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.

“Q” (01-24-15)

  

Q is for Quartzsite, a small town in the middle of a desert.  So, why were we parked in the middle of the desert, with no hook-up and only the electricity we could generate for ourselves?  I mean, what do you do for 12 days, out in the middle of nowhere?  Whew!  Where do I begin?






Well, first of all, to say we are by ourselves is not quite correct.  We “circle the wagons” with a bunch of our friends, most of whom are full timers like us and most of whom are members of Escapees, a club for RVers.









When we arrived, we were one of a few, and by the time we left, we were one of many.  In fact we had over 40 people in our group this year- many of them new- so we have a lot of new friends now!














 

Sometimes people arrive after dark and someone feels we have to go on the roof with a flashlight to guide them in.

We call our group the class-less class.  If someone starts full timing in 2014, they are considered to be part of the class of 2014, but our group spans many years, from 2008-2014 and we are always welcoming new members. We also, as you can see from the quality of this picture, have a professional photographer (Carol Dwyer) in our group.  Every year she lines us up for a group photo.

Rather than your standard potlucks, this year we opted for themed evenings.  Paul and I were two of the hosts for Margarita/Quesadilla night.

 

We started the evening with a toast, followed by the bursting of a custom made piñata, which was a house, sitting in a wagon- the logo for the Escapees Club. Once the candy was on the ground, people picked through it, looking for their favorites.

  Other group dinners included a hot dog night and an Italian night, complete with wine and Sangria.

We had so many activities, we had to post everything on a white board to keep everyone in the loop.

One of the reasons for coming here in January is the big RV show.

Although we don’t really buy much, heading to the Big Tent RV Show gives us an excuse to stop at two of our favorite places- Beer Belly’s Adult Day Care, where you can get a burger and beer while listening to live music- and Thrifty Ice cream- $4 and they don’t do single scoops- yum!!

Other activities included Mimosas in the Morning and a Take it or Leave it table- people dropped off things they don’t want anymore and other people shopped.  Anything that was left was donated to a thrift store.

Some of our activities are mundane.  This is what the bed of your truck looks like when you announce that you are making a trash run.

One of our favorite pastimes that isn't very plentiful in Quartzsite is hiking.   We did hike several times but the trails aren’t very interesting and there aren't very many of them.

And finally, no trip to Quartzsite would be complete without a trip to the Desert Bar.  Located 5 miles down a dirt road, the bar is only open noon-6 pm, on the weekends, so at 11:30 am, the road to the bar holds a steady stream of cars and trucks, all trying to get there before the parking lot fills up.

The Desert Bar is completely dependent on solar energy and is a unique place to listen to live music while enjoying a beer and a burger.  It is best enjoyed when you are with
 someone who has never been there.








Over the last few days, many people have moved on to new locations, as we will do tomorrow….

The Last of Quartzsite (02-05-14)

There’s a billboard in town that says if you haven’t been to Silly Al’s Pizza, you haven’t been to Quartzsite.  I really have to agree, because Silly Al’s has some of the best pizza I have ever had.  Therefore, we ate there- not once, but twice- and I had to talk myself out of going a third time.  That’s impressive for me, since I only eat pizza a few times a year.







Once we left the La Posa South camping area, we went to the other side of town, in the desert off of Plomosa Rd., where we stayed for about a week, hanging out with Julie and Mike.

In between the beautiful nightly sunsets, we found time to do……well, honestly, not much.  We had several campfires and some great meals together.

We managed to make some trips back into town in between the campfires and desert walks.  While there we picked up a few groceries and ate lunch listening to some live music.








Finally though, having been to Silly Al’s twice, it was time to leave Quartzsite behind.  Doing that is more work than you would think, because the desert dust and dirt gets into everything. Once we had better electricity in Parker, I ran the vacuum for what seemed like hours. While I did that, Paul washed the outside of the rig.  Oh wait, no he didn’t.  He paid someone else to wash the rig.


Naturally, Mike followed suit. Here’s Mike’s rig getting washed.  See Paul and Mike on the right side of the picture? 







Here’s a close up:

I can’t blame them- it’s so cheap to get the trailer washed here that it would be tough to find a reason to do it yourself.

Several of our friends from Quartzsite are also here in Parker for the week, and a few of us will head up to Lake Havasu next week for the Fireworks competition.  In the meantime, we are hoping to put the boat in the water, since we are 100 feet from the Colorado River.