Mojave National Preserve

Thursday, January 29, 2015

My plans were to travel to Twentynine Palms, California and enter the Joshua Tree National Park from there.  But as I was doing a little research on the Internet about the park, I found they do not allow dogs on the trails.  Only on roadways and your camp on a leash.  So I decided to go to the Mojave National Preserve instead.  They allow dogs on the trails.

We dumped our tanks and took on water in Bouse and headed north to Parker at 9:30 am.  I wanted to get an early start since this is new territory for me. 

Stopped in Parker and got gas and we headed north on Hwy 95 to Needles, California.  Crossed the Colorado River just west of Parker.  You can see that the river is low.

Needles lies in a valley with Interstate 40 going through it.  The day is overcast and gray, so the photos look dull.  Here we are dropping into Needles on Hwy 95.

On the outskirts of town, we hit I-40 going west.  All was going fine so far.

I saw a sign saying Mojave National Preserve at exit 86, old Route 66.  Made the exit and here is where I went wrong.  First I stopped at the gas station at this exit.  Gas was $5.00 a gallon.  Ouch!  I bought 5 gallons just to make sure I had no gas shortage problems.  Then I headed up old Route 66 looking for the Preserve. 

I ended up taking this road for 16 miles up to where it connected to Hwy 95 again.  Never did see a sign for the Preserve and the road had no where to turn around.    Here I am going north through the desert on old Route 66 racing a train.  So when I got to 95, I Google mapped the Preserve and found that I should not have exited at 86 but at Essex Road at exit 100. 

So drove all the way back to I-40 and went another 10 miles west and exited on Essex Road.  Went north on this road for about 10 miles and nothing out there.    The mountains are beautifu and rugged.  It feels very remote out here.  No one around to help if you need it.  Took a road east that said campground 10 miles.  As I headed up that road, I finally found a dirt side road.  Walked up the road to see if there was a fire ring up there and sure enough there was one.Pulled in and I’m home for the night at least.

Texted Dolly to let her know I made it.  Good thing I left early,  It is 3:00 pm but because of the clouds, it looks like dusk is coming soon.  Got everything setup for the night and took Yuma for a walk further up the jeep road I am camping next to.  Very remote and beautiful here.

I set up my trucker’s antenna and hooked it to my Wilson booster and got three bars of 1X.  I do get the Internet, but it is sloooww. 

See you later.