The Ladysmith January weather (as in most places) was the pits so we decided to go for 10-14 days down to Palm Springs to visit some friends and see if we wanted to do this kind of thing.
The trip down was uneventful crossing the border quick after leaving mid-day from the island and getting into Vancouver at 3:00 pm. It takes 3 days to do it with truck and camper. We stayed in Bayview St Park the 1st nite, then drove down thru all of Washington and most of Oregon on the Friday, stopping at Valley of the Rogue St Park there. Nice camping, warm temp's, cheap rates. Stopped in Medford the next morning and found by chance the Motorcycle Superstore, a great online web store for M/C gear. Spent a couple of hours there and sized ourselves up for new color matched helmets and warmer weather armoured riding gear for our trip to Europe. We then left and headed south staying overnight just outside Stockton CA.
The next day we drove all the way thru to Palm Springs (with a quick stop in Merced at our favorite Mexican food store) arriving at dusk. After BBQing chops we enjoyed the warm evening weather. The next day we woke up to this
image outside our berth window.
Later I would work on my laptop and overlook the lake like this
.We booked into there for a week and stayed an extra day as well at that point. The whole RV park was filled with Canadians who were so friendly and wanted to tell us about their best campsites to stay at. Borrego Springs boondocking, the State Park there, Sonny Bono Wildlife refuge, the Avery sculptures, and the Fountain of Youth Spa.
We met up with Doug and Louise and spent some excellent time with them, a day of biking and another where we went to the Farmer's market and the aerial tramway.
The tramride was great in itself, and to be taken back into winter at the top of the mountain was very good.So we went to Borrego Springs and area. It is a small community with a high desert environment and a great Nature centre. Avery's of Avery Office Products fame own a large tract of land there and have commissioned an artist to prepare a number of animals which inhabited the area during dinosaur times. Here are a few pics of them.
What really surprised us was that the Avery's have posted 300 acres of land that anyone can camp there for free for 3 days. The area is beautiful in a desert sort of way. While we didn't stay on their property we did boondock 1/2 way between there and Salton City. That is where we fell in love with the desert. It was so beautiful, peaceful and quiet that we stopped for lunch and stayed till the next day. Weather was excellent!
We then headed out to the Wildlife refuge and then on to the Fountain of Youth spa. When we got there we weren't that interested in it but they gave us a "look" pass. After a quick look we thought OK we'll stay a night and enjoy their naturally hot mineral pools. Well the people there was very friendly, the activities were unbelievable, and the camping great and inexpensive. We ended up staying there 6 nights and took part in 1 longer mountain-bike ride (36 mile) to Niland with others as well as a great hike into the Painted Canyon around the San Andreas fault area.
Here are the Painted Canyon pictures.
First is the San Andreas Fault line which is evident in this rock formation.The next is the set of ladders in Ladder Canyon that have you move between canyon areas. Sandra can be seen standing at the base of a ladder ready to climb up it.
The last is of the walls of the canyon. It is so narrow in spots you have to turn sideways or crawl under some rocks to get thru.
This was a great entry tripwith us now excited to be able to do it every year.
And yes, we have great tans at the moment.
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