Slot Canyon

Sunday, January 26, 2014

I still wake up at 6:30 in the morning; however, that is 4:30 Pacific time.  Luckily, it is so early, I go back to sleep for a couple of hours before finally getting up for the day.  Dolly was tired this morning, so after my two cups of coffee, I fixed cereal which is something I can do because it takes no cooking.

Dolly was up by 9:30 and had her coffee while I made the bed and then I sat outside in the zero gravity lounger watching the Fergie wander around looking for coyote droppings to sniff.

I had picked up pamphlets at the Chamber of Commerce the other day and I found one that had a map of twenty places to see and visit around Borrego Springs area.  I went through that looking for somewhere interesting to go for the day and Dolly and I decided on Slot Canyon.

I checked the fresh water tank this morning to visually see how much we had and was surprised to find it was down to about 10 gallons.  The tank holds 35 gallons, but a lot sloshes out the overflow as I go down the road so not sure how much I had when we got here a couple days ago. 

At least I now know which of our tanks needs attention first while boondocking.  The grey and black tanks are still in good shape and the propane never seems to go down which is great because our refrigerator uses that when we are not hooked up to electricity or have the generator going.

Wasn’t sure what to do about getting water into the tank to fill it.  My search on the internet this morning only shows the RV parks as having water.  The cheapest place at $35 a night is the Borrego Springs State Park.  That would be more convenient than driving the motorhome all the way to Truckhaven to get water.  That is 50 miles round trip at eight miles to the gallon.  Gas is $4 a gallon here.

Thought about going to the True Value hardware store in town and see if they had a pump I could buy and then I would pump bottled water into the tank.  Oh well, I will worry about it later.  I will ask at the gas station as we go through town on our way to Slot Canyon if someone sells fresh tap water in town.

About noon, we headed out.  Noticed that our perfectly sunny day was starting to cloud up over the western mountains.  I think the rain that San Diego is hoping to get is giving us a few clouds.

Stopped at the local gas station and asked about fresh water and he said they had a spigot in back I could use.  $5.00 to fill my tank.  That solved that problem.

To get to Butte Pass Road that takes us into the canyon, we had to go through town and out the south side on S3 to highway 78.  As we drove down S3 just outside of town we ran into a bunch more of the metal sculptures and of course we had to get pictures of those.
  
Fighting horses                                               Foal suckling and Dolly bravely sneaking up for picture

Momma mammoth and young one

Turned east on highway 78 toward Ocotillo Wells for about 10 miles through the Texas Dip and up the other side and made a left on the Butte Pass Road.    Not 4-wheel drive but pretty sandy.  Went about a mile into the desert and the road came to an end at the canyon.

Whoa!  I think we’re there. 
Wouldn’t know it was there if the road didn’t take a sharp turn.   We stopped and walked a short distance to the slippery edge and scooted down into the slot.

Almost down to the bottom
 

Narrow here.

   
Hope it doesn’t fall!                  Widening back out
 
It was about four in the afternoon when we got home to rest and have dinner.  This evening the wind is picking up rocking the motorhome just a bit.  Hope the Santa Anna winds are not coming.

See you later.