The drive to the various campgrounds from this entrance takes you northwest across the Pinto Basin, which lies between the Pinto and Hexie Mountains. You are gaining elevation as you go along, passing by a changing landscape, one dotted with cottonwood trees, wildflowers, and an area with densely concentrated cholla (teddy bear) cactus. The eastern half of the park, below the 3000’ level, lies within the Colorado Desert, which in turn is part of the much larger Sonoran Desert. The western half of the park, which is mostly above 3000’, is part of the Mohave Desert. It is a good hike across the basin, at least 30 miles of twisty roadway. There are plenty of opportunities to pull over and take a few photos.
Still though, not a sign of a joshua tree or a jumbo rock. Then all of a sudden, the trees started to appear, and over one crest in the road...a JUMBO rock. Wow, these rocks are impressive, and strikingly odd. Massive smooth boulders that seem to be just sitting there, as if placed and assembled.
Pulled into the campground and found our reserved site, which is a good thing to have in this popular park. Many sites are small for tenting only, but there are a handful of RV sites along the side of the road, and a few back-in sites. We found our site, and it was spectacular. I did a lot of advance research to find a good site, consulting Google Earth to get a 3D look at the campground. From what I saw then, it now turned out to be the same. It is on a tiny loop road, and once backed in, we are surrounded by these intriguing gigantic rocks. We literally cannot see another campsite.
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| a simply amazing site |
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| hard to stop looking at the rocks...unlike anything we have seen before |
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| happy campers |
We wandered the rocks, which have the look of granite, but the texture is very granular. The piles of rocks began eons ago, as the result of volcanic activity. A molten form of rock, called monzo-granite, rose from deep within the earth. As the rock cooled and crystallized, cracks formed, and these were soon weathered by the groundwater, causing the granite cracks to become smooth and broken into boulders. As the soil eroded, the formations we see today remained. The rocks continue to erode, and you can see this from the piles of granules that are all around. Walking the rocks is an addictive activity. Want to see the view from a particular rock, it is just a matter of figuring out the rock puzzle path to get there.
We explored the local towns, and found that Yucca Valley seemed to be the most interesting, at least to us. Perhaps the funky cafe, Frontier Coffee, we had lunch in had something to do with our opinion. The drive back from the north entrance takes you through a valley of endless Joshua trees, a veritable little forest. We were lucky to see many that were starting to blossom, little bursts of colour on the end of the branches. They appear to be a most exuberant tree.
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| some rocks can be downright creepy |
The nights have been very cold, necessitating the propane furnace and multiple layers of comforters and duvets to keep toasty. This resulted in needing to refill our propane, and as I was removing the tank, I caught a hint of a hissing sound. Out came my bottle of leak test fluid, which I brushed onto the hose and sure enough, the crimped end of the pigtail had a tiny leak. Perhaps this accounted for our quicker than usual depletion of the propane. We discovered there was only one RV spot in the entire area, and we headed there looking for a replacement hose.
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| never good to see... |
RV Depot in the town of Yucca Valley was fabulous. A small little repair shop that also did a bit of trade in renovated older campers. Super nice guy who owns it, and he had all the parts I needed to make the repair. We chatted for the longest time about pretty much everything...he was just that sort of fello. After getting the tank filled as well, and another nice lunch at the Frontier Cafe, we made our way back to camp. Easy peasy change of the hose and we were back in business. Not the most ideal place to have a problem, and we were lucky to find the parts.
While I was in looking for propane parts, Dale discovered a quirky little shop across the way, and from there, a small piece of local pottery, buried and cured in the sand, is coming back with us, a keepsake of our SouthWest adventure.
At a grocery store on the way back, Dale made interesting observations while she was a few persons behind an elderly veteran in his scooter at the cashier. He was struggling to lift up some heavier items to the checkout counter and so he asked the younger man in front of him to assist him, and from their exchange, they both realized they were veterans. Before leaving, the younger man turned to the older man and said “Thank you for your service”. Following that touching exchange, the older woman cashier (who did not appear to know the older man) smiled, reached over and placed her hand lightly on his shoulder and said “God bless you, praying for you that you do well, and am sure you will”. Dale was so struck by these touching spontaneous acts of kindness...
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| these flower buds are huge |
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| cholla cacti...my fave |
Two nights in a row we experienced low drops in overnight temperatures and high frigid winds, which made it much colder. Although we were mostly tucked within the rocks, being at such an elevation, our camper was rocked heavily buffeted by wind gusts throughout the night which was a tad unnerving. The cold and the wind made the decision for us to pull out Jumbo Rocks a day early and head back to Quartzite for the night, where we knew it would warmer and the winds less strong. Afterwards we heard that the high winds were due to some cyclone bomb weather going from west to east across the US, so moving to a low lying area was a good idea.
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| Barley coping with the chill |
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