Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

5 Days in the Desert travelog #23
Barstow, CA - Tue, 27 Dec 2022, 8pm

I mentioned at the start of this 5 Days in the Desert trip that we'd be "motel camping". That's meant 5 nights at the Hampton Inn in Barstow. It's a comfortable midscale hotel. Most Hamptons usually are. And we bought this stay on points, including a 5th-night-free bonus. Gotta use those gobs of Hilton Honors points I earn somehow!

One of many things I like about Hiltons is the digital key system. You can check in to your room via the app and get a digital room key, all without ever having to visit the front desk. The digital key allows you to unlock the door from your app when you're standing within a few feet of it.



Other hotel chains have a similar feature. Marriott does, for example. But Marriott's sucked last time I tried using it 3 months ago. It could only open the room door, not the building's outside doors. And there was no way to get Hawk a digital key. So we both had physical keys (well, plastic key-cards) because Marriott's digital key is still just a toy. With Hilton the digital key can open the building, not just the room, and it has a smooth feature for sharing the key among roommates.

I first learned about the sharing feature when traveling with a friend a few months ago. I was skeptical at first, but he already knew the sharing thing worked and showed me. I became a convert when it saw that it worked. This trip Hawk was the skeptical one. I showed her, and she became a convert once she saw it worked, too.

The digital key hasn't been all smooth sailing, though. Although it's worked flawlessly on my past few Hilton trips I've had several failures this trip. The other night when the app said there was an error retrieving the key. Last night my app got stuck "requesting" the key for 12 hours. Tonight both Hawk and I got "You've been logged out" from the app & had it wait for it to log us back in. I don't know if these errors are due to something at the property level or a recent buggy update in the app.

5 Days in the Desert travelog #21
Newberry Springs, CA - Mon, 26 Dec 2022, 3pm

After lunch we crossed down from the I-15 corridor to the I-40 corridor, heading out to Pisgah Crater. Rather than cruise along I-40 with the truckers we opted to drive Route 66. The two roads run parallel in this area, sometimes lbarely 50 feet apart.

Route 66 is in some ways even more sedate than I-40. The road isn't as flat, and the speed limit is lower, but it's even less crowded than the already pretty calm I-40. In fact Route 66 is so uncrowded that we were able to stop in the road to take pictures!



What's the fuss about Route 66? It became part of American culture in the mid 20th century. The road, built in the 1920s, connected Chicago to Los Angeles. It factored into people migrating west during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era; it was name-checked in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. From 1945 through the 1960s it came to represent post-war optimism and the American freedom of mobility, where one could just pack a few bags and drive 2,500 miles away without papers or plans to start a new life.

Today Route 66 is an artifact of a bygone era, a thing still worshiped by aging Baby Boomers but little more than a curiosity to younger generations. The road's use was overtaken starting in the late 1960s with the built-out of the interstate highway system in the US. It was officially decommissioned in 1985. By then businesses that flourished with travelers in early decades were already drying up. The classic Pixar movie Cars tells this story.

BTW, no, Newberry Springs, near where we took this picture, is not the pattern for Cars's fictional setting of Radiator Springs. The movie's setting is explicitly in Arizona; and the red-rocks landscape reflects that. Plus, Newberry Springs is way tinier than Radiator Springs. It's basically two gas stations on I-40.

5 Days in the Desert travelog #19
Afton Canyon, CA - Mon, 26 Dec 2022, 1pm

Not long after leaving an impressive but unnamed side canyon off the Mojave River, we arrived at Spooky Canyon.



We knew where it was because the friendly guy back at Afton Camp had a guidebook that identified the distance from camp (3.8 miles), the number of the railroad bridge (194.65), and even had a picture so we knew to look for a low, short trestle like you can see above. In fact as we were driving up the canyon we crossed paths with 4x4er coming down from the east. He had the same guidebook and recommended we visit. He had questions for us, too, BTW. He was happy to hear that the water crossings further west were passable.



We headed up into the narrows of Spooky Canyon. After the serendipity of the previous, unnamed side canyon we explored, Spooky Canyon felt... not very special. And totally not spooky. "What's so spooky about this?" became and in-joke Hawk and I tossed back and forth.



Okay, so apparently what's so spooky about Spooky Canyon is that... wait for this... it gets dark at the back. There's a cave. You need flashlights.

Whatever.

I mean, it's still beautiful. It's just that we felt a greater sense of awe, not to mention delved about 10x deeper, in that unnamed side canyon we found for ourselves.

5 Days in the Desert travelog #17
Afton Canyon, CA - Mon, 26 Dec 2022, 11am

Today we decided to do another combination 4x4/hiking trek in the Mojave Desert. We drove east of Barstow to Afton Canyon and down to the Mojave River, where the Mojave Road follows the course of the river through the canyon.



There's an element of revenge travel to this particular trek. We visited here years ago, back in '03 or '04, also in the month of December. It was bitter cold when we camped at night. One, I'm glad we're "motel camping" this trip. Two, on that trip I looked at crossing the Mojave River in my Jeep Cherokee 4x4 and I chickened out. Oh, we still explored up the canyon a bit, but we were limited to how far we could walk. I've been wanting to go back... go back and cross the river.

I checked online for trail conditions. Searchable information online is kind of sparse compared to what I recall finding years ago. I think a lot of it has disappeared behind membership logins. Of course, it's hard to figure out which forums are worth joining when you can't see the quality of the discussions beforehand. Anyway, what little I did find indicated the river crossing should be managable unless it's rained recently... which it hasn't.

In addition I checked with a knowledgeable local we met in the campground near the river. He said the crossing was good and offered to help us pull back out if we got stuck. Here's a video from our crossing:


To be continued....

5 Days in the Desert travelog #15
Cima, CA - Sun, 25 Dec 2022, 5pm

I left off in my last blog entry with us descending into the bowels of the earth after an hour+ long drive to the remote lava tubes in Mojave National Preserve. I decided that after all that effort I would not be deterred by having to crawl on my hands and knees a bit, so in I went.



Well, I didn't have to crawl right away. The entryway (above) was tall enough that I could pretty much stand and walk as I carefully lowered myself down the jagged rocks. Not far inside, though....



The ceiling dropped low, not much more than 3 feet high. "Is this the end?" we wondered.

Hawk delved deeper as she was able to navigate under the low ceiling merely by bending over and squatting. It opened up again after 10 feet or so.

"C'mon," she said. "It's worth it!"



On the other side of the low ceiling was this fairly sizable chamber. Overhead are three windows to the outside. Two are obvious at the top of the picture (above), split by a small arch. The third is at the far end of the chamber, where you can see an orange light filtering down. We'd seen the split window along the trail on the surface as we walked to the tube entrance but not the smaller window.

Good new/bad news: While this chamber was a great find, the lava tube definitely ended here. And the other direction from the ladder ended in about 15' with nothing but a pile of rubble from a collapsed roof. Oh, but there was one other thing on the way out....



This rock struck me as looking something like a geode. Well, not a geode because those aren't crystals hanging down from the topside. It's a volcanic rock shell with some smoother minerals on the underside.

Speaking of underside, it was time to leave the underside of the earth and get back to its surface.

We returned to the car and picked our way carefully down the lava 4x4 trail. Back at the Subaru parking area we met another pair of visitors arriving— in a Subaru— and chatted with them about road conditions. We'd seen them arriving from the opposite direction and wanted to know how passable routes other than the Mojave Road (link to my YouTube video) are.

It turned out to be a two-way exchange of information... like the best 4x4 backcountry conversations are. Our new acquaintances were Chinese visitors who spoke limited English. But their English was better than my extremely limited Chinese.

I unfolded a paper map and used that to help frame our halting conversation. They'd come from the north on different roads than we took from the east. Their route was obviously passable, though they warned they had to drive slowly, like 5mph in some difficult parts, and never faster tha 15mph in the best parts. I cast a side eye toward their Subaru and figured that we'd do better than that. In exchange, I explained for them how to drive the Mojave Road. They were using only Google Maps on a phone... and there really wasn't any signal out here, miles from the nearest paved road.

We parted ways; they went toward the cave while we started north.



Right away the road was smoother than the Mojave Road. It was graded dirt and did not have those whoop-de-doos (YouTube video link) that had forced us to keep our speed down— otherwise we'd have been looking like stunt drivers from The Dukes of Hazzard!

There was one tough part about a mile out where we climbed a rocky hill navigating past a mostly defunct mine. Our capable 4x4 walked it. After that it was smooth sailing. We picked up a route following along utility lines (pic above). That confirmed we were headed the right way. If in doubt, follow the telephone lines back to civilization!

5 Days in the Desert travelog #13
Kelso, CA - Sun, 25 Dec 2022, 2pm

In the middle of the Mojave National Preserve, in the middle of the desert, is a beautiful train station. It was built in 1924 in a Spanish Revival style. ...So it looks like a certain building memorialized in a classic, classic rock song. Trains still pass by on the active rails, but the station hasn't seen a passenger in probably more than 50 years.



A big depot was built out here back in the 1920s as part of the infrastructure for steam locomotives. The Cima Grade to the east has a rise of 2.2% over 19 miles. That's too steep for steam locomotives pulling a full train to ascend. The depot was built as a base of operations for "helper engines", locomotives that would join the train to help pull it up the grade.

Servicing these helper engines required significant staff: not just pilots but also boiler-makers, mechanics, hostlers, and water tenders. Oh, and there was a water pipeline several miles long to bring lots of water down from springs up in the Providence Mountains. And once you have hundreds of workers in all these various trades housed in the middle of nowhere you also need cooks, housekeepers, plumbers, carpenters, accountants, constables, etc. Plus there was a mine nearby.

The depot saw its heyday during WWII. Not only was the mine running at peak operation to support the war effort and trains busy moving cargo east and west, but passenger trains carrying draftees to ports on the West Coast for deployment to the Pacific theater passed through.

Not long after WWII the depot shut down. ...Not because trains stopped running on the tracks, but because diesel engines replaced steam engines. A diesel locomotive individually isn't as powerful as a steam locomotive (that's what I learned when I visited the California State Railroad Museum, anyway) but diesel engines are much easier to synchronize to run in tandem. Watch any train passing through this area nowadays and you'll see they usually have 3 or even 4 engines.

5 Days in the Desert travelog #11
Kelso, CA - Sun, 25 Dec 2022, 11:30am

It's Christmas! And if you're like us and don't celebrate Christmas you find something else fun to do instead. For us that's going hiking. Especially somewhere warm. How about a desert? We're in the Mojave Desert of California this Christmas. Our Christmas morning hike is at Kelso Dunes.

The Kelso Dunes are a field of sand dunes that reach a height of about 650 feet above the surrounding terrain. Yes, that's tall for sand dunes. They're not quite the tallest in North America, though. The Great Sand Dunes in Colorado reach 750 feet tall. But at 650' these are still darn tall. It's obvious from the trailhead 1.5 miles from the peak, that's a lot of sand.



Rather than start with a shot of the dunes from the base of the trail I'll jump into the middle of the trek. Photographs from the base don't do justice to the awesomess of the spectacle. Instead here's a shot (above) from about 3/4 mile in, where we both said, "Wow! What a great view." The mountains in the distance are the Providence Mountains.

At this point we'd ascended maybe 150 feet, about 1/4 of the elevation to the top. Up to here the climb had been fairly gentle. Past this point it got a bit steeper.

Now it makes sense to show a picture of the tallest dune.



The picture above shows the highest point of the dunes.

As we were trekking up this middle part of the route we weren't sure how far we'd go. There isn't really a trail, per se. There's just the footprints of people who climbed on previous days plus our (considerable) ability to read terrain. We were picking what looked like the most passable route to the top but we weren't sure if it would get too steep or dangerous. And yes, it did get steeper.



"Let's at least get to that saddle point," we agreed. It's a spot between the two highest ridges in the dunes. The pic above shows the lower of those two ridges. Again in the background are the Providence Mountains.

Hawk snapped this pic of me admiring the view in the pic above:



From here we made a decision about whether to press onward. I decided to go at least a little farther, 100 meters or so, as the trail looked easily passable. Hawk was hurting from an unrelated injury exacerbated by plodding through loose sand and thought it'd be better to wait for me.



Now here's a view across the lower expanse of the dune field. It was heartening to see how far we'd already come. The trailhead is at the end of that little sandy spur about 1/3 of the way in and down from the upper-right corner of the frame.

We'd come so far... but the summit still beckoned!

To be continued....

Update: video from the summit in my next blog!

5 Days in the Desert travelog #7
Mojave Preserve, CA - Sat, 24 Dec 2022, 4:15pm

This afternoon we hiked the Rings Trail at Banshee Canyon in Mojave National Preserve. We did it as a two-fer after hiking at Amboy Crater earlier in the day.

As metal as this hike's name sounds (Banshee Canyon? Sign me up!) it was actually our second choice for an afternoon hike. First choice was a cave tour at Mitchell Caverns in Providence Mountains State Park. We weren't able to get a reservation in advance (they only take phone reservations one day per week) so we tried our luck just showing up on Christmas Eve. No luck; the tour was already full. But the ranger there suggested we visit Hole-in-Wall at Mojave National Preserve nearby.



The visitor center at Hole-in-the-Wall has an interesting Old West motif. Being nestled at the base of a colorful set of buttes really helps. The rangers there were fairly helpful and recommended the Rings Loop as a short-ish hike we could do the same afternoon. The trail departed from the far side of the parking lot and looped around those buttes... and up through a slot canyon between two of them.



Compared to all those promises about buttes and slot canyons the trail started off mildly. We followed a sandy wash to an old cattle fence. I'm not sure if there used to be a gate of some kind here (see picture above) but it's been torn open. I'm like, 🎵 Who let the cows out/Who, who, who, moo-moo? 🎵



Sure enough as we rounded the bend, sunlit views of the buttes overhead came into view. On some of these lichen-splashed rocks near the base there are Native rock carvings.



While there are views up the cliffs on one side of the trail there are far-off views across the desert scrub on the other. As we got toward the eponymous Hole in the Wall we passed a small herd of horses grazing on wild grass. Beneath another butte, of course, because high desert terrain.



Just past the horses we caught our first glimpse of the Hole in the Wall. BTW, lots of places in the American West are named "Hole in the Wall". I can think of three places right off the top of my head I've hiked with that name, and I'm sure there are dozens more. Basically anyplace there's, well... a hole in a wall... it's a good bet some 19th century settler was like, "OMG, Hole in the Wall!! Best name EVER!!!"

But this one has a second and third name to live up to. It's Banshee Canyon. That sounds like something worth screaming about, right? And it's the Rings Hike... as in, the trail is so steep there in places there are rings anchored into the rock to help you climb up.

To be continued....

Keep reading: Into Banshee Canyons & Up the Rings!

5 Days in the Desert travelog #6
Amboy, CA - Say, 24 Dec 2022, 12:30pm

In my previous blog I wrote about driving to Amboy Crater in the Mojave Desert. ...Well, driving there and then hiking the first mile or so up to its base. From there it was up, up, up to the top.



That's all volcanic rock on the slope. Most of it is pumice so it's surprisingly light when you pick up a piece... but it's also sharp so you don't want to fool around with it too much. Or trip and fall on it.



The trail enters the side of the crater where it's kind of open. From here paths diverge and you can go into the middle or up around either side of the rim. We decided to loop the rim, taking the left branch first.



Climbing to the ridge was more up, up, up. Not a huge elevation change; remember it's only a few hundred feet vertical from the base to the highest point on the rim. But with this Martian landscape distances seem off.



Once atop the ridge it's still beautiful... in a Martian landscape kind of way.

At places the rim is very narrow, barely 2 feet wide with steep— and sharp— dropoffs on both sides.



Here's a panoramic picture from the top that shows the whole crater. Click the link to expand the picture if it's cropped or low-res on your screen.

In the last pic above you can see lower ridges inside the crater. The volcano here has erupted at least 4 times. The concentric ridges are subsequent eruptions. THe most recent was about 10,000 years ago.

After looping the ridge we headed back down the side— carefully!— and then a mile back across the desert plane to the parking area.

On our drive to our next adventure for the day we passed the town of Amboy. Yes, there is a town called Amboy. It's about a mile east of the crater. And it's a proverbial one-horse town. There are a handful of nondescript buildings around a gas station with two pumps... and the gas is an eye-watering $7.85/gallon. For context, that's more than double what we paid in Barstow ($3.79/gallon) last night.

5 Days in the Desert travelog #3
Del Taco #3, Barstow - Sat, 24 Dec 2022, 8:30am

When we started planning our 5 Days in the Desert trip a week or two ago we were thinking about camping out in the desert a few nights. Camping can be fun... except when it's not. Doing it in the winter, when even if the weather is warm-ish it's dark by 5pm, is no fun. Doing it as I get older is also no fun. Thus we do what I euphemistically call "motel camping". See earlier this year for another example.

This trip we're holed up in the Hampton Inn for 5 nights. With my diamond elite status we got upgraded to a corner suite for free. Of course, with the number of cars in the parking lot indicating there might be only 10 rooms sold last night, maybe they upgraded everyone to a suite. 🤣 Anyway, it's nice to have the extra space, including a table we can sit at with our computers open or to play a game at. Yes, we brought a few board games! (See above comment about it getting dark at 5pm.) This morning we snubbed the free breakfast buffet at the hotel. It just didn't look compelling. It barely even looked "meh". It was especially easy to say "no thanks" when there's a Del Taco 1/2 mile away.

Eating at Del Taco restaurants is one of our little pleasures when traveling through certain parts of California and elsewhere in the southwest. They serve food we like, it's way better quality than their arguable closest competitor Taco Bell, and they serve their lunch/dinner menu all day. Which means I can get a proper steak- or chicken taco at 8am instead of some barfilicious egg-and-sausage wrap.

How much do we like Del Taco? Well, last time we were in Barstow we took a slight side trip to visit the site of the original Del Taco! It's not a Del Taco anymore. Now it's some hardscrabble burger-and-taco joint in the dusty desert countryside. Today we happily ate at Del Taco Number Three on Lenwood Road near our hotel.