<![CDATA[Amateur Radio, Traveling in Blanquillo AND MORE - 2018 So.California]]>Fri, 15 May 2026 10:27:38 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[November, 2018, trip to southern California]]>Tue, 04 Dec 2018 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.dornbush.net/2018-socalifornia/november-2018-trip-to-southern-californiaIn November and early December, we traveled to Burbank to have Thanksgiving with our son, Justin.  After Thanksgiving, we continued to visit parks in the California desert: Anza Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave Desert National Preserve, Death Valley National Park, and Red Rock Canyon State Park.  This map shows our travels.  I made it with APRS, an amateur radio service where I transmit our position as we travel and then pick up the locations on a map service when we return, and make a map as you see here.  Since it is amateur radio, no Internet service is needed while we travel.
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]]><![CDATA[Death Valley National Park]]>Sat, 01 Dec 2018 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.dornbush.net/2018-socalifornia/death-valley-national-parkPicture
On November 28 - December 1, 2018, we camped at Death Valley National Park in the Furnace Creek Campground.  We had made plans far enough in advance to get a site with full hookups.  Since it was winter, it wasn't really hot but it was nice to have the hookups.

We drove through Mojave National Preserve to get here, and discovered that the visitor center, a really nice restored train station, was closed because they aren't open on Wednesdays.  The budget cutbacks keep taking their toll.
We did have to dodge some weather while we were here.  There was a threat of rain the entire time we were here, but it didn't interfere with our visit.  Since this was not our first visit, we saw many of the places we had seen on the last visit, but the scenery is so beautiful that it is worth visiting again.  The valley south of the visitor center is quite spectacular, and we did go a few places we had not gone before.  We took a ranger led walk in Golden Canyon.  We learned from another tourist that some scenes from Star Wars were filmed here.  We could imagine R2D2 rolling along.

The highlight of our visit this time was taking the road through Titus Canyon.  This is a 4 wheel drive, high clearance one way road, and it is serious.  We had serious fun taking the Jeep down the road.  When we were about through the road, I realized that we had our dash camera going, so we had captured the trip as a movie.  You won't see it here but ask.

Scotty's Castle is still closed because of the flash flood a few years ago.  They are rebuilding it so that it can hopefully withstand a similar flood if/when it happens again.
]]><![CDATA[Joshua Tree National Park]]>Wed, 28 Nov 2018 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.dornbush.net/2018-socalifornia/joshua-tree-national-parkPicture
In November 26-27, 2018, we camped at Joshua Tree National Park in Jumbo Rocks Campground, site 25.  I was just looking around a few days before we left on our trip and just happened to see that Jumbo Rocks had started taking reservations.  Fortunately, I was able to get a spot that could accommodate a trailer.  Not all sites in Jumbo Rocks can.  Many are walk-in sites for tents.
We came in the southern entrance and learned that they had had a severe storm a while back, and the entrance road was one-way for a short while.  There was other damage around the Cottonwood  visitor center and campground (closed) but we were headed to Jumbo Rocks.

We traveled up the Pinto Basin Road to Jumbo Rocks and found a lot of other people with RVs and trailers looking for a site, so we were glad we had ours.  We had to turn around in a very narrow spot on the campground road so we could have our door on the non-street side of the site.

After setting up camp, we hiked around Skull Rock.  The next day, we visited places we have seen before and wanted to see again: Cholla Cactus Garden, Arch Rock, Hidden Valley, Keys View.  They are always worth another visit.  We wanted to see Split Rock but it was closed.
]]><![CDATA[Anza-Borrego Desert State Park]]>Fri, 23 Nov 2018 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.dornbush.net/2018-socalifornia/anza-borrego-desert-state-parkPicture
We visited Anza-Borrego Desert State Park for the first time on November 23-25, 2018.  It is located southeast of Los Angeles, so after spending Thanksgiving in Burbank, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to then go to Anza-Borrego.

As someone recently said, the desert is not flat.  This certainly is true in Anza-Borrego.  In reading online about how to get to Anza-Borrego from Los Angeles, several people commented about the steepness and curves in taking route S22 to Borrego Palm Canyon campground, so we took the long way around through Palm Springs and route 86.  I should have known better.  We have been over the Sierra Nevada mountains through some gnarly mountain passes, and this was considerably shorter although it was about as steep as the mountain passes.  It turned out fine though, as we made it to our campground just after dark and we easily got into our camp site 013.  ​
The next day, we visited the visitor center and the volunteer suggested we hike to Big Spring along S22.  That's how we know what S22 was like.  We never found the trail to Big Spring and in doing more research, found there was no trail to it, but you have to just hike to it.  Not our style of hiking.  We went instead on the Borrego Palm Canyon Trail which goes to a large palm grove.  It is a desert, so we hiked up a dry, dusty canyon and arrived at a palm grove oasis.  You know why they are called oases when you walk through a barren land and there you are in a grove of palm trees.

The Slot is a short hike through a slot canyon.  We drove up a dirt road to the trailhead, hiked down into the slot canyon and then walked through the canyon to the other end.  In between, you are in a canyon with nearly vertical walls and narrow enough that I had to scrape my backpack on the canyon wall to get through the narrow part.  Fortunately, there were not a lot of people in the canyon as it was hard to pass at some points.  And no rain.  I wouldn't want to be there when it rained.

We drove down a 4 wheel drive dirt road (yes, we finally have a 4 wheel drive high clearance vehicle, our Jeep Grand Cherokee) called Fonts Wash to Fonts Point.  It overlooks the Borrego Badlands which is a desolate place not good for any people use.

The park also provided a brochure on the Erosion Road.  This is the road going east from our campground along S22 to Salton City and route 86.  This was the road we took as entered the park at night.  What a difference daylight provided!  We were able to see why someone had commented that the first lesson of the desert is that the desert is not flat.  We saw mountains, washes, dry lakes, badlands, and more.

We explored just a little of Anza Borrego Desert State Park.  There is much more to see, as this is California's largest state park.
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