Desert Spring Break - Friday and Saturday
So I'm going to adopt Andy's method and post the spring break adventure in parts. Mostly because if I have it in my head that I'll write it all at once, it'll never happen.
It all began with a two-hour drive to the Rochester airport at about 2 am. The moral of this story: 6 am flights from an airport 2 hours away are a *bad* idea. But we made it, I tried to sleep, we arrived in Atlanta, caught the next flight, tried to sleep some more. Eventually we arrive in Las Vegas, gather our belongings and Ginger and went to get the car.
First bit of excitement...it was sunny and warm in Vegas. There I stood, basking in the Sun's warm for the first time in...oh...let's say 5 months! Next bit of excitement...Thrifty didn't have any mid-sized cars available immediately, but I could take a mid-sized convertible if I wanted. Me being my non-spontaneous, practical self stood around and waited for a normal car for a couple minutes. Then the thought of a convertible sunk in, but the top folded up takes up most of the trunk. Sort of a problem when you're going camping with stuff. Anyho! Eventually after conferring with my fellow trekers, I grabbed a blue convertible, and we were off.
Before hitting the desert we had to make a run to REI and grab food for our first night. (We weren't meeting Briony and Mel until the next day.) Finally we headed South out of Vegas through the deserts of southern Nevada. The destination our first night was Mojave National Preserve, just inside the California boarder. We camped in an off-road campsite, i.e. in the middle of the desert, off a dirt road, where people have camped before so they figure it wouldn't hurt if some more people also did so. In other words there's no water and sure as heck no toilets.
We arrived at the site toward the end of sunset and quickly realized that it was quite windy. But we set up the tents, failed at cooking thanks to the wind, and had a dinner of apples, corn flakes and wine. About half way though the bottle, several large vans and SUVs pulled up and out poured 20 some boy scouts. Yes...there we were in the middle of no where. Not even in an offical campground, and our bit o' desert was invaded by a troop of boy scouts.
I got some sleep that night but not much between the wind, cold, and rowdy boys. As we will learn, this is not the last time I reference "wind" in this account.
The best part about camping is crawling out of the tent in the morning to a freshly risen sun and crisp air. It generally makes the discomfort of sleeping on the group worth. On this particular morning I was not only greeted by a sun rising behind a mountain, but desert wild flowers and a enormous sand dune. Here's our campsite:
I had chosen this particular site because of its proximity to the Kelso Dune field, one of the largest in North America. I have a mild obsession with sand dunes thanks to a project I did last year on dunes on Venus, but that's neither here nor there.
After breakfast we set out across a sand field to climb the up the dune. Here's a photo of Andy and Ginger hiking. The peak directly in front of them rises about 600 feet above where we camped, and we eventually managed to climb to the peak.
Here's the crest and slipface. For scale the little black specks are the boy scouts sledding of all things.
The view from the peak as beautiful and windy. In strong gusts sand would fly over crest, and the surface would dance as the sand saltated. Our footprints were quickly erased. From my researches of sand dunes, I learned that some dunes will make a booming noise. The origin of this is not entirely understood. Sure enough, as we ran/jumped down the steep slope from the summit, our jumping created vibrations in the dune and a sound that resembled a low tone of a pipe organ. That made my day.
After eating lunch and striking camp we drove another couple hours south to Joshua Tree National Park. This trip through the desert of southern California also proved interesting. We discovered a jerky stand and a volcanic crater along Route-66. The highway near 29 Palms (the last resemblance of civilization before entering the park) passed through a desert littered with old, run-down, one-room shacks, whose purpose continues to baffle me.
This evening we spent at the Black Rock campground in the Northwest corner of the park. Here we also met Mel and Briony who came baring food and wine.
Here's a photo of our campsite sans tents (the blue tent in the background belonged to our neighbors). The tree in the middle is a Joshua Tree in bloom. They really are amazing cool trees.
This evening was by far the most unpleasant of the trip. To say it was windy does not do the experience justice. We had steady 20 mph winds, frequent gusts upwards of 40 mph (my estimation) and temperature in the mid-40's. Plus there was a five minute period where it sleeted on us. After flying several thousand miles to escape the never-ending winter in upstate NY, we get sleeted on in Southern California. For the sake of optimism, I will not dwell on this evening.
It all began with a two-hour drive to the Rochester airport at about 2 am. The moral of this story: 6 am flights from an airport 2 hours away are a *bad* idea. But we made it, I tried to sleep, we arrived in Atlanta, caught the next flight, tried to sleep some more. Eventually we arrive in Las Vegas, gather our belongings and Ginger and went to get the car.
First bit of excitement...it was sunny and warm in Vegas. There I stood, basking in the Sun's warm for the first time in...oh...let's say 5 months! Next bit of excitement...Thrifty didn't have any mid-sized cars available immediately, but I could take a mid-sized convertible if I wanted. Me being my non-spontaneous, practical self stood around and waited for a normal car for a couple minutes. Then the thought of a convertible sunk in, but the top folded up takes up most of the trunk. Sort of a problem when you're going camping with stuff. Anyho! Eventually after conferring with my fellow trekers, I grabbed a blue convertible, and we were off.
Before hitting the desert we had to make a run to REI and grab food for our first night. (We weren't meeting Briony and Mel until the next day.) Finally we headed South out of Vegas through the deserts of southern Nevada. The destination our first night was Mojave National Preserve, just inside the California boarder. We camped in an off-road campsite, i.e. in the middle of the desert, off a dirt road, where people have camped before so they figure it wouldn't hurt if some more people also did so. In other words there's no water and sure as heck no toilets.
We arrived at the site toward the end of sunset and quickly realized that it was quite windy. But we set up the tents, failed at cooking thanks to the wind, and had a dinner of apples, corn flakes and wine. About half way though the bottle, several large vans and SUVs pulled up and out poured 20 some boy scouts. Yes...there we were in the middle of no where. Not even in an offical campground, and our bit o' desert was invaded by a troop of boy scouts.
I got some sleep that night but not much between the wind, cold, and rowdy boys. As we will learn, this is not the last time I reference "wind" in this account.
The best part about camping is crawling out of the tent in the morning to a freshly risen sun and crisp air. It generally makes the discomfort of sleeping on the group worth. On this particular morning I was not only greeted by a sun rising behind a mountain, but desert wild flowers and a enormous sand dune. Here's our campsite:
I had chosen this particular site because of its proximity to the Kelso Dune field, one of the largest in North America. I have a mild obsession with sand dunes thanks to a project I did last year on dunes on Venus, but that's neither here nor there.
After breakfast we set out across a sand field to climb the up the dune. Here's a photo of Andy and Ginger hiking. The peak directly in front of them rises about 600 feet above where we camped, and we eventually managed to climb to the peak.
Here's the crest and slipface. For scale the little black specks are the boy scouts sledding of all things.
The view from the peak as beautiful and windy. In strong gusts sand would fly over crest, and the surface would dance as the sand saltated. Our footprints were quickly erased. From my researches of sand dunes, I learned that some dunes will make a booming noise. The origin of this is not entirely understood. Sure enough, as we ran/jumped down the steep slope from the summit, our jumping created vibrations in the dune and a sound that resembled a low tone of a pipe organ. That made my day.
After eating lunch and striking camp we drove another couple hours south to Joshua Tree National Park. This trip through the desert of southern California also proved interesting. We discovered a jerky stand and a volcanic crater along Route-66. The highway near 29 Palms (the last resemblance of civilization before entering the park) passed through a desert littered with old, run-down, one-room shacks, whose purpose continues to baffle me.
This evening we spent at the Black Rock campground in the Northwest corner of the park. Here we also met Mel and Briony who came baring food and wine.
Here's a photo of our campsite sans tents (the blue tent in the background belonged to our neighbors). The tree in the middle is a Joshua Tree in bloom. They really are amazing cool trees.
This evening was by far the most unpleasant of the trip. To say it was windy does not do the experience justice. We had steady 20 mph winds, frequent gusts upwards of 40 mph (my estimation) and temperature in the mid-40's. Plus there was a five minute period where it sleeted on us. After flying several thousand miles to escape the never-ending winter in upstate NY, we get sleeted on in Southern California. For the sake of optimism, I will not dwell on this evening.
posted by laura s at 10:37 PM
1 Comments:
Love the pictures you posted
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