NM To San Diego: Part 4 (Anza-Borrego)

After enjoying the 28th Annual Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Show at Lake Havasu, we headed south and west to Anza-Borrego.

Poor Monkey!!!

This was an interesting drive. Before heading into California we filled up with gas in Parker, AZ. Gas in California is about a dollar and a half more than in Arizona. The desert is pretty cool in this area.

We scooted along the east side of Joshua Tree National Park and then the southern edge of the park. We got off interstate 10 at Box Canyon Road to head south towards the Salton Sea. Box Canyon Road is a really interesting drive though a box canyon. There were folks camping in the canyon.

We went though the town of Mecca and then along the western shore of the Salton Sea.

At Salton City we turned west again onto the Borrego Salton Seaway. On the first stretch of this road we saw a bunch of boondockers with lots of ATVs all over the place.

We had heard a lot of good things about Anza Borrego State Park and the area in general.  A lot of our boondocker friends have gone to this area and reported having a wonderful time. We wanted to see the area and we weren't disappointed.

The town of Borrego Springs is surrounded by the huge Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We drove into the town and up to the State Park visitor center.

As we used the visitor center restrooms, we ran into our boondocking friends, Evie and her Mom. They were touring the visitor's center too. It was fun to see them again.  (Click HERE to read about our first visit with them.)

Evie's mom (Joy) is in her early 90's and is still out there on the road enjoying life to it's fullest. She is an inspiration to us and an amazing woman.

Joy, Evie and Greg

We love to run across RV bloggers that we follow. It's a big thrill for us to meet the people we read about.

The town of Borrego Springs is really a cute town. There is a HUGE roundabout in the center of town with a park in the middle. I (Greg) am a huge fan of roundabouts, and this is a really good one. It's called Christmas Circle.

The Anza-Borrego State Park visitor's center is a good one and they have a desert garden to tour. We got some maps and a book about stars there. We got a recommendation for a good hike from the docents at the visitor's center.

Next, we toured the Galleta Meadows sculptures. Artist Ricardo Breceda has created a bunch of really cool metal sculptures that are dispersed across a large area of the meadows property in Borrego-Springs. The visitor's center gave us a chamber of commerce map to all the sculpture locations.

After viewing Galleta Meadows sculptures, we headed to the Peg Leg dispersed camping area to find a nice boondocking spot for the night.

We stayed one night in the Peg Leg area. this is a dispersed camping area and there were a lot of ATVs zipping around while we were there on Sunday night.

It's a large area so you don't have to be right next to anyone. We drove around a bit and found a great spot with an existing fire pit. The land is nice, mostly hard packed and very level in this area. There are existing fire pits to be found.

As we drove onto the dispersed camping area we noticed a big sign that said some of the land was "for sale." It may be that some of this land is private and will be sold at some point and possibly developed. Let's hope not, as this was a great boondocking spot.

The sunset and sunrise were fantastic. The area is surrounded by beautiful mountains. We will definitely return for another, longer visit. Verizon was working, but weakly at our spot. If we stood on one side of our van, we could get a fairly good Verizon signal. The other side was a whole different story. It was very, very weak. A booster would help here.

There was some noise from ATVs zooming by, but we enjoyed watching them. Luckily, the trail they were using was down-wind from us, so we didn't eat their dust.

Watch out! One star deduction for ATV noise and potential dust. Nearby is Clark Dry Lake Bed dispersed camping area that might not have as many ATVs. We did't have time to check it out on this trip.

The next morning we drove into the small town of Borrego Springs and had a great breakfast at Kendall's Cafe. We also went on an awesome hike to wonderful Palm Canyon.

A sign on Box Canyon Road that shows back roads.

Info on the sign.

Sculptures at Galleta Meadows

Four Wheeling with friends!!!

Run Monkey, Run!!!!

Very bad things happen to people who take the money from the old rusty prospector!!!!!!

Peg Leg dispersed boondocking area.

Our spot at Peg Leg.

Peg Leg dispersed area.

Great sunrise and sunset.

Beautiful Anza-Borrego

Great breakfast at Kendall's Cafe in Borrego-Springs.

Along the Palm Canyon hike.

Palm Canyon hike beauty.

Karen along the Palm Canyon hike

You cross a cold stream a few times on the Palm Canyon hike.

A small waterfall along the Palm Canyon hike.

The oasis in Palm Canyon

A great Ocotillo plant.

We saw a lot of Desert Big Horn Sheep on the Palm Canyon Trail.

At the palm oasis of the Palm Canyon hike.

Greg and Karen at the oasis on the Palm Canyon hike.

"Making of" the Monkey Shot!!!!

The Monkey Shot

Sock Monkey in the weeds.

Next up: After a visit to Claremont (near Los Angeles) to spend some time with Karen's parents, listen to her Dad's concert, help them with some consolidation and furniture moving, we headed for the San Diego area.  

For more information on the Anza Borrego hike:
https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/borrego-palms-canyon-trail-anza-borrego-desert/

The natives are restless. 

NM To San Diego: Part 3 (Lake Havasu Boondocking and Fireworks)

After leaving El Dorado Hot Springs, we headed for Vicksburg and up highway 72 and 95 to Parker, AZ. It was raining and we did worry about getting caught in a flash flood.  I drove a little faster than I normally would. We enjoyed the desert terrain along the drive. Our goal was to get to the Arizona State Trust land across from the SARA park at Lake Havasu.

We were going to boondock on State trust land and watch the 28th Annual Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Show that occurs on President's Day weekend.

We were hungry before finding our boondocking spot and went into Lake Havasu City and found a Chipotle Mexican Grill Restaurant for a nice lunch. Havasu City is a pain-in-the-ass to navigate as the downtown core roads are poorly laid out.

We also took a drive across the London Bridge to check out the island and view the little lighthouses along the shore.

The annual fireworks show is put on each year by the Western Pyrotechnic Association. The idea is that the association can show off this year's cool fireworks to potential buyers and Lake Havasu City get's an awesome show for their tourists.

During this weekend, the state land across from the Lake Havasu City SARA park is filled with boondockers there to view the great fireworks show.  It's just slightly tricky to get off the highway and on to the trust land. There is a big bump to get over, but not too bad and a lot of huge fifth- wheels are able to do it without much trouble, if they entered slowly.

We found a nice spot up on a hill.  We had to use leveling blocks to get level. We got out our chairs and portable fire pit, pulled out some snacks and waited for the show to start. The fireworks started late as there was a fuel spill at the SARA Park. All the firefighters there to monitor the fireworks show had to deal with the spill instead, so the show was delayed by an hour. All the boondockers were getting anxious, wondering what was going on.

We got a nice hike in all around the area before the show and dinner. Finally, the firework show began.  It was a great show. There are always some new fireworks that haven't been seen before. The best one this year were a group of super high flying fireworks that exploded in the clouds (it was drizzly and cloudy that night). These explosions and colors looked so cool up among the clouds.

A surprising part of Lake Havasu

Crossing the London Bridge at Lake Havasu 

Boondockers across from the SARA Park

The coolest super high flying fireworks!!!!

Our spot on the State Trust land.

Enjoying our portable propane fire pit and some snacks before the fireworks.

Waiting for the fireworks

A few ATVs were scooting around with cools LED lights on their vehicles. It's kinda of a burningman-esk party.

Fireworks!!

Some of our favorites.

To stay on the state trust land, there is a $20 permit that must be purchased and displayed in your vehicle. (On this weekend, I doubt many people had a permit. The permit is good for a year of state trust land visits, so it's a good deal if you use Arizona state trust land a lot.)

This was the second year I got to see this fireworks show. It was great both years.

Next up: Headed to Anza-Borrego.

http://www.golakehavasu.com/events/details/1584/28th-annual-western-winter-blast-pyrotechnics-show/

NM To San Diego: Part 2 (El Dorado Hot Springs, West of Phoenix)

After leaving Faywood Springs, Google Maps suggested a short cut to Lordsburg NM that would save us about 20 minutes.  I told Karen we should trust Google Maps to give us a good route. Karen was very leery.

An hour later, Karen was right to be leery.  After heading a long way down a bumpy, dirt road we came upon a big, deep, dark mud puddle of water out in the middle of nowhere. There was no cell signal and no one else for miles. We decided it was best to back up for about half a mile until we could turn around and go back to Deming, NM on the regular paved route. From now on I will double check Google's suggestions better. The good news about this detour is that we were able to see a few really cool red tail hawks.

A bridge we crossed.

Backing up till we could turn around.

One of the hawks we saw in flight.

Once we got back to Deming, we were hungry and stopped at the town's Denny's for a good breakfast. We like Denny's. It's very consistent and always good. There were a lot of panhandlers out in front of Denny's. They appeared to be older, immigrant men. On the way into the restaurant we gave a few bucks to one of the guys in the area who came up to us.  On the way out, we were hit up very aggressively. We told this guy that we already gave to another guy. He was not pleased by our previous generosity.

We are always concerned that our handouts to panhandlers will be spent on drugs or alcohol. Yesterday, I read a New York Times article that has me thinking we shouldn't worry about how our charity will be spent: The Pope on Panhandling: Give Without Worry.

We jumped back on to highway 10 and headed west toward Tucson. This is a beautiful stretch of road. We are excited about exploring this area in detail once we are full-timers in a few years. There is a lot to explore in the southern corners of Arizona and New Mexico.

We continued on 10 past Tucson and then took highway 8 towards Gila Bend. Next, we headed north on highway 85 towards Tonopah. We didn't want to go near Phoenix as it was going to be close to commuter hours, so this bypass worked out great.

We got to El Dorado Hot Springs about an hour after sunset. The place was funky and rustic. As Karen signed up for a campsite in the office, the guy taking our info got up and grabbed a baseball bat and headed over to one of the pool areas. Karen and I looked at each other and asked each other if we had made a mistake picking this place to stay the night.

It turned out that two dudes had jumped into a private soak pool without paying the fee and the office manager liked to have his trusty bat when dealing with freeloaders.  We calmed down after he explained the situation. He was really helpful and friendly after he put the bat away.

We drove to our spot, set up our bed and headed to the public soaking area to soak away the strain of a long drive.

We hopped into a couple of old-timey iron legged bathtubs.  It felt great. Karen noticed something big moving on top of a nearby fence. We couldn't quite make out what it was. It looked like a big pigeon. It turned out to be a female peacock that was resting against the top of a fence.

After a good soak we headed to bed and slept really well.

Each campsite comes with 2 hours of private pool soaking each day.  We had signed up for the Sunset Pool for first thing in the morning. It was fantastic. We took our breakfast to the pool area. There was a table with chairs and some lounge chairs. The soaking was great. You have a large private area with views of the desert and a nice hot pool.

There are about five private pool areas. Each one is pretty nice. Next time, I would pick the Desert View soak pool as it had the nicest view of the desert and some nearby mountains.

There is a downside to the place that we discovered at the end of our visit.  As we were packing up to go, about thirty big house flies flew into our van.

A couple of the many peacocks at El Dorado Hot Springs

One of the soaks in the public area.

We soaked in the two bathtubs and the pool here. They were nice!

The funky office area.

Our campsite with friends.

Other occupied campsites on the property.

The corral pool.

The toilet area is open to the sky, but private with the surrounding fences. 

Breakfast at the Sunset Pool

Some of the campsites.

The Desert View Pool. We thought this was the one with the best view.

The Stargate Pool

Walking from the Sunset Pool.

A view of the area.

A huge industrial chicken raising and processing plant was built very near El Dorado Hot Springs in recent years. Apparently, the smells from the chicken plant can be overwhelming at times.

We were lucky in that we arrived on a windy / drizzly evening, so the flies and the smells were not noticeable. But, as we were about to leave the next morning, the winds died down, it got sunny and the smell and the flies arrived with a vengeance.

The flies all got into our van. We should have stopped a few miles away, opened up all the doors and windows and shooed them out. Instead, for three days we had flies, one by one, enter the front seat area of our van and bug us until we got them to go out a window.  Many times they would fly right back into our van, even after we had already shushed them out the window. They didn't want to leave the van for some reason!!!!  It is a cool van.

We would go back to El Dorado Hot Springs again as it was a really nice place to soak, but we do worry about what the flies and smells would be like on a hot and windless day. We hope to not ever find out.

Next up: Heading to Lake Havasu for some an amazing fireworks show.

El Dorado Hot Springs maintains it's funky rustic feel and prices are not high for this type of facility.
http://el-dorado.com/