas. That doesn’t keep me from loving GPS and Google Maps any less. That moving blue dot is magic! I have used all sorts of GPS units in the last ten years to document data points, but I still love that moving blue dot on my iPad. Love it!

We found Berdoo Canyon road leading north from Dillon Road east of Desert Hot Springs. We could see that the road meandered up the washes and squirreled around some tight turns in the depths of the canyon before emerging on the bajada and continuing to an intersection with the Geology Tour Road in the park. The first few miles the old paved road parallels a wash that is usually a better option than the caved in pavement. At the lower reaches of the canyon, we saw people shooting and evidence that this is a pretty popular place for target practice.

We had a great time for the first few miles, negotiating a couple of tight turns around boulders, and a few nasty big rocks in the roadway, and continued following the washes east. Before long we encountered a big Hummer full of people who had probably paid good money for the Hummer Desert Tours, and then a few minutes later we found another big Hummer full of people. They were all bundled up in their big coats and hats, enjoying the wait while their tour guides fixed a big Hummer flat tire. We wondered what they thought of two women in a little Tracker going up their expensive tour road, but we just waved and kept going.

After about 6 miles and a good 90 minutes, we came to a bad rough patch of rocky road that would have been a serious challenge to the clearance of the Tracker. We walked it, and were pretty sure we could do it, but had no idea what was ahead of us. I could see on the iPad (remember I had No Service!) that we were almost to the end of the difficult part of the canyon, but we also had no clue what was ahead on the big alluvial fan leading north. It could have been completely washed out for all we knew. Sigh. I can’t believe I didn’t take any photos of this part of the road, either. They were big rocks! Honest!

Rather than taking a chance, we decided to give it up and back track out of the canyon. On our previous day in the park, we had planned to drive the Geology Tour Road, so we made a beeline back to Desert Hot Springs, up through the Moregno Valley to Yucca Valley and the western entrance to the park. By this time it was about 3 in the afternoon and the estimated time to drive the Geology Road is two hours, but we really wanted to see just how far we could get and how close we could come to our stopping point. We stopped at the visitor center for a geology tour map and when I talked to the ranger about Berdoo Canyon Road he pulled out some photos of how hard the road was. Darn it if he didn’t show us a photo of the part we almost went through as the worst part of the canyon. We could have made it!

The tour road was interesting, and sure enough the Berdoo Canyon Road took off south across the fan. We were excited, but the sun was against us and by the time we started up the bajada toward the canyon the sun was setting. Sigh again. We were within a couple of miles of our previous end point, but we both knew that we could have made it if we hadn’t chickened out. Neither of us had any desire to crawl into that canyon and try to get back through it in the dark.

As we drove back north toward Yucca Valley, I commented that in spite of the late clouds there wasn’t much of a sunset, nothing good enough to stop the car for a photo. But then, about half an hour after the sun went down, the sky lit up with rose and purple and pink and we were treated to some breathtaking moments. You can bet I stopped the car to get the last light of the day silhouetting the fantastical shapes of the old Joshua trees.

Another day in the desert, another road that we will have to come back and try again. The night was clear and the moon was just less than full to accompany another swim in the hot springs pool this morning. Only a couple more days and we will be heading back north.

Desert Love

Catalina Spa and RV Resort Desert Hot Springs, CA Clear and Sunny, Breezy, High 61F Lo 41F

Sometimes for no reason at all, I miss the desert. Most often, it is during the winter, when much of the desert near us is also in the throes of winter; high desert sage covered with snow and hunkering down under biting winds. When we arrived at Desert Hot Springs on Friday afternoon, the skies were cloudy and it was raining lightly. It wasn’t the desert that I envisioned, except perhaps for the pungent scent of creosote bush in the rain dampened air. All desert dwellers and visitors know this smell, and most of us love it.

We left San Diego in the rain that morning, choosing to drive through Julian and down highway 78 into Borrego Springs. The drive is steep and winding, but nothing too difficult to handle. Jeremy wasn’t too happy about it, though, and kept trying to figure out how to get comfortable on his dash perch while Mo negotiated the curves.

We had an especially good reason for taking this route through Anza Borrego to DHS. Laurie and Odel were camped in the state park and on this soft rainy day were hanging around at home so we could visit. What a treat it was to share some of Laurie’s great carnitas tacos and a glass of wine while we caught up a bit. It was wonderful to see old friends on the road before we continued north to our destination.

On Saturday we relaxed a bit and drove west on the freeway to check out the Premium Outlets, something I haven’t had a chance to do in the past. I am glad I didn’t think I was going to do any great shopping there. It seems that the only thing around are clothes, clothes, and more clothes, interspersed with shoes and more shoes. It was spectacularly boring. Even Chico’s was sad. It seems that the Chico’s outlet stores don’t sell overstocks of their regular stuff and have made a bunch of cheap ugly stuff for the outlet (cheaper) stores. Ugh. I got away from the mall without buying anything but a nice red silicone scraper for the kitchen. I won’t need to do that again.

Even though we come to Desert Hot Springs to stay, it isn’t particularly this part of the desert that I miss. There is traffic, there are lots of people, and there is desert garbage. There are telephone poles and windmills, cell towers camouflaged poorly as palm trees, and of course actual palm trees. There are all kinds of desert dwellers, with chain link fences around properties filled with old furniture and cars, and estates that look like something from another planet surrounded by iron fences and huge gates.

Still, this isn’t the desert I miss. But yesterday, once again, I found the desert that calls to me when I am far away in the high precipitation zone of the Cascades. With the promise of a mostly clear day ahead, we drove east to the south entrance of Joshua Tree National Park. From the southern entrance of the park, not far from Interstate 10, there are many miles of narrow road winding through the warmer, drier Colorado Desert before you reach the more well known areas with weathered granite boulders and the huge yucca plants that are Joshua Trees on the higher, moister Mojave Desert zone.

We were in the baby car, a nice change from our previous visits to the park in the MoHo, giving us the chance to meander, and to explore the roads designated for 4-wheelers. A stop at the Cottonwood Spring visitor center was rewarded with a printout of things to do in the park if you have a dog. That was so refreshing, since we are used to the usual restrictions against taking dogs just about anywhere in a national park except the parking lot.

We could walk our dog on any road, including the dirt roads that are in many areas of the park that are rarely frequented by everyday visitors. We decided on the Old Dale Road, exiting from the main park road about a third of the way in, and leading off into an endless vista of desert. Not a car in sight, not a telephone pole or a fence that I could see for at least 50 miles distant toward the Coxcomb and Sheep Hole Mountains. We crossed the Pinto Basin, speeding up for deeper sand, negotiating the washboards and just soaking up the open skies. This is it. This is the desert that I miss. Open space, silence, a road ahead with no cars in sight.

Mo and I both have memories of the deserts around Lancaster and Victorville, east toward Antelope Valley, and up toward Barstow when they looked as wild and empty and fresh as this desert before us. Memories of a single pair of car lights at twilight, visible at least 20 miles away as you drive down a long grade to nowhere. No More. That part of the Mojave now is filled with traffic and cars and smog and trash everywhere you look. It takes the foresight of a government willing to set aside National Parks and wilderness to keep landscapes looking like this one. Always. My children’s children can come here and see the desert as it once was. If they are lucky, it will be a clear day like this one where the smog from the south hasn’t permeated even into the wild lands of Joshua Tree.

We made it about twelve miles in before we were stopped by some serious rocks and ruts that required a bit more 4 wheel drive than we wanted to do in the tracker. Parking at the base of the Pinto Mountains, we hiked up to the park boundary. The Old Dale Road continued over these mountains and down the other side to 29 Palms, but we wouldn’t be making the round trip as originally planned.

Back to the main road to continue north toward the campgrounds, we passed Ocotillo Flats, with ocotillos looking like dead empty sticks of nothing in this time before spring bloom. A few more miles led us past the brilliantly backlit Cholla Gardens. Do you know a single photographer in the desert who can resist photographing these “teddy bear cactus” when they are backlit by the sun?? Not me!

We drove through the campgrounds, deciding that there would be plenty of room for a dry camp stay in Jumbo Rocks. We saw many more little nooks and crannies and places that we could hike and play in the rocks on a cool winter day. Even in what should be high winter season, the campgrounds were less than half full. Next time we will plan for a few nights here when we come south.

The afternoon was waning, and we decided to save our other chosen 4 wheel drive route for a later day. Instead we drove the short 20 minutes out to Keys View for a breathtaking vista of the Coachella Valley and the magnificently rugged mountain ranges all around us. The San Andreas Fault stretched below us to the west, one of the more dramatic views of this great creator of the California landscape. The sign at the the viewpoint had a photograph of the usual smog that covers the area, and a photo of what it might look like on a clear day. We had the smogless day, and even with the clouds that hid Mt San Jacinto from view, the wild ranges that we could see stretching in all directions were stunning.

Traveling the northwestern route out of the park toward Yucca Valley, we realized that it would be dark when we got home. Mo said, “How about a pizza?” I liked that idea and as we reached Joshua Tree I fired up the iPad to search for pizza. The town of Joshua Tree yielded up only one place, Sams Pizza, and Yucca Valley had only a Domino’s. We haven’t had any luck with Domino’s so Sam’s it was to be.

We drove back and forth a couple of times along the 29 Palms Highway and could only find Sam’s Market and Indian Food. Finally in the fine print, in a sign in front of a tiny strip mall we saw it, Sam’s Indian Food with pizza and subs in the fine print. Hmmmm. Indian food is great but be wanted pizza. The tiny restaurant turned out to be delightful, and the pizza was great, with a crust that was a bit more like naan than pizza crust but completely delicious.

The drive back home was short and sweet, and coming down that long grade into Desert Hot Springs was much less daunting than the first time we drove in the big rig. The twinkling lights of Palm Springs welcomed us home after a truly perfect day in the desert.