Cities and crowds, sigh… these bustling human conditions are NOT why we travel; our getaways are largely getting away from civilization and dense population areas.

That said, we occasionally find a reason to travel “amongst the masses”, and the 2021 Holidays were just such a motivation. Our plan was to make a series of visits to family and friends, and then, after the end of Christmas and New Years, wander off into the southern deserts. And… we kinda did that…

THE FREEZE

Our first modification in plans was when the cold spell hit us just before Christmas. Daytime temps barely hit the 40F’s, and nights were well below freezing. It’s hard to manage Howie when boondocking in cold temps; a LOT of power from batteries and propane is used to stay comfortable. In addition, we find ourselves “hiding indoors” from the frigid winds.

So we ended up staying longer than expected at relatives’ (sorry folks), before finally heading further south to visit friends in (finally) warmer climes.

SOUTHWARD

Leaving the Fresno area late, we “arrived” at an impromptu overnighter, Kramer Junction, just about dark. We had driven through there countless times on our way to and from the deserts, and had never really considered ‘staying’ even for a night.

But recently, the CA-58 bypass was completed, and most of the east-west traffic quit going through the Junction. Although the traffic from US-395 still goes through, the density is a tenth of what it used to be. In fact, the eastern roadway is now a dead-end, stopping where the new freeway sweeps across the desert.

As a consequence, what used to be a teeming artery is now a near-dead stub. The old Arco station has disappeared, and a broad, 5-acre gravel pad is nearby. It’s not obvious what its purpose is, or restrictions might be. There is no signage, and multiple RV’s and truckers use it for an overnight sleep. So we did too.

Not exactly “the wide open desert”… but it was dark, quiet, and level. Not to mention free.

From Kramer, it was an easy drive down to Palm Springs, via CA-247 out of Barstow. I like this route; even though it’s a bit longer than going near/through LA, it’s far nicer a trip.

Sadly, there aren’t any boondock spots near enough PS to be reasonable for our visit, and consequently, we stayed at an RV park. Nice enough place, but – like all such venues – jammed shoulder-to-shoulder. Some travelers like us, and also some of the residents were clearly long-term…

… but we stayed only two nights, had a great visit with my long-term(1970) friend John, and on we went to Chula Vista (near San Diego), to see my old college buddy Mike (1964) and some of his family.

I was NOT excited to be traveling so close to the Mexican border; I had a poor experience many years ago, accidentally crossing over and taking HOURS to get back to the USA. It can’t be any better these days, what with the screening for drug-runners and people-coyotes. Anyway, we successfully skirted the border (about a half-mile away) and arrived at our destination.

Again, an RV park, this one a “Resort”, with swimming pool, food/bar, gym, cottages-to-rent, and walking pathways along San Diego Bay… and priced accordingly, Ouch. We had a back-in concrete flat spot, clean and tidy — and the nearby 5th-wheel was literally five feet from Howie’s right-rear corner. Cozy.

But it was super-easy for us all to meet up, and we had a great time “catching up”, happy hours, walk-and-talks and even an evening “campfire” at the propane-fueled fire pit near their cottage.

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ANZA-BORREGO

Done with our “visit agenda”, we launched across the back roads towards Anza-Borrego State Park. Several days before, on the way into Chula Vista, we had seen literally miles of RV’s waiting to leave the Park after New Years’ weekend; we were hoping for smaller crowds, and it worked out well.

The back roads took far longer than using main highways, but it’s so much more rewarding (for us) to travel this way. Small villages, farms, ranches, and the general countryside were quite pleasant after multiple days “in town”.

Reaching the southwest boundary, we drove through the main body of the Park, and headed toward what looked on the maps like a good spot to set up base camp.

We cut through Borrego Springs and headed slowly east on the main access road from Salton Sea. After some brief exploring, we chose a spot about a mile off the highway and 50+ yards off the access dirt road. We had arrived on a Tuesday, and we had little company, a lot of peace and quiet, and a distant view of the desert and Salton Sea. Later in the day, a great desert sunset. Not too bad.

With this amenable launching point (including 3 bars of 4G!!), we used several days to explore the Park, in all directions. Jayk is comfy on the fastest of highways, and the most miserable of back roads, so we made sure to sample several of each.

AB is a BIG park, almost 586,000 acres (915 square miles). There’s a lot to explore and a lot to see, from the remote canyons and badlands to the amazing metal sculptures in Borrego Springs. This visit, our wanderings covered mostly the northern areas.

OFF-ROAD TRAVELS

Anza-Borrego is made for off-roading. There are several hundred miles of dirt tracks of varying character, covering every portion of the Park. And it’s obviously popular — every single road is VERY well traveled, beat to dust in fact. The roads that connect to the OHV areas are worn, dusty, and have huge berms built up in the turns, from the voluminous motorcycle and ATV traffic. Even given the (strict) restrictions established by the Parks service, it’s an enormous area for running a motorcycle, ATV, or 4×4.

Due to the widely varying terrain, the roads range from deep dust or sand, to steep, rocky inclines, a few deep water crossings, and endless sand-wash valleys and canyons.

Really, it’s an off-roader’s paradise. We had a grand time in our “off-season”, which is to say not a Holiday and not a weekend. Nearer the weekends, the traffic builds up to where the dust is just gagging, and all the fun kinda melts away. More like a dusty Disneyland E-ticket ride than a genuine desert experience.

Due to those crowds, the Park is highly regulated. Absolutely NO travel is tolerated off designated roads. But there are a lot of designated roads, more than we could explore in a week, so this is not a severe limitation. Bonus? — Surprisingly, the whole Park is pretty clean, very little trash, even in the densely-camped OHV areas. Nice to see that.

Speaking of regulations, several features in the Park are admission-only; check the web site before you go. One of the unpleasant surprises was that Visitor Center parking was must-pay (even for a short visit or to use the restroom), $10. Wow. And, as we found out later, Park regulations are strictly enforced. STRICTLY.

SEVENTEEN PALMS & PUMPKIN PATCH

Southwest of our camp a bunch of dirt-road miles is the old oasis of Seventeen Palms. There do appear to be well over seventeen of the big plants, but who’s counting? Except for OCD engineers of course.

Other than the stately, shaggy palms, there’s not much going on. You drive up, park, walk around, and that’s about it. No camping here either, true of any of the popular destinations.

The palms are not “groomed” or maintained, they just grow wild. The bare trunks are from natural shedding; shorter trees still have the folded-down dead leaves. They look kinda soft and furry, but those dry fronds are like feathers made from hardwood. Not to be messed with.

Farther down the sandwash canyon, the Pumpkin Patch shows what can happen with geodiversity. These globs of rock cover several acres of desert, and you have read the signage to understand how they’re formed.

BORREGO SPRINGS

Borrego Springs is a pleasant, tidy little desert town that has consistently re-invented itself over time. Originally “booming” with the advent of Salton Sea tourism, it nearly disappeared when the Lake crashed. However, they’ve managed to be creative and survive off Park visitation, some retirees, and the local economy. There’s a smattering of stores and shops, a great ice cream shop, markets, gas stations, a 9-hole “championship” golf course (there’s an oxymoron) and of course the Park headquarters.

Not to be missed is the fantastic collection of giant metal sculptures north of town. These were commissioned by Dennis Avery, and Ricardo Braceta artfully hand-crafted 135 or so monumentally impressive “beasts” and figures over the course of several years. Officially called the Galeta Meadows Sculpture Garden, the rusty-brown structures are scattered over a square mile or so of land. There is no fencing, no admission fee, no docent or guide. Get some info off the web before you go; it’s even more enjoyable when you know some background. (I’ve documented this more fully in earlier posts, just search my blog for “metal sculpture”).

COYOTE CANYON

All of the places we visited (except for the metal sculptures) required some degree of off-roading to achieve… but none more than the sights of Coyote Canyon. Leading northwest out of the edge of Borrego Springs, the Canyon winds through some of the most rocky terrain we’ve ever explored. Jayk the Jeep was bouncing and heaving to the point of blurred vision in some stretches. In between the bone-rattling sections, the road winds through sandy valleys and stream crossings, accompanied by clumps of palms and willows in three different major groups. With astonishing creativity, these are named Lower Willows, Middle Willows, and Upper Willows.

Some sections were downright torturous… yes, we drove this one.

…and this one…

…but this was just too brushy, so we hiked it.

Although the road through Coyote Canyon travels only 20 miles or so, we did not cover the entire route. Getting to the Lower Willows, only 7 miles, took us nearly 2 hours; we had an afternoon start, and it didn’t make sense to get stuck on THAT road in the dark. It deserves a full day (one-way) — next time.

FONT’S POINT

Near the middle of the Park is an easily-accessible, high vantage point, Font’s Point. It overlooks much of the terrain to the south, and affords an appreciation of the geology in a very visceral way.

It’s such a grand visual sweep, I took some rare Panorama photos to try to capture it. Try to get these up to full-screen size to see the full impact.

There’s no camping at Font’s point, and nowhere else to go onward from the cliffs’ edges – so we gawked and gazed, took our pictures, and headed back to camp.

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BUSTED

After four days exploring, we were wondering whether to tough it through a crowded weekend, and stay for more exploration, or just boogie off into another part of the southern desert. Friday night came around, more people were showing up, and we still hadn’t made up our minds, so we slept on it.

Slept, that is, until 9:30PM, when Howie shuddered with a pounding fist and the shouted announcement,
”CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS!!!!!” Blurry with sleep, I peered out the side window… who knows who might have been impersonating authorities, to gain access? But no, there was a big F350 pickup, flashing lights, and a kevlar-vested Ranger, with side-arm, standing outside our door.

We all, in our travels, have our paranoias… varying concerns about getting rousted in the middle of the night. Perhaps by outlaw gangs, or rowdy neighbors, or… Park Rangers. Well, we thought, what did we do wrong?

I hastily donned some pants, jacket, shoes, and stepped outside to have a “conversation”.

The Ranger was polite, but dictatorially firm. An obscure little paragraph in the Park Regulations says that you are allowed to camp anywhere – as long as it is within ONE VEHICLE LENGTH of the access road. (This is so opposite to the BLM rules with which we’re familiar, it just didn’t even register with us.)

We were WAY outside the one-vehicle-length limit, and we would have to move. Wanting to understand more fully, I asked him to show me on the map where we’d gone wrong, and he must have mistaken my query for resistance. “You know, this is an arrestable offense”, he cautioned me darkly, “But I don’t want to go there”.

Well, I can imagine he wouldn’t want to “go there” – the specter of two septuagenarians, in handcuffs, being marched into Park Headquarters in the dead of night, was almost too much for Karin. She told me later that she had to choke back her laughter; a wise decision, I’m sure.

“So”, I said to him, “We need to leave, right?”

He responded that we could finish staying the night, but must leave immediately the next morning. We were obviously relieved. He also said that “our penalty” for the infraction was to have to clean up our tracks. “Huh?”, I said. “How do we do that?”, thinking he was going to command us to go into town and buy a garden rake or some such. He was obviously acting as self-appointed judge, jury, and executioner, but I wasn’t complaining because he was not arresting us (hah!) or even writing a ticket. But just as obviously, he hadn’t thought much about the “penalty”, and he started to improvise.

“Well, you could kick dirt over the tracks or use a broom”. Then, in a kind of capitulation, “Just do the best you can”.

Well, we went back to a kind of fitful sleep, and passed the night without further incident. We were curious about the two other vehicles within sight of our camp, both of which were also far outside the one-length limit… but we were too tire to stay up and peek out the windows to watch THEM get rousted.

The next morning, we got up around 6AM, had some breakfast, and did some “trip planning”. Although we could easily have just moved close to the road, we didn’t fancy being right next to the impending weekend traffic increase. That, combined with the night-time visit, pretty much soured us for staying in the Park.

I grabbed our teeny little broom, and set about sweeping dirt over the sizeable tracks left by Howie’s 35” AT tires.

Turns out, the damn F350 left considerably more terrain damage than anything that we did. But after about a half-hour of kicking and sweeping, we felt that we’d met our penance, and we boogied down the road.

Anza-Borrego certainly has a lot to offer, and the big crowds can be avoided with good planning. The regulations are a bit annoying, but not oppressive. All that said, I’m not sure when we’re going back. There’s a LOT of desert out in the Southwest, some we’ve seen, some we haven’t. We’ll likely just do what we always do – figure out our destination(s) as we go.

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During our time away, we had discovered an important “agenda” waiting at home, so, rather than continue off into other desert regions, we jogged back up through Barstow, overnighted at Tehachapi, and arrived home two days after our late-night “adventure”. Stories to tell, laughs to be had…

Life is good.

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