Wow, that is all I can say. I can’t believe a month has gone by in the blink of an eye. I am writing this on March 29th. So, my weekly update is kind of a misnomer but I am still going to try and bring it to fruition. Work in progress as they say.

February 20th is our anniversary, # 17 with my beautiful wife. I can’t imagine my life without her love, support, and smile in it. I am truly blessed to have found a partner who enjoys sharing in the adventure which has become our life. As she is still recuperating, I settle for showing my appreciation with a T shirt and by making her breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It Fits, Right?

Our main present to ourselves is the Laughlin getaway and the Alan Jackson concert this weekend. Other than our anniversary, we spend the first few days of this week, waiting for Carol to recover enough so we can get some adventuring in. That happens on Thursday February23rd. We left St George and headed South to Las Vegas and beyond. Our journey was to take us to the Mojave National Preserve and once we left the congestion of Vegas behind, we soon entered California and left Interstate 15 at the Nipton exit. This road skirted the edge of the National Preserve until we turned southwest onto Ivanpah and Morning Star Road.

We are now inside the vast 1,600,000 acres Preserve. The Mojave National Preserve is the third largest unit of the National Park System in the lower 48 states. The road we are on is paved but with many dips that allow for water from storms to travel more naturally through the washes. It makes for a fun kind of roller coaster ride. We come to Cima junction and are surprised to see a full working rail yard. There is a rail line that cuts through the park and it is very much still in use. Now in some parks, you might be taken aback by this, however, here it is not only part of the landscape, but a part of history. More on that in a little bit. As we continued on our journey, a train approaches and spooks a coyote into bounding across the road in front of us. He takes one quick look back at us before disappearing into the desert scene. Thrilled with our impromptu wildlife sighting, we drive on to our first stop, the Kelso Depot. Kelso Depot is now the Visitor Center for the park. It was once a thriving town of mostly railroad workers, reaching a population high of 2,000 people. This is where we go back to the historical aspect of the railroad. The Union Pacific connected across the Mojave to help transport the riches of California. Kelso was at the bottom of a steep grade that required other engines to be hooked up in order to make the grade. These were stored at Kelso. The depot opened in 1905. For more information click on the following link:     https://www.nps.gov/moja/learn/historyculture/kelso-depot.htm  

The visitor center now has a nice museum about the history of the area as well as the natural environment. There are more Joshua trees here than in Joshua Tree National Park, and the densest grove in the world is located in one area of the park. After looking through the exhibits, we ask about the road conditions to the Campground and whether it fills up or not. The ranger tells us it will be no problem getting a spot and also gives us some information on the park. We get back in our vehicle and backtrack a bit to the Cedar Canyon Road. This road soon turns to dirt as we travel through rolling hills. We turn right onto Black canyon Road which leads to our destination, the Hole in the Wall Campground. The road is well graded and 10 not so bumpy miles later, we arrive at the campground. We find a beautiful tent site at the end of the loop away from the more glamorous trailer and motor home crowd.

The campground is at 4,400 feet and it is fairly cool so we eat lunch and set up camp before exploring further. We decide to take a short walk near the Hole in the Wall Visitor Center, which is closed during the week. We check out the two trail Heads by the center, which make up the Rings Loop. We plan on doing this tomorrow and perhaps a longer attached Barber Peak Loop. Our campsite is near another part of the Barber Peak Loop and we hike a small section of it back to camp. This takes us up on a ridge with wonderful cactus gardens surrounding us. It also takes us longer than the flat trail we came in on and by the time we get back to camp, our site is in the shade and quite chilly. We make a quick pasta dinner and decide to forego a fire as it is breezy. There is nothing left to do but crawl into our tent and get warm. It is only six o’clock California time but as dusk turns to dark, we slowly start to drift into an early evening slumber. Not a bad life.

After a pretty chilly night, we wake up and have breakfast. What actually happened is Carol woke up, went outside, made some hot chocolate, grilled some banana bread, and brought it into the tent for us. What a wonderful woman! We stayed cozy in our tent until around 0945. Then we got up to go on our hike for the day.

We walked from our site to the Hole in the Wall Visitor Center which is open on Fridays. After talking with the ranger about our hiking possibilities we started out clockwise on the Rings Loop Trail. It skirted the base of a round mesa and after .5 miles we came upon some petroglyphs. They were pretty faint so did not impress us as we see lots of these in the St George area. The hiking was easy along the desert floor and we came up to the intersection with the Barber Peak Trail. We decided to go a little further up the Rings Loop to the point where its namesake lies. A small narrow slot canyon with metal rings in the rock that help you navigate up the steep walled sides. We went up and then back down the rings, just cause, and then hiked back to the intersection. Once we turned on the Barber Peak trail the terrain changed and the views became more panoramic. A falcon shrieked several times, letting us know it did not like our presence here. It disappeared into a small crack in the cliffs above, probably with a nest inside. We then start to climb up a long ridge, which we shared with many different varieties of Cacti. There were chollas, barrel, and prickly pear of different shapes and sizes. The sun was warm but there was still a crisp coolness in the air. We found a beautiful sheltered spot to have lunch near the top of the ridge. Since leaving the short Rings Loop, we have not seen another person, and we enjoy the quiet sounds of the desert with our lunch.

After lunch, we cross through a saddle and start to descend into a wash. There is a big bull lying in the warm sand so we give him a wide berth and continue on. We are back in more level terrain as we circumnavigate the large expanse of Barber Peak. I am not sure why they call it a peak as it is a large oval mesa and this hike travels six miles around it. As we make the last turn towards camp, we spook a mama cow and her calf. They do not quite understand our direction as they run in front of us stop and then run some more as we approach them. Finally, mom figures it out and they cut a right angle from us out into the desert. We climb up and down several more ridges before joining the connector trail back to our camp. It is a much more pleasant day than yesterday and arriving at camp, we are able to sit, relax, and have a drink and some snacks. Dinner tonight is hot dogs and beans, dessert is toasted marshmallows, and a fire adds to the mood of a perfect evening. Tomorrow, we head out towards Laughlin. For now, we enjoy the ending of the great day we had.

Saturday morning, we get up leisurely and reverse our roles from yesterday. I become the hot chocolate, banana bread griller while Carol get s to stay in the toasty tent. After breakfast, we lounge around in our tent, until the sun warms things up outside. Then it is a slow and methodical breaking down camp and loading up the vehicle. It is almost 1100 when we leave the campground and start our drive to Laughlin. We take a few back roads to get there, have lunch at a Thai restaurant and check into our hotel. First priority is a shower and then just relax.

Alan Jackson Concert

We have tickets for Alan Jackson tonight and head out around 0645 to go have a bite to eat. We walk along the river walk where they have a band playing and then end up at the In and Out Burger for dinner. From there it is a short walk to the event center for the concert. Alan Jackson puts on a good show and we highly recommend seeing him if you get the chance. He tells a few stories along the way on the events that led up to him writing some of his songs. The venue is outside and the night was perfect. We also take note that there isn’t a bad seat in the house and we could buy cheaper seats next time. After the show, we walk back to our hotel and our week ends on a good note.