Tweet
[COLOR=#a52a2a]PART ONE[/COLOR]
I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
We certainly did! For 5 years running, we have been doing a Thanksgiving adventure somewhere in the desert. This year, we went to the southern part of the Anza-Borrego State Park. The weather was fantastic! Mid-80's in the day and the coldest it got at night was 50 degrees. Beats the hell out of 8 degrees at night 2 years ago! Kevin and Chris (1 BAD F N Z), Scott, Amy, Chloe, Thian, and their three dogs (Dr.Dirty), and Sharon and I went to grab a campsite on Wednesday. There were three other camps set up when we arrived, but we still had plenty of room close to the vault toilets:
After setting up, we still had half a day left, so we took the Jeeps and struck out for the Dolomite Mine:
Afterwards, we came back to camp and went to explore the local area. We camped at Mountain Palm Springs Campground which is at the foot of the trails leading up into a couple of canyons with palm trees still remaining from the days when the desert was a savanna thousands of years ago. We drove to the trailhead, grabbed some waters and hiked the 3/4 mile trail:
At first, the palms were few and scattered:
And then we got to the Torote Bowl:
The reason that these groves are able to survive is that there is water seeping out of the canyons. At the Torote Bowl, there is a sizable pool hidden in the palms:
Nick and Barb (USMC0369) joined us that evening. They stayed through to Friday morning and went to the Galleta Meadows on Thursday. Thanks again for the map of the art sites that you got me!
On Thanksgiving, we set out down Canyon Sin Nombre Road to find a slot canyon that I had seen photos of on Google Earth. The canyon was easy to find and definitely didn't disappoint:
From there, we crossed over to Arroyo Seco del Diablo to look for a canyon that I had heard had some cool rock features, and it certainly did:
But I think that the coolest thing about this canyon was the dried up pool that we found:
From there we went to find some Mud Caves. We checked out a couple and then had lunch in the shade:
We backtracked to Carrizo Creek Wash to splash in the water that I have seen photos of, but the trail was dry as a bone the whole way. For those that have been there before, did I miss it somehow?:
We found the old Butterfield Stagecoach stop at the end of the trail. Nothing is left standing, but the adobe and stick roof can still be seen in places:
There were several modern features around the stage stop. One of which was this old tractor that Sharon tried to whip back to life:
We left the area by going out Vallecito Wash but we had some unexpected company. I'm assuming that this guy was Border Patrol, but it had no markings. The chopper was super quiet too:
Before reaching pavement, we made a couple of quick stops at the Hollywood and Vine sign:
And at Palm Spring, which was an intermediate stage stop for the Butterfield Stage line:
Back at camp, Russ Chung had arrived and we all started cooking for the Thanksgiving Feast:
And Feast it was! We had deep-fried turkey, fresh mashed potatoes and gravy, dutch-oven baked macaroni and cheese, green beans, home-made cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, pumpkin pie, red velvet cake, German chocolate cake, and I'm sure that I missed something, but I could only eat so much! The turkey did turn out nicely if I do say so myself:
To be continued.......
I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
We certainly did! For 5 years running, we have been doing a Thanksgiving adventure somewhere in the desert. This year, we went to the southern part of the Anza-Borrego State Park. The weather was fantastic! Mid-80's in the day and the coldest it got at night was 50 degrees. Beats the hell out of 8 degrees at night 2 years ago! Kevin and Chris (1 BAD F N Z), Scott, Amy, Chloe, Thian, and their three dogs (Dr.Dirty), and Sharon and I went to grab a campsite on Wednesday. There were three other camps set up when we arrived, but we still had plenty of room close to the vault toilets:
After setting up, we still had half a day left, so we took the Jeeps and struck out for the Dolomite Mine:
Afterwards, we came back to camp and went to explore the local area. We camped at Mountain Palm Springs Campground which is at the foot of the trails leading up into a couple of canyons with palm trees still remaining from the days when the desert was a savanna thousands of years ago. We drove to the trailhead, grabbed some waters and hiked the 3/4 mile trail:
At first, the palms were few and scattered:
And then we got to the Torote Bowl:
The reason that these groves are able to survive is that there is water seeping out of the canyons. At the Torote Bowl, there is a sizable pool hidden in the palms:
Nick and Barb (USMC0369) joined us that evening. They stayed through to Friday morning and went to the Galleta Meadows on Thursday. Thanks again for the map of the art sites that you got me!
On Thanksgiving, we set out down Canyon Sin Nombre Road to find a slot canyon that I had seen photos of on Google Earth. The canyon was easy to find and definitely didn't disappoint:
From there, we crossed over to Arroyo Seco del Diablo to look for a canyon that I had heard had some cool rock features, and it certainly did:
But I think that the coolest thing about this canyon was the dried up pool that we found:
From there we went to find some Mud Caves. We checked out a couple and then had lunch in the shade:
We backtracked to Carrizo Creek Wash to splash in the water that I have seen photos of, but the trail was dry as a bone the whole way. For those that have been there before, did I miss it somehow?:
We found the old Butterfield Stagecoach stop at the end of the trail. Nothing is left standing, but the adobe and stick roof can still be seen in places:
There were several modern features around the stage stop. One of which was this old tractor that Sharon tried to whip back to life:
We left the area by going out Vallecito Wash but we had some unexpected company. I'm assuming that this guy was Border Patrol, but it had no markings. The chopper was super quiet too:
Before reaching pavement, we made a couple of quick stops at the Hollywood and Vine sign:
And at Palm Spring, which was an intermediate stage stop for the Butterfield Stage line:
Back at camp, Russ Chung had arrived and we all started cooking for the Thanksgiving Feast:
And Feast it was! We had deep-fried turkey, fresh mashed potatoes and gravy, dutch-oven baked macaroni and cheese, green beans, home-made cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, pumpkin pie, red velvet cake, German chocolate cake, and I'm sure that I missed something, but I could only eat so much! The turkey did turn out nicely if I do say so myself:
To be continued.......
Comment