"Motel Camping" in the Desert

High Desert Weekend Trip-log #7
Palmdale, CA - Sun, 27 Mar, 2002. 8am

Years ago Hawk and I coined the term "motel camping". It has been an in-joke between us. "Are you thinking we'll go camping on this weekend trip?" one of us, usually Hawk, would ask the other. "I'm thinking 'motel camping'," the other, often I, would reply.

The euphemism was more tongue-in-cheek when we were younger. Camping, actual in-a-tent camping, was something we did more often. As we've grown older our backs aren't as happy about sleeping with only a few layers between us and the ground. Plus, we're better off financially now than we were in our 20s. Sleeping on a bed when we travel not only makes a big difference, it's a luxury we can afford.



Speaking of luxury, the hotel we've been staying at in Palmdale isn't exactly luxury. To be fair, it's a Holiday Inn. I didn't expect luxury; just serviceable comfort. Especially here in the Antelope Valley an hour northeast of Los Angeles, on the eastern edge of the Mojave Desert. Here even upper middle class seems 1%-ish.

The hotel definitely has a bed. A fairly nice one, too. Just not luxury. 😅

Though they did pull out the stops for us. They upgraded us to a suite.



That means in addition to the separate (small) sleeping room shown in the first picture, we had the large sitting area shown above. I got the complimentary upgrade because I'm a platinum elite with IHG. Last year IHG was (surprisingly) my go-to hotel chain.

I certainly appreciated the upgrade this time. The sofa was a great place to sit when I was relaxing yesterday evening. We haven't used the desk at all on this stay, but the extra space for doing work is a thing we always appreciate as Hawk often has to do a few hours of work on these weekend trips. Oh, and the suite has a balcony....



The view from the balcony, one of exurbs-meet-desert, isn't one to write home about. Though I guess it is a better view than the view out the window at the previous suite upgrade I caught at a Holiday Inn Express off the Las Vegas Strip. Even so, while I didn't spend time gazing at this view I did enjoy having a sliding glass door to open for fresh desert air last night and again this morning.

Motel camping is definitely the way to camp. 🤣

Hiking Red Rock Canyon State Park

High Desert Weekend Trip-log #8
Hagen Canyon, CA - Sun, 27 Mar, 2002. 10am

Red Rock Canyon State Park is a hidden gem in California. It's right along State Highway 14, so it's easy to find, but at the same time it's easy to miss. It's on a remote stretch of a remote highway between... well, hither and yon. If you're driving from L.A. to Death Valley, you'll go straight past it. For anything else it's out of the way. And it's small. Blink while zooming along Hwy. 14 at 75mph and you'll miss it.

Red Rock first hit my radar screen years ago, probably during an aforementioned trip to Death Valley (or environs) when we lived in L.A. in the early 00s.

"What's that cool looking red rocks area we just zoomed past?" I wondered as we zoomed past it. A check on a map once we got home identified the park, and I put it on my list.

We've been here definitely once before, maybe twice. We didn't go hiking, though. One of the problems is that it's in the high desert, where weather is extreme. In the winter it's cold, even freezing. In the summer it's blazing hot. Coming here in late March it was a balmy 85°.



The views at Red Rock Canyon State Park start even before you hit the hiking trail. The bluff in the picture above is along the access road from the highway to the park visitors center. The yellow, orange, and red sandstone layers are fascinating, as are the the softer layers in between them showing erosion in the form of those column shapes.

We didn't come here just to gawk at rocks from the roadside, of course. Right after we explored the area 50' off the road in the picture above we laced up our hiking boots for a trek on the Hagen Canyon Nature Trail.



There were 5-6 cars other than our parked at the trailhead but thankfully not too many people on the trail. On the first leg of it we saw, like, one other group, a trio of young adults. I took a picture of them at the rock formation above. Then I waited for them to leave before taking pictures of my own. 😂 The area's off trail but it's easy to cross the slickrock over to it. And it's not terribly hard to climb up and around the back of the formation.



We climbed up and around another small formation, too. This one got us a better view of the basin the trail loops around in, not to mention a better perspective on one of the red rock bluffs. Off to the right of this frame there's a narrows dropping down from higher ground. It's off trail, but we'll explore it and see how far we can go. We've got plenty of water, the right equipment for hiking and a bit of rock-scrambling, and experience doing this sort of thing, so we're not worried.

How far will we go? Stay tuned! (Hint: we get all the way to the top of that bluff!)

Update: Keep reading in part 2!