Palm Canyon Trail Hike

We are still at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, since all our next options are full for the weekend. This morning we hiked the Palm Canyon Trail in search of the elusive Big Horn Sheep -- we and a couple of hundred other week-end Rvers. The Big Horn were alegedly spotted on the trail at the exact time we were also on the trail -- but it must have been a different part, but the trail is only a mile and a half long, but a lot of it up. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.



I was surprised at how dehydrated I was when we got back. I figured the warnings for a gallon of water a person were a little over the top for the winter, so went in with just a drink at the entrance and exit. Heed the warnings!

We checked a couple of triple-A campgrounds heading east, but they were full for the weekend. So we will hold over here another night. This is only $23 per night, but we have to run the generator to cook or surf beyond the MacBook internal battery capability. The twenty-five cent showers work fine, especially when you shower with a friend.

Desert Boondocking

Welcome to California desert spring camping -- where all the folks come to enjoy the early desert wildflowers! The desert is more beautiful than I ever imagined, and lots of other campers are thinking that too. For the first time in longer than I can remember, Morty is being squeezed out of a site by prior reservations and the entire hook-up area is full at Anza-Borrego. That means we will have to move to a dry camping, no-hook-ups area, or as RVers say, boondocking. So we topped off our water tank to just over two-thirds full, checked the generator for oil, and will move at check-out time of noon.



Speaking of the generator, we got a phone call from Marvin who sold Morty to us. He had found a DVD describing the care and maintenance of the generator and wanted to give it to us. Boy, was he surprised when we told him we were talking from the middle of the California desert, sitting in the our RV. He thought it sounded like we were right next-door.  He was also curious about whether we had been to Alamogordo, New Mexico where he served in the Air Force in 1948! So we told him how to find our blog to see how his old RV was making out as the new Mortimer Turtle.

Some of these pictures show the first time use of the close-up function of the Canon S90 -- pretty good for just walking and biking around. By the way, the boondocking area still has restrooms and showers and I'm hoping that it is WiFi range.

Desert Hot Springs, California

Morty selected Twenty-nine Palms as our next destination. As we arrived though, we thought we better drive on by for a little reconnaissance since it didn't look like a lot to see or do. It later turned out that a Winter Storm Advisory was in the offing. After a bite of lunch, we elected to drive an hour more to Desert Hot Springs at a lower elevation, and of course, hot springs feeding the swimming pools. The photos are of the drive. Lynne took most of them with the Canon S90. We had a short drive on I-40 and a longer leg on Route 66. We came to Amboy which had a Post Office and a gas station and otherwise was desert. Lynne almost didn't believe it was operational but figured the pick-up time on the mail box out front never lies.



We picked Sky Valley Resort from the AAA Campbook. This resort is mostly park model trailers permantly moored. We are between two such units, and only passed a few mobile units in going to and from the pool and clubhouse area. The pools are very impressive. I got my half mile in during a light rain in one, and soaked in a whirlpool. There are about seven swimming and whirlpools in the clubhouse area closest to us. Each has a thermometer in the deck showing the water temperature. The water comes out of the ground at 115 degrees and the pools I sampled range from about 85 to 100. The showers are in the pool area and have lockers and soap everywhere. Some of the showers are even mineral water. Our first time discount was 20% so we are paying $30 per night. The WiFi is great, but the Sprint is on roam and only in the clubhouse.

Tomorrow, we are crossing the highway to meet a high school friend who spends February here every year getting away from Alaska.

Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas

This morning in Choke Canyon we were faced with a weather front that impacted our travel plans. Coming in from the West were rain, storms and cold. We had been thinking of taking a small chunk going North to Garner State Park but that would have been into worse weather. Then we considered heading way South to Lake Casa Blanca, but that would have thrown us off our progress plan. That pretty much left heading West on a 200 mile chunk that theoretically would take us through the worst of the weather into the desert and near the Rio Grande -- specifically to Seminole Canon State Park.

Experiencing life in the desert has always been a fascination of mine and now I am there at last. We can see Mexico from our front porch. We can also see the prehistoric caves and shelters going back 6000 years or more where man stampeded buffalo off cliffs to their deaths. Rain has been a factor here yesterday and earlier today, but the dryness of the ground and plants is abundantly evident.



The ranger station has a very nice museum describing the history of the site. We had time to walk around a little and get some scenery pictures. Also needed time to wash Morty again, since in driving through the rain, he accumulated half of south Texas on his shell. Small milestone of the trip: we went past 2000 miles today. Facilities at Seminole Canyon are surprisingly good --  modern restrooms; also the campsites all have free WiFi internet which works very well. Word of caution: the park is 60 miles or 45 miles from food and fuel.

Tonight we are getting a pretty good rain that will probably keep us indoors until it lets up some. Also we are getting a pretty good lightning and thunder show. And the temperature is dropping from the mid-sixties of the afternoon to probably the forties. It will be interesting to see how our weather avoidance tactics play out.