North Joshua Tree BLM

Friday, February 14th

Happy Valentines Day

Time to hit the road again, heading for North Joshua Tree BLM to boondock for 4 days. Ray wants to get into Joshua Tree NP early in the morning for some photos. After stopping at Walmart for some restocking, we arrived an hour and a half later. All set up by 3:30 enjoying the sun. A bit cooler here compared to Indio, but very nice. Minimal dust as they must have got the big rain that Quartzsite did last week.

Our campsite:

Saturday, Feb 15

Ray was out the door by 5:30 and headed into the park. He particularly wanted to get a picture of Skull Rock.  He knew the rock faced north but he wasn't sure if sunrise or sunset light would hit it.  Apparently the sunrise doesn't, maybe the sunset. Oh well, he took some good ones anyway, I think. Here are some of his pictures, gorgeous.

Good Morning Joshua Tree National Park.

The skull peaking over the rocks.

Interesting "rock fence"

No wonder photographers call it the "golden light"

Once Ray was back, we had a knock on our door about 9am. This kid ... well 22 yrs old ... couldn't start his motorcycle and asked if we had any tools. Ray tried to accommodate him but we didn't have the right size socket to remove his spark plug. He needed to remove it to clear the excess gas as he had flooded it. It was really cold overnight and his bike did not want to start.

Anyways, I drove Tristan into Yucca Valley, about 10 miles away, to the NAPA store where he was able to get what he needed and 2 new spark plugs. His friends left him here to go climbing and would catch up with him later as he told them to go and have fun and would follow later.  Once he got the new spark plug back in, of course his battery was dead, so we had to jump him with the car. Once te bike as started, he noticed his tires were really worn, the back one had a worn "stripe". Nowhere to get new tires in the area after he made several phone calls. Two hours later he was on his way to meet up with his friends. The boys all camped here last night and will be back here camping tonight after their day's adventure. Tristan is a rifleman stationed at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego. A very nice young adult. We were glad to help. Gave him my phone number in case he runs into trouble here today.

Back at home, our son Garrett, sent me picture of how much debris is actually on our stairs at the lakehouse. Those trees seem to trap the debris so it does not wash down river. What a mess. Our neighbours beach is clear but they were there at high water to clear their debris before it got too bad. We will need to get someone in to clear it up for us when we get home.

Kristi trying to navigate to the bottom of the stairs, you cannot see, to push out the floating log unsuccessfully.

Ray and I did a short tour of 29 Palms and then back home. We also stopped at the Joshua Tree Farmers Market and a quick stop at Walmart for a few extra ingredients.

That's me in the right corner, seeing what there is to see. lol

Time to make dinner for Tristan and his friends. Beef Bourguignon in the Instant Pot. Felt bad for Tristan as he had such a bad start to his day.  To solve his tire problem, he bought some sealant to spray on the tire temporarily but has a 2 1/2 hour drive to get back home.

The lads showed up at 5pm and dinner was ready at 6pm. Good thing I remembered how much 22 year olds eat and made a ton (4 pounds of chuck roast). Very little left for Ray's leftovers lol

Sam, Abe and Tristan

 Very thankful lads having 2 bowls each of dinner. :)

Meanwhile, Kristi, Jason, Garrett and Kat were enjoying a wonderful meal at our favourite restaurant in Lake Cowichan, The Farm Table Inn. Thanks for the picture Garrett.

Our wonderful family.

At 6:30pm we left them outside with our propane campfire and Ray and I came for the night. As army guys they just sleep on the ground, no chairs etc. so were very thankful for our setup to have a chair to sit in and warmth from the propane campfire. Their momma's raised these boys right. Very respectful, a pleasure to have around.

I am glad I suggested to the lads to sleep between the two cars as I did not want them run over. It was too dark to find another camping spot after dinner. As it turned out they were happy to be sleeping between our two cars as it became really busy here last night. People camped all around us when we woke up this morning. Someone's dog even came within three feet to the boys last night, and started barking so they threw a rock at it to chase it away.

Sunday, February 16th

Another gorgeous morning. The lads were up early, probably because it was so cold out at 32F. At 7 am Tristan tried starting his bike but it was still too cold. We may have to jump him again or Abe and Sam since they are here with the car. They tried to start it again but no luck so borrowed our jumper cables and started the bike using the boys car. I think Tristan now will have to spend more money getting a new battery. Poor kid. $$$ floating out of his pocket on this bike like crazy. It seems to be a "fair weather" ride only. Hopefully heading back to Camp Pendleton later today is okay. At least I know he has AAA to call if he runs into any problems and if he is still in this area he has our number.

Ray has been feeling a little under the weather and I think his cold may have returned from the Quartzsite Grunge we had. We had this cold since middle of January. I am fine but he got almost better and now feeling sick again. Hopefully this passes soon. Usually it is me that stays sick longer, not him.

A rather quiet day just sitting around watching the traffic coming and going around us.

Monday, February 17th

Quiet breezy overnight. The coach rocked a couple of times with our flag pole deployed. Crappy night for me listening to Ray cough and sneeze and snore, and Freya seems to have caught a bug or something and she makes the sound like she is gagging to clear her throat several times through the night. This started yesterday morning. I think it will be inevitable that I get sick again. :)

Today we decided to go back into Joshua Tree NP and do the Barker Dam trail. It is short easy trail that also has some petroglyphs.

From Google:

The flat, 1.25-mile loop starts next door to the Wall Street Mill trailhead near Hidden Valley. The dam it leads to was completed by Joshua Tree rancher legend William F. Keys in 1949 and now provides a rare supply of freshwater for resident fauna. It may be the best spot in the park to spot desert bighorn sheep, and probably the only place where you’ll see coots, mallards, grebes, and herons. Scramble up some boulders to get a better vantage point, which will also include creosote, pinyon pines, desert willows, and the small white blooms of the desert tobacco flower. After the dam, the trail descends slightly into an open flatland, dotted with Joshua trees, yucca, and a variety of cacti.

When you reach the trail junction, head straight toward a large overhanging boulder. You’ll quickly see its bold, colorful glyphs. Beautiful? Yes. Authentic? Only sort of. It seems that a Disney film crew painted over the originals in order to make them “pop” on screen for the 1961 nonclassic, Chico the Misunderstood Coyote. It’s what we now call vandalism.

More rock fence

Nothing but mud left behind the dam right now.

The next two pics should show a bunch of water.

Oh there it is, one little puddle of water with three ducks floating.

You can see by the stripes on the rock how high the water usually sits.

Backside of the dam

Water trough with no water

Great flat, maintained trails.

Mt. Gorginio in the distance.

Then we came upon the display of petroglyphs.

This walk only took us 50 minutes even with Ray taking pictures so it is doable for anyone. Once back at the car we decided to take the long way home coming back via the highway at Twentynine Palms so I could see more of the park. It actually seemed smaller than I remembered it 5 or 6 years ago when we were last here, but then again we did not go into every road and look as we did last time.

The rest of the afternoon was spent sitting outside. Temps were only about 68F so with the breeze you were able to sit in the sunshine.

A great 4 days here. Tomorrow it's jacks up and off to see the Pacific Ocean in Newport Beach,