Jan. 19 – What’s Under the Bed?
Sometimes innocuous objects take on a different character in the middle of the night!
Scary when a bright light is shined in their eyes!
Jan. 18- Borrego Springs
We drove into the tiny burg of Borrego Springs to check out the amenities. It was a hair raising ride!
Out of the desert sand!
The original inspiration for ‘Tremors’
The detail is incredible!
And it slithers off through the sand to its lair in the mountains!
The 4-Wheelers making a dash for it away from the monster!
Jan. 17 – Around Camp
Little hikes around camp reveal interesting venues and characters.
A rock sculpture of a tortoise.
A monument to an infamous local character.
Peg Leg Smith’s storied career as a mountain man, fur trapper, prospector, horse thief and even Indian children kidnapper, could be an elaborate and convoluted lie!
Jan. 14 – Clark Lake
We took a hike from the camper up Rockhouse Canyon Road to Clark Lake. It is a dry lake bed or playa as we know them in Oregon. We started to cross the lake bed which still had a little moisture here and there from rains in December.
Bushes grow along a straight path of disturbance on the playa surface.
We veered east on the playa towards a distant structure we couldn’t make out, even with binoculars. On the way we spotted several small artifacts that gave us a clue what the structure might be.
The now familiar .50 caliber bullet casing, circa 1942. We found two.
Robert & Mav approach the concrete bombing/strafing target. Another target structure was further to the north.
I found little information on the internet about the use of this area for WWII pilot & gunnery training, but the Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields site had interesting maps and info. On the San Diego Reader site Desert Maneuvers there is more info. and a description of the ‘bombing targets’.
Jan. 13 – Fonts Point
We set up camp along Rockhouse Canyon Road along with other scattered snowbird boondockers. We’re at about 600 feet above sea level and we sat out the southern California cold snap in sun and a cool breeze. Robert braved the wind chill and the loose sand and rode his motorcycle up nearby Fonts Point to get a view over the badlands down to Borrego sink.
Looking down at Borrego sink from the top of Fonts Point.
The corrugated nature of the badlands is visible on the slope of Fonts Point.
The result of the constant wind and intermittent water erosion flows down the washes from the heights.