As we entered eastern California on I-10 I remembered that a few years ago we had camped just outside Joshua Tree National Park. There is BLM land to the north and south of the highway. We stopped for lunch at Chiriaco Summit and spoke at length with a young lady who gave us some information about Box Canyon. (I swear every western state has a place called Box Canyon and there's at least two in Arizona!)
With impressive cliffs on both sides of the curvy road through Box Canyon we scouted out places to camp. We drove all the way through to the little farming town of Mecca. From Mecca we were able to view The Salton Sea, a shallow sea created by accident after some serious flooding of the Colorado River in 1905. Subsequent runoff from other rivers in the area have kept the level steady. The surface level is 226 feet below sea level and it's maximum depth is 50 feet. (and that's still higher than the lowest point of Death Valley!)
We returned to Box Canyon and pulled into a camping area and proceeded to get stuck in the sand. No problem though, just a minor delay and we settled down to gather wood and clean the area. It appears that this is also an area where locals come to party judging from the number of booze/beer bottles left behind. Once again I'm frustrated with people that bring glass bottles to a "no glass" area! Oh and let me not forget to mention that they use the glass bottles for target shooting!
The rock formations around us were very interesting and I found a small cave/chimney on the side of one of the cliffs.
Did you know this has been a very warm winter in Southern California? We should have been experiencing temps in the 60's and it was mid to high 80's! One night in Box Canyon was enough for us. Higher elevations might provide the cooler weather we wanted.
On the road again....we drove through Palm Springs and shopped at a Costco there. There is also a BLM office and we stopped in to get suggestions. Our first disappointment with the BLM. The only good advice we got was the name of a vet in Rancho Cucamonga since Kilo still had that giant lump on his neck!
We drove north and found ourselves on the northern end of the Joshua Tree National Forest. We stopped at a California Welcome Center to get information about camping. Boy, did we get information along with a large official California tote bag, brochures, maps, a drink cozy and permission to spend the night in the parking lot. We had actually known this was a possibility beforehand. Not exactly exciting but it was free!
We rolled along early the next morning, made a vet stop in Rancho Cucamonga and proceeded to the Angeles National Forest for some free camping. (The Vet felt Kilo had an abscess so antibiotics were started right away.). We drove up the San Gabriel River Canyon Rd and found a spot near a picnic area complete with restrooms. It was an incredibly windy day and we hoped the breeze would diminish because we would be spending two nights here.
A view from our campsite, the river and the steep canyon walls
Mike pointed out how steep the canyon walls were and how difficult it must be to fight a fire there. Hmmmm....premonition?
The next morning we finished our coffee, had breakfast and began to do some chores. Suddenly, two Sheriff's Department emergency vehicles came up the road with lights flashing and sirens blasting. They pulled up to our trailer and and called out that we had to evacuate because a forest fire was headed our way! Hearing that we sprang into action and had the trailer and truck packed in record time. We started down the canyon in disbelief. We didn't smell or see any smoke! We passed a small community and watched as these folks had to abandon their homes. We were fortunate we could take ours with us!
We started to see the smoke and soon it became thick and heavy. As we exited the Forest we saw many fire trucks lining the road and we waved to them our appreciation of the difficult task ahead of them. The fire was on the east side of the road threatening several homes - it was good to make it out!
We found out later this was called the Colby Fire and was arson involving three young men behaving badly on a very windy day!
We went 20 miles further west into the Angeles National Forest and found a camping area that was open. There was no one there and it was nice to have the peace and quiet after our eventful day!
