Desert Boondocking (04/04/22)

 Once January came around, Paul and I, and Liz and Randy had sort of made a pact that we would do some exploring, so we packed up the rigs.  Our main destination was Anza Borrego Desert State Park, in California.  Its only a few hours from the house, but surprisingly we have never been there.  We have tried, but something always got in the way. But this time, we made it!

Our first stop however, was the small town of Quartzsite. We have been here many times- its a haven for RVers in the winter, and much of the appeal is boondocking in the desert with friends.  It was a smallish group compared to years past, but we had an awesome time.  We met up with old friends Tom and Dianne, and re-connected with friends Tina and Jeff, who we haven’t seen much of the last few years.  And….we convinced our friends Al and Debbie to give boondocking a try for a few days.

We even resurrected our traditional quesadilla and margarita night- we used to do this in Q every year, and have served as many as 46 people.  Not this year though- it was a nice cozy small group.

After a few days, we peeled off and headed to Anza Borrego, the largest state park in California- 585,000 acres large. Although we stopped at the campground to dump the tanks and get information at the visitor center, our goal was to find a quiet spot to ourselves to boondock for a week.

Anza Borrego has tons of miles of off road Jeep trails, so we had brought our truck camper and towed the Jeep.  Liz and Randy had their bigger rig, of course.  We ended up parking in an old parking lot so we could explore without getting into a situation that was hard to get out of. After looking around, we could have moved to a little nicer spot, but we were content where we were, and pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Parking in the desert doesn’t mean we eat jerky and nuts for dinner- Liz and I put our heads together and planned some pretty tasty meals for our stay in the park.

We started our exploring with a hike to Borrego Palm Canyon. This trail is just over 3 miles round trip and leads to an awesome grove of California Fan Palms, fed by a running stream. Fan Palms are the only palm tree native to California, and it was incredible to find a grove of them in the desert.

The following day we hiked a short but extremely fun trail called simply “the Slot”.  It’s a relatively short slot canyon that packed a lot of scrambling and climbing in a short distance.  We had a blast.

Since we were done with that early in the day, we trekked up the windy mountain road to the small town of Julian. Pioneers discovered that this area is rich farm land, and especially perfect for growing apples.  They are now known for their world class apple pie.  Paul says its the best he has ever had (he still talks about it).  

There are also wineries, breweries and shops that line the old fashioned Main Street.  Because Julian sits at almost 5000 ft, it was a bit chilly, and windy, so we didn’t stay too long.

One of the major Jeep trails we took was to Calcite Mine. The narrow, dirt road with steep cliffs was not for the faint of heart (although it really wasn’t too bad as long as there were no vehicles coming the other way).  

At the end of this two mile road, we were able to get out and explore on foot. 

 

You can see in this picture the remoteness by how small the Jeep looks. The calcite mining in this area was done during World War II, and the calcite was used for making gun sights for the Navy.

On the way home, we stopped to explore anything that caught our fancy, including the Carrizo Badlands Overlook. The views here were incredible and reminded me a lot of Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

In between all the exploring, we, of course, had to check out the metal sculptures.  The late David Avery, a landowner in the area, envisioned the town with lots of freestanding, life size metal art and set out to make it happen. 

There are now over 130 sculptures, all around the town of Borrego Springs and the outlying areas. We saw a lot of them, and we each had our favorites.

Our final day was a busy one. We drove the Fish Creek Wash trail with the Jeep, stopping to explore along the way.  

The Wind Cave Trail is a short hiking trail to some “caves” created by the wind.  They were fun to climb around on and reminded me of the Flintstones.

Towards the end of Fish Creek Wash is Sandstone Canyon.  This was a very cool slot canyon that is navigable by Jeep.

We didn’t immediately run home after our stay in Anza Borrego.  We all made a short stop in Yuma to see some friends (of course, I didn’t take any pictures), and then Liz and Randy went back to the house and Paul and I continued on to El Paso to spend a few days with his mom.