Walk in the Desert

Sunday, February 14, 2016 – Valentine’s Day

Today is Valentine’s Day and Dolly got some candy.

Later in the morning, Yuma and I decided to walk to the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains you see behind me.

In my mind those mountains were about two miles away.  Luckily, I took two bottles of water with me.  The temperature is supposed to hit 88 today and no breeze.

Let me just tell you up front, when you look at mountains in the distance, don’t guess how far away they are.  You can be wrong by miles.  And I was. 

I know I can walk about five miles in a day before my feet give out and I start limping pretty badly.

I started out at a fast pace.  It was still fairly cool and the ground was pretty hard, making it easy at first.

This what my destination looked like at the start.

 

After walking for about three miles, the hard ground turned to sand dunes, washes and hot sun.  The mountains are closer, but I can see there is at least two miles still to go just to get to the base.

Yuma was a real trooper.  He would run ahead and then look back and wait for me to catch up and then off he would go again.  Glad he was along as my faithful companion.

As you can see in the photos, there is no shade. Not a tree in sight.  I am starting to limp now and I am having doubts about making it.  Finally, found an Ocotillo cactus providing a little shade, so Yuma and I sat down in the sand for some water and to rest my feet.  The sand is hard to walk through.

Also, there are lots of animal burros in the sand.  As I walked along, my foot would fall through the sand into a burrow causing me discomfort.  Wouldn’t want to turn an ankle out here. 

  

As I sat there looking at my objective, I made the decision to turn around and walk back before things got out of hand.  The sun was beating down and I was already worn out.  I didn’t want to give up, but i did learn a lesson.  Don’t assume large mountains in the distance are just a couple of miles away, because they definitely are not.

Hated to listen to Dolly’s “told you so” when I got back to the RV, but at least Yuma and I made it back alive.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone.

See you later.

Rock Snake

Saturday, February 13, 2016

It was another hot day, so we stayed close to camp all day.  Late in the day, the whole crew headed up the south end of Coyote Mountain looking for the rock snake.  It had been a year since I last walked up there and of course, I could not remember exactly how to get there.

We drove the jeep as close to the mountain as we could and started walking, looking for a trail.  Unfortunately, I found a lot of them.  First we walked too far south and then I headed up hill to take a look around and we finally spotted it in the valley below.

Dolly and Fergie overlooking snake valley.

Fergie and Dolly did great.  That Fergie just loves to walk trails on her leash.  It was getting on 4:30 P.M. when we spotted the snake and the sun goes over the mountains at about 5:30, so we couldn’t dawdle.

As we walked down the mountain, I could see all the RVs parked along Rockhouse Trail.

See you later.

Rockhouse Trail

Friday, February 12, 2016

I decided this morning to take a drive down to Clark Lake dry bed and take a look.  Once I got there, I just kept driving on Rockhouse Trail thinking it may go somewhere interesting.

I think it rained quite a bit here in the last El Nino storm they had a few weeks back.  The lake bed is dried cracked mud now.

Yuma and I drove through the dry bed and on for miles and miles of bad road.  After about 10 miles, I came to a sign that said Butler Canyon was to the left and Rockhouse Canyon to the right.

By this time, I was in 4 wheel drive because of the sandy road.  I was afraid of getting stuck without it.  As I looked back, I could see the dry bed to the left at the end of the canyon and to the right is the backside of Coyote Mountain.  And, of course, the sandy road.

At the sign I could see it looked like Butler Canyon was a box canyon with no where to go.  Yuma and I walked to the end of the canyon and all we could see was large rocks and canyon walls.

Walked back to the jeep and took the road to the right.  It went around a small hill and as I looked back into Rockhouse Canyon, it appeared to be a box canyon also.  Didn’t drive all the way back there to find out, but there was nothing but the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains behind the canyon walls.

I had hoped to find a beautiful ending, like a waterfall or beautiful mountain passes, but nothing but rocky hills leading into the mountains.

Looked at my Fitbit when we got home and we had walked six and a half miles back in those canyons.  You may think that Yuma and I just drive around in the air conditioned jeep, but we do get out and walk occasionally.  I walk, Yuma runs.

See you later.

Pallomar Observatory

Thursday, February 11, 2016
It is going to be another hot day, so instead of staying in the desert, we decided to drive to the mountains.
After breakfast, we drove into town and gassed up at Gringo’s gas station and then straight west out of town,

making a left and up into the mountains on S22 (Montezuma Valley Road). 
This road zig-zags all the way over the Vallecito Mountains west of Borrego Springs.  You could see all of the valley below from the road.

While driving through the small village of Ranchita we saw Big Foot.

Once over the mountains, we entered the Cleveland National Forest.  Drove past Lake Henshaw

and on to the top of Palomar Mountain where the Palomar Observatory is located.  On the drive up the mountain, we could see the mountains and hills below all the way to the ocean.  Be the closest we get to the ocean on this trip.
The yellow at the top is the sun bouncing off the Pacific Ocean
The observatory closes at 3 P.M. and we got there a little after 2, so we had to hurry before the gates closed for the evening.


You could see snow on the tops of the San Bernadino Mountains to the north.   We are at 5600 and those mountains are around 11,500 feet.

Here is Dolly and Fergie standing under this very large pine tree at the observatory.

On the way back home, we drove hwy 78 through the quaint town of Julian, located at the top of the Vallecito Mountains.  Turned on to S3 (Yaqui Pass Road) and followed it back to Borrego Springs.  This is the pass that Dolly and I saw Big Horn sheep crossing the road at dusk.
Made it home by 5 P.M. and called it a night.
See you later.

Lazy Day at Borrego Springs

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

This morning, a motorhome left and we quickly moved into their camp.  Our new camp is only about 100 feet from our previous one, but it borders the state park.  Now when I look out our door to the east, there is no one out there, because it is foot traffic only, so no camp sites.

Here is our new camp with Coyote Mountain in the background.

It warmed up quickly and for some reason, I could not get out and do anything exciting.  It rose to 87 degrees today with a slight breeze.  All I did after our move was to take a few walks and lay in the lounge chair all day.

I must say the view of the Santa Rosa Mountains are beautiful to look at.

 Hopefully, tomorrow will be more exciting.

See you later.

Borrego Springs, California

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

This morning, we ran up the hill at Senator Wash to the LTVA to get some propane and then into Yuma to fill up the motorhome.  Gas is 50 cents a gallon more expensive in California. 

We then touched the edge of the Imperial Sand Dunes while on I-8 heading toward Brawley, California, sixty miles west of Yuma, Arizona.  The winds were coming out of the north blowing sand across the highway.

 

We stopped to get groceries at the Walmart in Brawley.  We then followed hwy 86 north for a short while till we turned left on hwy 78 toward Octillo Wells on our way to Borrego Springs.  When we turned off the highway heading towards Borrego Springs, the first wash we hit was the monster 9 percent grade named the Texas Dip.  Wouldn’t want to drive through that when it is raining.

We have been wanting warmer weather, and now we have it.  When we arrived at our desert home outside Borrego Springs around 4 P.M., the temperature was 85 and not a whisper of a breeze.

All I did was unhook the jeep and drive around looking for a more private camp than the one I stopped in.  Unfortunately, there weren’t any I could find.  There were signs everywhere telling me foot traffic only.  There are a lot of RVs parked along Rockhouse Trail and I found a place that is apart from the others, but not as far as I would prefer.

When the sun set, the temperature dropped to a comfortable level.  It will be a great night for sleeping.

See you later.

Wash Day

Monday, February 8, 2016

We have hit our maximum days at Mittry Lake.  They have a 10 day limit, so we must move on.

We need to do laundry today before moving on.  We haven’t done laundry since the 20th of last month, so we have a lot of dirty clothes.

Knowing it will take at least three hours to do the laundry and another hour to dump and take on water, we decided to break our move into two days.

We left at 11 A.M. into Yuma to do laundry.  As we suspected, the laundromat we chose was crowded.  Took us three and a half hours to get it done and back to camp.

I then ate lunch, and packed the motorhome in preparation for travel. Hooked the jeep and we headed back up to the LTVA on Senator Wash to do the dump and take on water.  By the time I completed these tasks, it was 5:30 P.M..

A line of Egrets on a highwire over looking the canal at dusk.  Waiting for dinner I guess.

We then went back down the hill to hwy 24 known as Imperial Dam Road and parked in the lot right across from the Imperial Irrigation District Headquarters.  I stayed here last year when I had to evacuate Mittry Lake due to a fire.

Tomorrow will be our travel day.

See you later.