Coming from the coast we had a fun drive over the Sierra Nevada via the Angeles Crest highway. It was a fun curvy road, we saw lots of fast cars coming down the mountain, it seems a popular place for the Angeles rich to test out their toys. Each turnoff was full of burnout marks, clearly they can afford new tires. We did catch snow at the top, which was unexpected, but didn’t slow us down much.
Our next major stop was Joshua Tree, we had seen many Joshua trees before, mostly in Death Valley, but it turns out the main draw is the rock formations. Smooth rounded rocks jumbled up made for really great rock scrambling and climbing for the more serious. They had some short trails to some of the more popular rocks, elephant, skull, face rock. But just pick something that looks fun to climb on and avoid the crowds.
Joshua tree also had some other unique plants with a very large cholla garden you can walk through.
I did a long hike the second day to Pinto Mountain, this was a rarely used trail, in fact it disappeared after 200 meters, but I was able to pick up spots along the way and follow it using the All Trails app. This hike was 3 miles of desert, 3 miles pretty much straight up a wash about 4000 feet to the peak. Then down a different wash losing those 4000 feet over 2 miles and then back another 2 miles of desert. So really only 10 miles, but it was brutal, especially coming down, no switchbacks or other aids, just picking your own up and back down the mountain. But the view was worth it, truly spectacular, and seeing the book at the top, it was nice to know only 4 other people had done the same climb in the last 3 months. I like getting off the beaten path and this was it.
Both nights we camped at some BLM land just south of the park, while it is overlooking I-10 a few miles in the valley, the area is huge so it was easy to find a place to ourselves.
From there we headed south to the Salton Sea, which has an interesting history of accidentally being created, then turned to a resort in the 50s, but slowly dying off, both the sea and tourism with it. Now it is kinda gross being both polluted and smelly from years or agricultural runoff. Though some interesting settlements have popped up, that highlight some interesting people and their art.
Passing through Yuma it was crazy to see the sheer number of RVs here, definitely a winter destination for many people. There is lots of BLM land to stay in including one that allows stays all winter. It is a cheap place to stay, but not a place I wanted to stay in. We found some BLM land that night in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, we were 3 miles off the main road, and over 1 mile from our nearest neighbour, a place where no lights were visible all night. Though we did see some planes fly overhead in the morning as its next door to the Yuma proving grounds.
From here we headed down to Organ Pipe Cactus National monument. The Organ Pipe Cactus looks like a skinny saguaro without branches, but with many trunks coming grouped together, much like a pipe organ. This is the only place in the US you can see these cactus, as the rest are only in Mexico. We stayed two nights in the campground there, it was a big campground and only $12 a night. We were 6 miles from the border here, and the town and mine just across the border did produce a lot of light pollution and a constant din on banging in the background. We did some nice drives here and I did my usual hike. The desert here was much greener, very interesting to see. The rains are very cyclical, so you get desert plants that green up twice a year. Apparently Jan – Mar is the time to be here as that is when the cactus and other plants bloom.
From there we headed in to Phoenix for Thanksgiving with the Hubers. Dan’s parents spend part of their winters here and were gracious enough to host us. Cindy whipped up the whole spread for us and we had a relaxing day hanging out with the whole Hubers family. They really made us feel at home, it was a wonderful day.
This marked the end of our slow travels, the next post will share our slightly faster journey home.
