smritte
Well-known member
Another great camping trip to the desert.
This trip was to the Mojave Road. We started with six vehicles and the trip was planned for four days Starting in Laughlin and ending in Afton Canyon. Due to people needing to go to work on Tuesday, we cut the last night out and exited about the 3/4 mark. This actually worked out well because a huge wind storm came in Monday afternoon. I was going to spend a few more nights out there but that killed it.
I had opted for a hotel on Friday night. This is mostly out of habit. Normally when I lead this trip I get people coming in from up north and this gives them a place to freshen up before the trip. This time, everyone else camped at Balancing Rock. I drove out to meet them early Saturday morning.
I didn't get a picture of the Friday night camp but someone sent me a picture of an intruder they had trying to steal food.
Desert Fox's are fairly common and don't seem to be too scared of us.
We headed out about 10am with the first stop being lunch at Fort Piute. The road there dead ends at the fort so you dive up then back out. There's two areas on the Mojave Road where the road beats you up and the route in and out of the fort is one. The road is covered with rocks ranging from four to six inch diameter making it a slow drive. Again, I failed to get a couple of pictures.
Leaving Fort Piute around 1pm, we would normally drive through Piute Canyon. The last big rain storm managed to wash out the road and we had to go around the outside of the mountain. The route took us about 30 mins out of the way but the drive was smooth in a narrow sand wash. Our next stop is Indian Well. Its a bit off the route but is well worth the detour
.
This first Pic is the well. I met someone here years ago and he told me when he was young, the water flowed freely from the spring. Right now the hole is about 10 foot down. The area around the spring is also covered with petroglyphs.
Leaving Indian well, we made our way to the Penny Can Tree. Not sure of its history but I have heard everything from toll road to someone just hung a can and named it. In the pic, the can is in the far background. Kind of hard to see,
The daytime temperature was running in the mid 60's with a few high cloud's. I did get a few windshield pictures on the drive to camp. The picture doesn't show what I see properly. The sun makes the cactus thorns glow bright white.
Weather was 65 degrees and no wind. Interesting how the windshield gave the picture on the right a green tint.
Pulled into camp around 3:30 pm. This is one of my favorite spots. Its called Caruthers Corral. It can easily hold 20 rigs and is flat. Its less than a mile off the route.
Camp.
Cant be desert camping without a sunset pic.
Night time brought a low of 28 degrees. I have another thread here on my DIY propane fire pit. I need to update the thread. The fire pit here is probably version 4.26. A challenge I'm working on is, propane doesn't like cold. Once it really cools off, the bottle ices and the flame goes way down. This version has a warming blanket. The flame didn't get much lower than in the following pic but I need another heating element and I think it will be good. We couldn't have a wood fire here. There's a fire restriction in the preserve. This is one of the reasons for the project.
Next day had us heading out to the artist cabin, government hole and Hole in the Wall for lunch. Here one of the vehicles will be heading home.
Its hard to get good pictures at hole in the wall. Its a couple of narrow slot canyons formed by lava. The gas bubbles made holes in it like swiss cheese. There's a very narrow drop off with two ring ladders to climb down. Again I cant seem to do this place justice with a camara.
Leaving there about 2pm, our next stop would be Kelso trail station. The station is a museum and closed during Covid. Still waiting for it to reopen.
Hmm. Need to make part two. Reached my file limit.
This trip was to the Mojave Road. We started with six vehicles and the trip was planned for four days Starting in Laughlin and ending in Afton Canyon. Due to people needing to go to work on Tuesday, we cut the last night out and exited about the 3/4 mark. This actually worked out well because a huge wind storm came in Monday afternoon. I was going to spend a few more nights out there but that killed it.
I had opted for a hotel on Friday night. This is mostly out of habit. Normally when I lead this trip I get people coming in from up north and this gives them a place to freshen up before the trip. This time, everyone else camped at Balancing Rock. I drove out to meet them early Saturday morning.
I didn't get a picture of the Friday night camp but someone sent me a picture of an intruder they had trying to steal food.
Desert Fox's are fairly common and don't seem to be too scared of us.
We headed out about 10am with the first stop being lunch at Fort Piute. The road there dead ends at the fort so you dive up then back out. There's two areas on the Mojave Road where the road beats you up and the route in and out of the fort is one. The road is covered with rocks ranging from four to six inch diameter making it a slow drive. Again, I failed to get a couple of pictures.
Leaving Fort Piute around 1pm, we would normally drive through Piute Canyon. The last big rain storm managed to wash out the road and we had to go around the outside of the mountain. The route took us about 30 mins out of the way but the drive was smooth in a narrow sand wash. Our next stop is Indian Well. Its a bit off the route but is well worth the detour
.This first Pic is the well. I met someone here years ago and he told me when he was young, the water flowed freely from the spring. Right now the hole is about 10 foot down. The area around the spring is also covered with petroglyphs.
Leaving Indian well, we made our way to the Penny Can Tree. Not sure of its history but I have heard everything from toll road to someone just hung a can and named it. In the pic, the can is in the far background. Kind of hard to see,
The daytime temperature was running in the mid 60's with a few high cloud's. I did get a few windshield pictures on the drive to camp. The picture doesn't show what I see properly. The sun makes the cactus thorns glow bright white.
Weather was 65 degrees and no wind. Interesting how the windshield gave the picture on the right a green tint.
Pulled into camp around 3:30 pm. This is one of my favorite spots. Its called Caruthers Corral. It can easily hold 20 rigs and is flat. Its less than a mile off the route.
Camp.
Cant be desert camping without a sunset pic.
Night time brought a low of 28 degrees. I have another thread here on my DIY propane fire pit. I need to update the thread. The fire pit here is probably version 4.26. A challenge I'm working on is, propane doesn't like cold. Once it really cools off, the bottle ices and the flame goes way down. This version has a warming blanket. The flame didn't get much lower than in the following pic but I need another heating element and I think it will be good. We couldn't have a wood fire here. There's a fire restriction in the preserve. This is one of the reasons for the project.
Next day had us heading out to the artist cabin, government hole and Hole in the Wall for lunch. Here one of the vehicles will be heading home.
Its hard to get good pictures at hole in the wall. Its a couple of narrow slot canyons formed by lava. The gas bubbles made holes in it like swiss cheese. There's a very narrow drop off with two ring ladders to climb down. Again I cant seem to do this place justice with a camara.
Leaving there about 2pm, our next stop would be Kelso trail station. The station is a museum and closed during Covid. Still waiting for it to reopen.
Hmm. Need to make part two. Reached my file limit.
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