Thursday morning we got away fairly early. We still managed to have a long chat with another neighbour, who retired at 47, got bored, worked for a while longer, retired again, back to work again, before retiring indefinitely this time, but still owns a house because he needs things to keep him busy and to keep his mind active. We stopped in Blythe to dump our tanks at the town facility, which we have used before, but no potable water to fill our fresh tank this time. We asked a few people at businesses where we were shopping where we could get water for the trailer. Joan checked at a county office, who gave us a phone number for the chamber of commerce. Nice fellow at the chamber explained that California's drought had ended free RV water. However, we could buy water at Culligan, and he gave us their number. A quick check confirmed their location, and shortly after we arrived, they were adding about 20 gallons to our tank with a hose at .25c / gallon.
From Blythe, we headed north on 95 to Vidal, basically a ghost town west of the Colorado River in California. After we had a bite of lunch parked in an open lot next to the highway, the fellow from the electric company, who was working on some equipment by the railway, to tell us that just down the lane beside us, was the only home that Wyatt Earp and his wife owned from 1925 to 1928 while he worked his mine nearby.
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| Wyatt Earp's cottage |
We actually had seen this in some browsing about staying in the area, and the fellow at Culligan had mentioned it. So lots of info about, but the only evidence locally was the plaque right in front of the house. That was to be a trend. We asked the electric guy about one-night boondocking opportunities nearby, and he told us there were plenty, but one place that he had seen campers before was under the communication towers up the road at Vidal Junction. We headed up that way, and decided it looked a little busy, as two highways cross near it, so we headed west on highway 62 toward 29 Palms which is on our route to Amboy Crater. We had seen a boon-docking site mentioned at a 'WW II Battalion Memorial' down the highway. No signs on the highway, but Joan noticed something in the desert beside the road. We turned in at the next communication tower, where we checked the internet for the co-ordinates of the memorial, 1.5 miles behind us. We headed back, and decided not to unhook the trailer, only put one slide out, no TV, or generator. At 89F, we figured we would make it through the night on battery power, and carry on early in the morning. The memorial was for the Rice Divisional Camp, one of 15 WW II training camps built in the southwestern deserts.
Friday morning, we got up fairly early. After having coffee and a muffin, we carried on toward 29 Palms. At Rice, a short distance down the road, we found the remnants of an old service station (the canopy and concrete floor). Someone started a shoe display here, that has become quite extensive, with hundreds of old shoes in several areas.
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| Rice |
Further down, we got to the old mining communities east of 29 Palms. There are a lot of boarded up, or empty window and door houses along the route almost into 29 Palms. After filling up with fuel, since we aren't sure where the next service is, we headed over the hill through Sheephole Pass (el 2307), then down into the Cadiz Valley to Amboy (el 639). Bristol Dry Lake, right next to Amboy has Salt Evaporators to collect calcium chloride and sodium chloride. At Amboy, we headed 2 miles west on Route 66 to Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark. Our GPS went crazy, since trailers are not allowed on the highway west to I40 at Ludlow. There is a 3 ton truck limit. Whatever the problem is, it is past the crater. We got set up in the overflow parking area at the Landmark, watched (a rerun of?) the last draw of the Brier. We watched a couple of lizards playing on the rocks out the back window of the trailer. After the curling was done, we walked the quarter mile to the displays at the bottom of the trail to the crater. They recommend at least 3 hours to walk the 1.5 miles to a breach in the cone, .5 miles up and along the rim, so as it was mid-afternoon, we left that for tomorrow.
We watched some Gila Monsters running around on the lava beside the trailer.
We have been listening to a steady of streams of BNSF trains going each way. Good news is that the only crossing at which they whistle is about a mile away, so not annoying. Just as it had turned dark, another trailer, from Utah, pulled in front of us and parked for the night.
Saturday morning, we had a quick breakfast of coffee and muffins, and headed out to the crater before it got hot. They have a really nice brochure here done by the BLM. The crater is located in the Barstow-Brisol trough, which straddles the boundary between the Mojave and Sonoran Tectonic plates. The crater is only 250 feet high, surrounded by much higher ranges of hills on each side. The cone last erupted about 10,000 years ago. In the late stages of the eruption, one side of the cone was breached. It was up through this opening in the rim that the trail climbs into the crater, then a trail diagonals up the wall to the crest. We headed out before 8:00 and were back just before 11, a distance of 4.3 mi, and climb from 650 ft at the trailer to 930 ft. This is a well marked trail, with a couple of benches under pergolas, and very unusually, 'Ash Stashes' at regular intervals. Someone here is really fire-concious. Great views of the lava flow and the large bowl that we are in here. There are some human made patterns in the bottom of the crater, to contrast with the natural rock. There was a good wind at the top of the rim, and 7 vultures(we think) were taking advantage of the updraft caused by the cone. We were wondering if they were waiting for us to expire out there. We encountered one fellow heading out as we were about half way back from the cone.
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| Amboy Crater from parking lot |
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| Inside of crater |
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| Wren? on crater wall |
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| Gap in crater wall |
By the time we got back to the trailer, it was 80F outside and 85 inside, so good thing we left early. Lots of great flowers. We think we got the macro-focus figured out on the camera, so might have good pictures of the really small flowers.
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| Sunset on hills behind the crater |
Sunday morning we stopped at Roy's Cafe in Amboy, to see if they were open for lunch. They have no kitchen anymore, because they don't have water necessary for a kitchen. Now, they only have gas, diesel, drinks and a few souvenirs. We then headed 30 miles west to Ludlow on I-10, to see why the trailer isn't allowed there. We actually asked the guy at Roy's about that, and he said he had no idea why there is a 3 ton limit on that section of road. A few large trucks do come out that way. On the route, we saw several bridges over washes with about 20 ton load limits, depending on number of axles, but 3 very short bridges with 3 ton load limits. Very odd. At Ludlow we found a DQ that is open. Good thing as it was already 23C out. We had some treats, and checked some stuff on the internet, using our t-mobile hotspot. Then we headed back east on I-10 to Kelbaker road, then south on Kelbaker, as that is the route we plan to take leaving tomorrow. It was a steady drop of 2 to 4% grade over 11 miles to take us down from about 3000 feet at the interstate to 640 ft at Amboy.
In Amboy, we stopped at Roy's Gas again, to pick up a couple of souvenir t-shirts. While we were there a young woman sat on the highway behind the Route 66 painted on it to have her picture taken. Back to the trailer for Brier and Nascar.
Monday, we called the Escapee Co-op in Pahrump, Nevada to see if they had any spaces for a week. They had one space, but don't take reservations. We headed out of the valley, starting at 630 ft elevation on a 4% grade for 18 miles up Kielbaker Road. At a spot just before going under I-40, at 2900 ft we stopped for a while to cool off the transmission. Then we climbed for another 7 miles, having to stop once more, up to Granite Pass at 4000 feet. Once we reached the summit we coasting down into Kelso Depot at 2125 feet, where there is a visitor center for the Mojave National Preserve.
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| Kelso Depot |
There are dunes in the valley there, and a beautiful old railway terminal building that was originally built by Union Pacific. The transmission had cooled off coming down into this valley, so we headed up the hill past Kelso. Within view of the top of that grade, we had to stop again to cool off the transmission. While stopped, John noticed a few bushes that looked like they had cotton on them. Strange. It turned out that they were spider webs, with an incredible number of strands in them, almost like a cocoon.
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| Spider web |
Once the transmission had cooled down sufficiently, we finished the short climb to the summit at 3700 ft, then coasted down into Bake at 935 feet, on I-15. We got a few pictures of the world's largest thermometer.
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| World's Largest Thermometer |
The first service station we went by didn't have diesel, so we went next door. There wasn't room to park there while picking up a snack, so we went looking for a place to park the trailer. The Mad Greek Cafe at the next intersection had space for trucks and trailers to park while going into the restaurant. We parked and went into the cafe figuring we would get a shake before carrying on. Once we saw their menu, we decided lunch was in order, even though it was only about 11:00. Joan had a chicken souvlaki sandwich and John had a leg of lamb gyro. They were delicious. Great place to eat and relax. After our break, we headed north on hwy 127 along the Silurian Valey. There are lots of dry lake beds and sand dunes down this valley. This was a nice long flat stretch, so the truck got to take it easier for a while, slowly working down to 475 feet, below the elevation we started at in Amboy.
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| Telescope Peak in Death Valley |
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| Dumont Dunes |
Then we had a 5% 8 mile climb to Ibex Pass, at 2100 feet. Then we coasted down past Tecopa Hot Springs into Shoshone (1570 feet) before turning onto hwy 178 to head up into Pahrump, just into Nevada. Even though there were some long climbs on this route, the alternatives were no better. Our GPS recommended that instead of heading across the Mojave Preserve, we go west 78 miles on I-40 to Barstow, then back 63 miles to Baker instead of the 55 miles across the preserve (the rational being that there were no services for 55 miles through the Preserve). The other alternative was go east on I-40 to Needles, north to Vegas, and finally west over a 5500 ft pass to Pahrump. Hard work for the truck anyway, and a lot more distance. On any route, we still had to do the 18 mile climb up from Amboy to I-40.
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| Mt Charleston as we head into Pahrump |
As we approached town, we called the park again to see if the space was still available. It was, but 3 people had called, looking for a site for a week. We arrived at the park to find out we were first to arrive. Yay! We needed to pay cash for the week, and were about $5 short. They checked us in anyway. As we left the office, the next group came in. They were okay, as one of the residents had just left, opening up a second spot. Once we got the truck unhooked, we headed to a bank to pick up cash. As we were paying for our site, the third unit pulled in. They had to park in a dry camping spot for the night.
Tuesday we did laundry in the park. They only charge $1 for both washer and dryer, so this was our cheapest coin laundry we have seen. After picking up some groceries, we relaxed for the day.
Wednesday morning, there were 4 units in dry camping. A popular place. We headed to Tecopa Hot Springs, about 50 miles back into California. Our route took us over Emigrant Pass, a short, but steep climb, with a 15mph switchback to get started.
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| View from Emigrant Pass |
We had seen the signs to Tecopa as we went by to Pahrump on Monday. The information we found about the hot springs was ambiguous, including a comment about 'when available', so we called them. The hot springs are open 24 hours a day, and cost $7 each. We could have camped there, but we hadn't seen the rates for the county camping, $20 + $3 for electricity for a large RV, or $22 +$3 for an extra large RV. We confirmed that no clothes, including swimsuits, were allowed, and that there were separate pools in the men's and the women's bathhouses. The availability may have been based on the 15 person capacity in each of the cold and hot pools in the men's bathhouse. We agreed to meet back at the truck no longer than 1/2 hour later, which worked out quite well. The facility was well maintained, and the pool temperature quite nice. After meeting back at the truck, we headed to the China Ranch Date Farm. The ranch was started by Ah Foo, a worker in the Death Valley Borax mines, to feed the local silver miners and their animals. The road into the ranch was quite interesting, winding steeply between through hills, with a one-lane section partway down. We met a truck with an 'Okotoks' vanity plate. There were several openings in the hills for the Gypsum Queen Mine.
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| Road down to China Ranch |
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| China Ranch Date Farm |
When we got down to the farm, we read about the Amaragosa Canyon Area of Critical Environmental Concern trails, which headed about a mile down the valley. Off we went, to enjoy views of the amazingly varied hills and valley habitat. We saw several geckos and three quail, at an abondoned building. Its incredible how different the composition is of hills next to one another along the valley here. By the time we finished the two mile hike in the heat, we were happy to sit in the shade of some palm trees along the little river. This river is one of the few ones with visible water in the Mojave Desert. It isn't very large, as we crossed it in two places with help of a few small rocks in the stream. It goes south from here about 10 miles before heading north again, and emptying into Death Valley, below sea level.
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| Amargosa River |
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| Trail |
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| Hills along Amargosa |
After our walk, we headed into the store to get some date shakes, only to find out they had run out of ice cream. Should be some available in about an hour and a half, at 3:00. We decided not to wait.
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| Delivery Truck |
On our way back to Pahrump, we stopped at St. Therese Mission at Old Spanish Trail. We found out from an attendant that this was a new mission, not a historic one. They have done a good job of laying out the grounds.
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