Current Location: Catalina Spa and RV Resort Desert Hot Springs
We drove a bit north to the Morongo Valley yesterday to hike in the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. More to come later, but for now I thought this collage of the wonderful, colorful, varied plants so well marked along the trails would pique your interest. Desert hiking in January can be interesting.
While the plants may be less than spectacular this time of year, the views are worth the hike.
Current Location: Desert Hot Springs, CA at 55 degrees F at 5 in the morning
We left the day after New Years. I think we were both ready to leave earlier, but we did have a plan, and I wanted to watch the Rose Parade and Mo wanted to see the Rose Bowl Game so we decided to wait. The weather at home was icy, with just a skiff of snow left over from Christmas. There was nothing to plow or shovel, and the only real chores to be done were keeping the fire going. 
Neither of us are likely to get bored, there is always something to do, but I did notice a bit of restive boredom building, as we made our plans to head south. Call it hitch-itch or whatever…it has been a month since we had the MoHo on the road and we were both ready to go. 
Christmas with family and friends at home
As we watched the parade, we again talked of taking an RV trip, one of those group things, where you get grandstand seats, a nice place to park, and visits to the float barns before the parade. Might be the only way I’ll ever see the Rose Parade again, since neither of us really wants to mess with that whole traffic parking finding a place to stand thing. When I was a kid, we would camp overnight on Orange Grove Boulevard sometimes to get good viewing spots. Maybe next year.
This year we watched from the cozy comfort of our home living room, where I spent most of the day taking down more of the Christmas decorations and packing travel food. Now that the MoHo is stored in Grants Pass, we have to fit everything we take on our trips into the baby car for the trip over the mountain. We laughed this time, wondering where Abby and Jeremy would have fit in the heavily laden car.
A night with Deborah at the cottage and when morning dawned foggy and icy as usual for Grants Pass this time of year we were off, heading south on the 5 for what has become an annual migration to Desert Hot Springs. Sometimes we simply pass through on a trek more distant, sometimes like this time, we will stay in the southern deserts, but no matter how we do it, a stay at Catalina Spa and RV Resort always seems to be part of the plan.
We have no fancy memberships, other than Passport America. With our love of state parks, national parks, national forest and BLM camping and boondocking, it just isn’t worth the extra money. However the PPA card gets us some nice half price benefits for our days on the road. Unlike last year, when Catalina was changing its management policies and we were only allowed two discounted nights, this year the policy has returned to allowing a week at half price, for us $32.50 a night is what we expect to pay at full price and we don’t pay that often! Still, the thought of those hot spring pools always draws me back. 
Siskiyou Summit, highest point on I-5 between Mexico and Canada.
If we were going to stay a month, I would imagine we would try out Sam’s Spa nearby, a place Nina and Paul enjoy. Of course, The Sands is big and lovely with a golf course and comes highly recommended by Rick and Paulette who spend extended time there every winter. For us, Catalina is perfect, with the lower camping area a bit older, sites not perfectly level made lumpy with sand, and older trees around, eucalyptus, tamarisk, and some kind of desert pine. It isn’t especially fancy, but it also isn’t crowded, with the trees and oleander hedges making the sites in the lower area feel much more private than those in the newer upper part of the park. Without the need for 50 amp hookups, we have the option to stay here.
Mt Shasta above the inversion caused murky air of the Scott Valley
We have traveled south many times, but often from our home in Rocky Point, going over highway 97 toward Weed, or from Brookings a few times where we stored the MoHo until we got the Grants Pass cottage. We haven’t traveled south on the 5 from Grants Pass directly very often, and it is always a surprise to remember just how long a pull it is to cross the pass over the Siskiyou’s south of Ashland at the Oregon/California border. On this crossing, it was icy at 31 degrees F, but Mo did just fine, and I never felt any slipping around at all.
As we dropped down into the valley near Yreka, the air quality began to deteriorate, due to the strong cold air inversions plaguing most of the Oregon and California valleys. The skies were dingy all the way south throughout the great state of California.
For people who like to travel around as much as we do, and who enjoy new experiences, it is surprising to me how comfortable we are with doing the same route and staying in the same places on this southward journey. We took a bit of time to stop in Red Bluff to visit my ex mom in law, a dear woman celebrating her 91st birthday this month.
The entire route is less than 900 miles, but we give ourselves time, spending two nights along the way. My trucker kids would do that trip in one day! The Flag City RV Park along the freeway in Lodi is our preferred first night stop. Half price here with the PPA card is $27 per night, and with cement level pull through sites, full hookups, free wifi and cable TV we like the stop. Easy and fast and we never bother with making a reservation. The nearby Flying J station has the lowest gas price around according to our GasBuddy app, so it is easy to fill up for the next day. This time we also filled up propane, and while it was a buck more per gallon than it would have been in Grants Pass, it was a quick and easy fill right in the driveway of the park.
Morning dawned sweetly with temps in the 50’s, but the air was still murky with the inversion. Interstate 5 south has been worked on repeatedly, and while last year I remember the road being fairly smooth, this year it seemed to have deteriorated more. Of course, Stockton is always bad, with construction going on constantly for all the years I have traveled through that area. With the MoHo jumping and bumping, I looked up the worst cities to live in the US and yes, Stockton is high on the list. Sad.
The traffic on I-5 all the way to the Highway 58 turnoff toward Bakersfield was steady and thick. I guess a lot of people were traveling back to Los Angeles after the holidays. Truck traffic wasn’t as heavy as usual, but the line of cars ahead of us and behind us was solid, and if Mo got behind a truck it often took a bit of effort to get back into the fast moving traffic to pass. I’m glad it was her day to drive! I took photos of the passing landscape, so beautiful in its own way, but missed having Jeremy on the dash. So many photos of him sleeping away in the sunshine as we traveled south on this highway.
We gassed up at the Bakersfield Costco at 2.25 per gallon, amazing for California, and continued east toward Orange Grove RV Park. I learned last year when we ended up in overflow, that reservations were a smart idea. Today proved to be so, and as we checked in with our reservation, rig after rig pulled into the big long driveways they have for that purpose. Taking advantage of the free RV wash area, we got most of the road grime off both vehicles before settling into our full hookup site.
As many southward bound RV’rs know, this campground in an old orange grove comes with free picking privileges. I know you can buy bags of oranges along the road for 5 bucks or so, but they never seem quite as sweet. Probably brought up green from Mexico or something. Nothing quite as sweet as ripe oranges directly from the tree. Hopefully my orange stash will last long enough. I always feel sad at the moment I slice and squeeze the last orange from Orange Grove RV.
Our favorite route into the Springs is not the one recommended by Google maps, but we ignore their suggestions and travel west into Barstow and take 247 south through the Lucerne Valley, Johnson Valley, and into Yucca Valley, where we then travel down 62 into the Coachella Valley. I am always amazed at the rugged landscape, the range after range of faulted and folded mountains formed in marine sediments that have smashed into the continent from far lands. I do have a love hate relationship with my birth state of California and I am always reminded of that when we come south.
The smell of the southern deserts, the sharp line of the mountains unimpeded by vegetation against the sunset, the twinkling lights of desert cities, all remind me of childhood years long gone. I am glad they are gone, but also glad that I have the chance to come back and enjoy the best parts of what I remember about living in Southern California.
Driving south on Corkhill Road toward the resort is almost like coming home. The familiarity feels nice. Back again to that dichotomy between something new and something familiar, I guess there are good parts to each. Within minutes we found a nice spot on 11th street, backed up by nothing but the dog park area, and with no one beside us on the south for two spaces, it feels fairly private.
I am just a small street and a few steps east of my favorite pool in the world, at least the warmest. My favorite might still be the infinity pool at the Dusit Resort in Chiang Rai Thailand. But it is a lot easier and cheaper to get to this one!
Within minutes of arriving, I checked Facebook and found a note from Betty, another RV blogger, all concerned that no one by the name of Sue Malone had checked in. Nope, it was Mo who checked in, and not with her nickname! I asked for an hour or so for us to get out the chairs, and sure enough Betty bopped right into our site right on cue. Bopped is a good description for Betty. She is a sweet, delightful, happy woman who chatters along so comfortably that it is easy to enjoy her company. We visited a bit, took some photos, heard some great stories, and then Betty bopped back to her place to prepare for their early morning departure for Arizona. Nice to meetcha, Betty!
We have a week here at the resort, before our travels will take us south toward Yuma. In the mean time, we hope to catch some of the hiking trails that we haven’t done in the past. Many trails around this area are not dog friendly. We miss Abby so much, but are not ready to get another dog, so this is the year to hike all the dog unfriendly trails that we can find. The weather is with us, the skies are clear and the temperatures are perfect, without the famous Desert Hot Springs winds anywhere in the predictions. It will be a good week.
This post is specifically about what we found when wandering around the preserve this past few days. If you aren’t interested in boondocking, just skip it. I have included more detail than usual for some of the folks that I know who are definitely interested in boondocking.
First, I have embedded a live Google Map I created with labels for sites and intersections. Hopefully if you click on the map, you will be redirected to Google and will have the ability to zoom in, mouse hover over the points to read the labels. Eventually I will figure out how to actually “embed” the map so that it shows rather than just the link, but this will have to do for now.
The rest of the maps are clipped images for each area.
When we first stopped off at the visitor center at the Depot in Kelso, the attendant was a bit vague about RV camping in the area. The words in the brochure say “Roadside camping is permitted in areas that have been traditionally used for this purpose: Sites with existing rock or metal fire rings should be considered suitable for roadside camping.”
He pointed vaguely to a couple of areas on the preserve map, including the area near the cross, and the area at the dunes, but didn’t tell us about the other two sites, or have any indication of road conditions getting into any of the sites. The only developed campground that is suitable for larger RV’s (even our size at 26 feet) is the Hole in the Wall Campground where we spent one night.
I do have to correct the last post. It is Hole in the Wall, not Hole in the Rock, and I will edit the previous post accordingly, but anyone reading has probably already read the post and will not see the correction.
The first site where we camped was actually a small developed campsite, with a picnic table provided by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and a fire ring, at the base of the white cross WW I memorial. We attempted to enter via the eastern side of the road and found it rutted and too rocky for the rig, had to unhook and back out, and continue to the west side of the small loop to enter the site.
Some folks with pickups had traveled from this spot to the other sites I have mentioned, but we wouldn’t take our rig back there from this direction.
Walking around checking roads the next day, we found the easternmost entrance to the camping area, and walked the road back to the pavement. Here we found two great sites.
Site number 2 on the list was the very best, with a dirt road access that we could easily handle in our rig. It was my favorite.
Site number 3 is just west of site 2 on the same side road, however there is a bit of a rough patch that might be trouble for clearance for motorhomes. We probably wouldn’t try it in the rig, but some might. I would highly suggest that before taking your motorhomes to these sites, that you check them out with your toad.
We were exploring on foot, and there may be other sites on the road toward the mine north to discover if you have the time and a toad to do so.
The Dunes road, as I mentioned, was incredibly rough, but after we turned around we discovered if we kept our speed to less than 5 mph, literally, we could have traveled the 3 miles to the campsite. A previous commenter mentioned this site, so I included it in the map if you are willing to drive the road.
The Granite Mountain sites are incredibly gorgeous, just incredible. With any kind of small rig with high clearance you could probably get back in there and it would be worth it.
At the Hole in the Wall campground, there is a dump station and potable water with a hose to fill your water tanks. We didn’t see anything requiring campground registration in order to use the dump or take on water. It may have been there. At half price for the senior pass, it would have been worth the $6. fee to dump and get water if we wanted to stay out longer in the area.
The Wildhorse Canyon road that travels west and then north from just south of the Hole in the Wall visitor center is also good dirt road. It isn’t nearly as rough as the Dunes road to sites 4 and 5 on the map.
These sites are big and flat and are close to the Ring Trail and some fascinating volcanic rock cliffs. They could accommodate 2 or 3 rigs if you were friends. There was only one fire pit at site 4, but plenty of space.
The road from this area north toward Mid Hills campground is also dirt, and rough and narrow. We were in 4 wheel drive, but probably didn’t need it. I wouldn’t take a motorhome that way. A truck and camper could manage it OK. Mid Hills wasn’t nearly as charming as the other areas of the park. Once a juniper woodland, there was a devastating fire in recent years that has left the place feeling desolate and rather depressing.
We did see the entrance to the Black Canyon Group Camp, near the main Hole in the Wall campground, and I would imagine this is where the rally that Carol spoke of will be held. There is no camping anywhere around the Kelso Visitor Center or on any of the major paved roads in the preserve.
The Mojave National Preserve is a treasure land of wild desert space. We visited in late March, which I would imagine would be the high season before summer heat. There were some flowers blooming, the winds were extremely high, but that was case all over the southwest on the days that we were there.
If you want a true desert boondocking experience, and like to be alone in the wild open space, this a a perfect place to be.
Current Location: Mojave National Preserve 41 F
It isn’t yet 6AM and I am watching the waning crescent moon rise through long black clouds to the east. There is just enough light to see the outline of Mesa Mountain, east of the Hole in the Rock where we are camped. Venus is brilliant nearby, and I wish I had the will to dig out the telephoto, dig out the tripod, hook it all up and see if I could actually create an image that would remind me of this moment. Instead I’ll write of it, and know that it would take a better photographer than I am to catch the feeling.
We will be home on April 1st. This may be our last night in the wild darkness of the desert, and a wild rocking night it was! After spending such magical time near Virgin, and wanting more, we initially planned to travel north through Cedar City and then take another back road to the Great Basin National Park.
One of the blessings of boondocking in our sweet spot, was the perfect Verizon signal for our JetPack and the ability to check on the weather. For the first time in the entire three months of winter travel, we had to shift our plans completely to accommodate the weather gods and our common sense. Predictions for the next few days included high wind warnings, snow and temperatures in the 20’s at the lowest elevations near Great Basin near Baker, and unknown snow and wind over the entire western side of Nevada. No way home.
We studied maps and weather and more maps and checking our calendar, came up with a simple plan. Head south on I-15 toward Barstow on the gorgeous sunny non windy day we had left, and then hunker down at Edwards AFB Family Camp and wait the three days of harsh weather with hookups and a place to do laundry. Then, once the snow warnings lifted over the Tehachapi 58 route, we could get over the pass to the I-5 route north and home. Sigh. I-5 again? Not even 395?
With predictions for snow at home in Rocky Point around the time of our arrival, we may decide to go to Grants Pass instead. We will see. Weather predictions are often a lot worse than the actuality. Then again, sometimes they are spot on. Predictions for our westward direction included wind, and last night was possibly the windiest we have ever experienced on the road. I was glad we were in the west, where tornadoes are extremely rare, but there were a few times last night when I thought surely we were going to be blown over.
We pulled in the slides not long after camping, but during an especially dramatic gust, I even picked up the levelers. It somehow seemed a bit safer to me to have the MoHo settled solidly on all six tires, even if a bit less than level.
Driving west from Las Vegas on I-15 was fast and smooth. Vegas from the high vantage point of the freeway looks different, even bigger somehow that the view along the strip. Traffic was heavy but moving steadily on a Tuesday afternoon. Just past the state line, we were suddenly shocked by the brightest artificial light I think I have ever seen. Huge towers were beaming intense white light and below them something that looked like a strange lake was reflecting the sunlight.
Sometimes it is fun to have the iPad along with a great signal. Searching “bright lights near the Nevada California border” I came up with this. We were passing the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, which just came online on February 13. Mirrors concentrate light and then somehow the light heats water for power generation. Sounds like science fiction, and it certainly looked like it. Funny, with all the hoopla about Solara, neither of us had ever heard a word of this successful solar power generating project.
Near the state line in California is a rest area, and it was time for an Abby walk. What a great surprise. Many states in the south have beautiful state of the art visitor centers, and we love to visit them. Here, however, a simple rest area was gorgeous, and rich with information about this part of California, including the nearby Mojave National Preserve, spanning 1.6 million acres between I-15 and I-40 and east to the Nevada border.
The rest area was artfully designed, with outdoor displays that told the story of the area in a way that could be enjoyed without entering a building or requiring staff to disperse brochures. It was beautifully kept, and even the bathrooms were tiled with images and stories.
Even before reaching the rest area, though, Mo and I had decided to stop in Baker to fill the tanks so we could boondock another night. The excitement of camping at the AFB wasn’t all that alluring, and we thought, what the heck, let’s slip into the preserve, boondock for another night and then we can continue west to Edwards.
Mo had visited the preserve in the past, not only in this decade with the baby MoHo, but in the 60’s when she was teaching at China Lake, California. Our first stop was at Kelso, where the visitor center is located in the beautifully restored Kelso Depot. Anyone reading this blog for any length of time, knows how much we love desert, but often the Mojave experience is filled with development and dotted with desert garbage.
Not here. I am so incredibly grateful for this space. Unlike Joshua Tree, which we also love, it is farther from most of the big cities of Southern California and so far, is blessedly empty. Incredibly empty, and at first it seems like what my daughter calls a lot of “white hot nothing”. With just a little time and a bit more effort, the fascinating diversity of the Mojave becomes clear in a space that feels more remote than either Joshua Tree or Death Valley, if not quite as dramatic.
The roads through the preserve, even the paved roads, can be a bit rough and bumpy, and are two lane narrow routes without shoulders. There are only two developed campgrounds, but after visiting with the staff at the beautifully restored Kelso Depot Visitor Center, we learned that “roadside” camping is allowed in places where there has been a fire ring and previous use.
The Visitor Center is wonderful, with beautiful photographic displays on the walls of the restored Craftsman style rooms. There is a gift shop, interpretive exhibits, three excellent movies to view in the small theater, and art exhibits. I especially enjoyed the recordings of the “booming sands” of the Kelso Dunes
Traveling back toward the northern part of the preserve toward Cima, we turned northwest again to find the World War I memorial. There is a white cross on the hill, which after some lengthy controversy, remains. Mo camped here in back on her solo desert trip back in 2009.
Just behind the cross is a small campsite, with a fire ring and a table provided by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and before dark we were settled in for our first gorgeous, if wildly windy night. The winds didn’t come up until midnight or so, but with the associated cold front, by morning we felt a huge difference in the desert air.
There are several boondock sites that we found in that vicinity, and in other parts of the preserve as well, and I decided to do a separate post about boondocking in the preserve. That post will come later.
The morning was dramatic with wildly speeding clouds flying by and the winds never let up as the day progressed. We headed south back toward Cima and Kelso, with plans to see the magnificent Kelso Dunes, some of the highest in the country. The Kelso Depot Visitor Center is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, but there is an open restroom with a jug friendly spigot. Our water was low, and we filled our extra jugs, just in case we decided to boondock another night at the dunes. Still couldn’t quite get our heads around giving up the wild desert for the luxuries of camping at the base. After several nights being out, we weren’t really as well prepared for more boondocking as we could have been, but we had turned off the water pump, to be sure we didn’t run the tank dry.
Seven miles south of Kelso is the ‘2 wheel drive unpaved’ road leading west to the Dunes and another possible campsite. Within the first few hundred yards, however, we were badmouthing the folks that think roads should be surfaced with gravel. The washboards were so very bad that Mo decided it was too much for the rig and we found a place to unhook and turn around. With the winds at 40 plus mph, the dunes looked less and less inviting. One of the reasons I most wanted to see them was to hear the booming singing sound that the sand makes at times. I figured that with the high winds I wouldn’t hear it anyway.
With a bit of disappointment, we once again decided on going to Edwards, with hookups and WiFi, to wait out the winds and the weather. Continuing south just a short distance, we found another dirt road leading back into the Granite Hills, and couldn’t resist unhooking once again and taking the Tracker for a little spin around the hidden campsites tucked away in the boulders. Mo camped here in the 60’s with some of her students from China Lake and had fond memories of climbing around on the boulders. These sites could make us want to get the tent out again if we had it with us!
Back to the rig, and looking at the map, we saw the road to the Hole in the Rock developed campground was about 50 miles to the east and north. Even after the fill up in Baker, fuel was getting low. If we wanted to see that part of the preserve, we needed gas. We could travel some miles out of our way to find a new wild world, or we could travel west and do the common sense thing and camp at Edwards.
Once again, the desert won, and we finally found a gas station just off I-40, 7 miles west of the Essex Road leading north in the preserve toward the Hole in the Wall area, where there would be a dump station, and potable water to fill our tank. We paid 4.99 per gallon for 87 octane gas, and laughed about how our free boondocking had turned expensive. It is funny how you can figure anything out, and messing with the numbers, we decided our average cost for the two nights in the desert was about $20 per night, factoring in the half price $6. fee we paid for our second night at Hole in the Rock.
The gas station, by the way, is located right on the famous unnamed Route that we visited previously in the unnamed T city in New Mexico. I decided to NOT take photos or even mention the place because I would rather not create another firestorm with all the folks who probably love it. It was rather interesting, with lots of memorabilia, a cute little nook for hamburgers, and a lot of interesting people around. I felt much of the famous route culture at the spot, so if you are a lover of that route, search it out.
The winds had never let up, and by the time we were on I-40, the sandstorms were everywhere, reducing visibility dramatically. We could barely see the mountains, even as we approached the campground. We dumped, filled the water tank, and settled into a nice site in the upper area of the camp. It was a luxury to turn on the water pump, for sure! We weren’t technically boondocking on this night, but it felt as big and dark and empty as if we were. Only a few campers have braved the winds and sand storms to camp here.
After making such an effort to get here, we thought in spite of the dingy skies, we should try to see a bit of the area. The Hole in the Wall visitor center at this location is only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but they did have some trail brochures outside that gave a general idea of the local routes.
Another two wheel drive unpaved road took us north toward the one other developed campground in the preserve, Mid Hills Campground. This is definitely not a place for RV’s, mostly because of the rough road access, and with a recent fire leaving behind the skeletons of old junipers, it wasn’t very inviting. I can imagine it once was a lovely place to tent camp, cooler than the surrounding desert.
Home to the rig before dark, I made a good taco soup for supper and turned the generator on long enough to make corn muffins to go with it. Tasty.
Now, as I write, the winds are almost completely still and the dust has settled from the skies. To the west, everything is crystal clear. To the east I can see a low brown cloud of dust obscuring the distant hills. Once again, we will head for Edwards AFB, with only one night instead of three. With WiFi again available, I will post the blog, read others, write about boondock sites in Mojave Preserve, and check weather sites and snow predictions as we decide which route to take home Friday morning.
Desert Hot Springs 62 degrees F this evening and high thin clouds with a sliver of a moon
I guess because I grew up in Southern California there is something about the color of the light that touches me down deep. I certainly wouldn’t want to live here all the time, but when I visit, memories surface and I feel as though I am in very familiar territory. I slip back into feelings and impressions I had when I was a kid, nameless, the memories are nothing solid, but the sensations are interesting to experience. Wordless, really, and yet I keep trying to put it into words somehow.
It felt that way early this morning, as Mo and I swam in the hot springs pool at 5am, watching the stars and the many airplanes in the dark sky going in all directions. We had the place to ourselves until 6:30, a surprise, because usually there are early risers slipping into the hot water long before daylight. The water in the adult pool in the lower part of the park where we like to stay was a comfortable 95 degrees or so, and the hot spa was 104F. Hot enough to soak out any left over aches and pains left from sitting around too much in the rig.
As much as we enjoy coming to Catalina Spa and RV Resort, it is getting to be a bit more difficult. The park is a membership only kind of place, and while they honor our Passport America card, they now limit our stay to only 2 nights. Otherwise the rate is 65 bucks a day, more than either of us wants to spend, no matter how nice the pools are. The new rules will let us stay here for 4 days for a mere $45, if we spend an hour listening to a spiel for purchasing a Coast to Coast membership, and this would be our home park.
We are a bit too rambling for that sort of thing, though, and our road trips include state parks, national parks, boondocking, and lots of other kinds of camping than a Coast to Coast membership would provide. Not a good use of money. So who knows if we will come back again. Today we went over to Sam’s Family Spa, a place that Nina seems to love, but it seemed a lot bigger and busier and the pools aren’t open all night as they are here. That is my favorite thing. I love slipping into a silent hot pool in the middle of the night and swimming under the stars.
Later this morning, when we emerged from the Tracker at the Whitewater Preserve ranger station, that light thing hit me again really hard. Adding to the light was the fragrance of sycamore trees and cottonwoods along the riverbed that almost made me feel that I was 9 years old again. My daddy used to take me on hikes into the San Gabriel Mountains that looked and felt very much like these mountains around us at the base of the Mt San Gorgonio Wilderness.
Nina and Rick have both talked about hiking Whitewater Preserve with their dogs. Finding dog friendly hikes in Southern California is only second in difficulty to finding dog friendly beaches in Florida. I was happy to have a new idea for something for us to do that would be fun on our only full day here in Desert Hot Springs.
The hike was a perfect Southern California hike on a perfect SoCal day: warm, a light breeze, and brilliant, brilliant sunshine illuminating everything around us. I stopped in at the ranger station first to get a handle on the trails and a young man at the desk gave me a thorough and very practiced talk on where to go and what to follow.
What I didn’t realize was that we would be hiking along a very small portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, the PCT, subject of a great book I just read called “Wild”. The PCT meanders along the Cascade crest not far from our home in Rocky Point, and Mo and I have hiked bits and pieces of it when we climbed McLoughlin and hiked in the Sky Lakes Wilderness. The cute little guy behind the desk said, “Gee, you could walk home from here!”. Hmmm…maybe not.
The 3.5 mile loop that we hiked today was definitely enough. I am a bit soft from an autumn full of quilting and not enough snow shoveling. The switchbacks weren’t too difficult on the way up and neither of us were huffing and puffing too terribly, but the knees definitely need a bit of work to handle those downhills. Thank goodness for hiking poles I guess.
We spent about two hours actually hiking and some more time just sitting by the bubbling water letting Abby play before we ambled back to the parking lot. There are lots of hikes in the area, a couple of easier ones, and several more strenuous 8 mile one way hikes that followed the PCT for a great distance.
With a light breakfast and no lunch in our bellies, I was glad that we needed to slip into Palm Springs to buy a missing printer cable on the way home. I just knew there had to be ice cream somewhere in downtown Palm Springs, and with a little bit of help from google we found Lappert’s Ice Cream. My oh My! I had some kind of Kona coffee thing with fancy chocolate in it. The place had lots of Hawaiian themed goodies, and something called Donkey Balls. Hmmm….I did ask about that, and they are macadamia nuts coated in chocolate. Just like the ones from Maui, although I didn’t know they were called donkey balls.
Who takes a Segway into the mountains?
We were happy to get home in late afternoon. Dealing with Palm Springs traffic and people isn’t exactly fun, although seeing Palm Springs in the daytime was kind of nice. Most of the time when we are here we only go there in the evening for the street fair. Once back home we settled in to do money stuff, and Mo was very happy to have our little working Canon printer along so she could print out needed documents.
I said, heck with that, I am going for another swim! With only two days to enjoy the pools I don’t want to miss a minute. I walked a bit more distance to the upper pool, supposedly the nicer one. It was a bit cooler and a bit bigger, but there were a lot more folks around, since it was getting close to time for the “all you can eat” spaghetti supper. With just an ice cream lunch, it started smelling pretty good and I walked back home to start of the Weber and made some yummy pork chops and rice with a salad. Much better than spaghetti from a community pot I think.
I swam last night when we arrived, at 5am this morning, and again this evening. I will be in the pool again tomorrow before dawn as well, you can bet on it. We are heading to Gila Bend and Tucson tomorrow, still not sure whether we will stop in Gila Bend for the night or just press on to Tucson. All depends on how we feel. Gila Bend FamCamp isn’t that great and Tucson is fabulous, but who knows.
Google Earth image of our hike on the Whitewater Canyon Loop
Got an email tonight from Texas warning of possible weather trouble in the vicinity of Fort Davis, so spent a bit of time re-checking routes and weather and fuel stops. Nope. Don’t want that low fuel thing to get us when nights could be in the teens as we get into Texas in a few days. When I planned this trip, I knew that the weather could do anything and everything between Oregon and Florida, so hopefully we are ready for whatever comes our way.
The MoHo and Other Traveling Tales 
