More Desert Adventures!

February was Palm Springs (some of January), Joshua Tree NP, Death Valley NP, Shoshone, CA, the Beatty, NV to Badwater, CA (B2B) 170-mile backpacking trek through the desert and a wonderfully luxurious stay at the 1930s “Furnace Creek Inn,” now known as The Oasis at Death Valley.

Thank you (!) Cathy and Kim for letting us make your Palm Springs house our home base for more desert exploring. Super fun!! What a treat!!

Palm Springs, CA

  • The Palm Springs' Neighborhood

    Cathy and Kim’s neighbors heard of our use of the house and were super welcoming. …and they got tours of the camper van! It is suburbia, but - - it too has amazing desert sunsets.

  • Palm Springs is for Foodies

    Take-out options are not lacking in Palm Springs. The quality of food in this town is impressive.

  • 80-Year Old Airplanes Still Flying

    The Palm Springs Airport museum has one of the largest WWII air-worthy airplane museums in the world. And on the weekends, they are in the air! https://photos.app.goo.gl/3FKkH6WPDWSJvZXMA

Joshua Tree National Park is vast, rugged, and beautiful.

Joshua Tree National Park

  • Camping in Joshua Tree

    We camped in Joshua Tree for a week moving campsites every day. The park is big (!) so daily moves allowed us to see more without doubling back to a campsite

  • 1,200 Square Miles, Larger than Rhode Island

    Almost half of the park is designated “wilderness” and is very rugged mountainous terrain. Below is a Cholla Cactus Garden.

  • Big Rocks!

    Big rocks everywhere. An overview of the park: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Tree_National_Park And a 2-minute video of how the big rocks came to be: https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/nature/geologicformations.htm

Joshua Tree National Park

  • 4-Wheel'n In Joshua Tree

    This road was quite the adventure. Bec successfully marshaled Em over some rough terrain with nothing touching down. Very happy we took that 2.5 days of 4-wheel drive training with Jonathan! Helped immensely.

  • Gusting 40+ mph

    After some 3 hours of exploring in and around Old Dale road, we got hit with wind gusting 40+ mph. We decided to camp at the park boundary; pic below at sunrise; still blowing. It calmed down by noon and off we were to our next campground on level ground; below is worth a look, go Bec go! https://photos.app.goo.gl/zWyDL8qw6ctjZKu77

  • Cactus Flowers

    A very fun week in the park and we barely scraped the surface. Gunna have to come back.

Death Valley: The Amargosa River

 

Yup, we actually camped “in” the Amargosa River. And yup, we checked the weather, no rain (flash floods!) for 10 days.

 
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The welcoming commitee.

Realy? Wild burros? Yup. They are too fun. Gave these burrows small pieces of two cut-up pairs; they were clearly happy about that!

Death Valley Wild Burros

The Judies and the B2B

Judy P and Judy D backpacked 170+ miles from Beatty, NV to Badwater, CA.

The B2B Overview, maps and what it’s all about.

Shoshone, CA

This town of 31 people was home base for us over the 2+ weeks we delivered moral support to the Judies on their B2B hike and as we did some exploring in the area for the next 2 weeks. They even have a pupfish sanctuary! Click the button below for more info and look here for a backgrounder on the town and the Shoshone’s patron, Susan Sorrells. Thank you Susan and Robbie for being so welcoming!

Shoshone Village
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March 2022: Furnace Creek Inn and Anza Borrego
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January 2022: 4WD Training, El Camino del Diablo, CO River Basin