Tahoe to Texas

November 13-22 + December 2-20, 2020

TL;DR: Pretty cool trip from Tahoe to Austin with tons of varied landscapes and things we had never seen before, from Joshua Tree to White Sands. Just got us really excited and we can’t wait to come back next year for our “official” Southwest trip.

The sights

Paso Robles, CA

Wine….wine.

Laguna Beach, CA

Short visit before/after Thanksgiving. Nick. Food. Football. Hiking. Beach walks. Sunsets.

Joshua Tree National Park

We stayed at the Black Rock campground on the northwest edge of the park because that was the only site with any availability. Will definitely need to return to do some central exploring.

The Panorama Loop is a really pretty 6.5-mile loop that starts out in a wash basin with lots of Joshua trees and cacti, yucca, scrub oak, and pinyon pine trees. It was a little chilly but perfect hiking weather. The granite and dolomite rocks were in the most intricate patterns. There was a continuous theme of this big pink dolomite stripe.

The walk “back” on the loop is a panorama (aha) of the valley, so you see the San Bernadino Mountains, including San Jacinto, and San Gorgonio, which is the highest peak in Southern California at 11,503 feet.

Took another loop, this one about five miles. Again, gorgeous rocks and plants everywhere (including some blooming yuccas), and not a lot of people, which is always nice.

Drove through the center of the park on our way out before they shut down again for COVID. Must return.

Loved the Hidden Valley hike: Short one-miler but just gorgeous views everywhere we looked.

Salton Sea

Ah, the Salton Sea. Weird place. The water flowed from the Colorado River over millions of years, and the “lake” was created to increase water flow to the Imperial Valley for farming. In the ’60s, it became a “resort destination,” but since it has such a high concentration of salt, it was inhospitable to wildlife and killed tourism. Now it’s a fascinating, if pretty dead, place.

Saw lots of vineyards and palm tree orchards and some kind of citrus and leafy greens somehow growing out of the sand. The State Park was sort of nothing, but we paid $7 to get in anyway and check it out.

Stopped at Bombay Beach which was a very interesting shanty town. So many trailers/shacks, many artistically decorated. Some “art” installations that apparently were from Burning Man.

Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

This was BLM land where we stayed for two nights and, frankly, it was gorgeous. Some of the most amazing stars we’ve ever seen and lots of really flat, easy spots. Plus, cell service!

Picacho Peak State Park (Round 2)

Just as pretty this time around, and we avoided the wild crowds from last time. Went on the five-mile nature hike on the other side of the park, which was quite pretty and had a great vista at the top. Saw some hawks flying above and round-tailed ground squirrels below. Lots of cacti and buckhorn challa cactus (aptly named).

Catalina State Park

Really lovely park. We walked the Bridle Trail to the birding trail, which was awash in the most gorgeous light and expansive landscape. Read a little information sign about javalinas, then immediately saw a group of them! And a bunny!

Really cool sheer cliff faces, but also can see the rolling hills. Quite a few trees at elevation. Very diverse nature. Pretty cacti: buckhorn, chain, saguara, yucca (Lady Yucca!). Big difference when you’re on the plateau vs. the wash basin (mesquite baroque…. Which Jess thought was a bird. SO FUNNY *eyeroll*).

Biked over to Romero Canyons to hike the trail, which had a busy parking lot but we didn’t see a lot of people. Cool loop that went up to the base of the mountain range. More vegetation on the hills and rocks, and lots of red. It was pretty scorched and the trail was shut down from the fire, but pretty remarkable how much growth there still was, especially the yucca. Lots of pretty cacti with flowers, including the yellow ones on the cholla. Finished off with a quick look at the Romero Ruins, which was pretty underwhelming.

White Sands National Park

Got here relatively early, which was the right move because we had the hike all to ourselves.

The day we went was overcast but with really cool clouds and spots of sunshine which made for a cool combo with the sand dunes. We did the Alkali “Flat” Hike, which was not flat. Rather, 600 feet of elevation up and down the dunes!

Just pure white sand everywhere. Surprising, right? We made sure to go from one red marker to the next because we could easily see how easy it would be to get lost there.

Halfway through the loop we saw a sign to not going any farther because of unexploded munitions (!!!).

Along the drive through the rest of the park, the sand was pushed up against the side of the road like snow banks, which was just wild.

Three Rivers Petroglyphs site

This is pretty far out there, but has a nice little campground at the base that we thought about staying at. Ended up just doing the hike, which was cool along the ridgeline of hills where there were over 20,000 petroglyphs carved into the stone. Animals, people, definitely aliens. Geometric shapes, crosses, squiggles.

Surrounded by the Sacramento Mountains and Gorgon hills in Apache Country with Sierra Blanca (12,000 feet) in the middle.

Details, details, details

Started out our first leg with a visit with Megan and Franco (and their dog, Oliver) in Pleasant Hill, CA. Shennanigans ensued.

Joshua Tree sunrises and sunsets were pretty epic.

Bought our annual park pass! Hurrah!

Nib Mor mint hot chocolate is MOST excellent. #notanad #iwish

The first night at Catalina State Park, we got up in the middle of the night to watch the Geminids meteor shower, which was pretty awesome. We could even see them out the back window (!).

After we did the Romero Canyons bike ride, we continued biking to In ‘n’ Out across the street and it was QUITE excellent.

The drive up 77 north is quite pretty along the Santa Catalina mountain range. Also passed Mt. Graham, which stands at 10,000 feet and is part of the Pinaleño Mountains.

Saw a lot of recently harvested cotton passing through Pima, AZ.

Took the scenic route to White Sands by going up toward Globe on 77. Looked like the Black Hills a few times. Really pretty winding drive with lots of views of the valleys. Saw a coyote cross the road!

Saw a peek of the Chino Mine even though the viewing area was closed. So big!

Got very flat once we got past Tatum, with very red earth, lots of windmills, and a pack of dogs eating a deer. Also a big ol’ flame at a factory.

And then this happened…

A hummingbird flew into the house in Laguna and kept smashing into the windows trying to get out. After several attempts, Brian was able to escort him to safety.

The week before we left, we found out Joshua Tree was closing for the pandemic, so we decided to leave a day early so we could sneak in an extra day there. So glad we did!

On Joshua Tree’s Panorama Trail, we saw a red-tailed hawk trying to steal food from a raven, which was cool. Couldn’t quite get the binoculars out fast enough.

On our way to the Salton Sea on Box Canyon Road, Bri wanted to take a picture so we pulled over on the side of the road. We didn’t realize how soft the sand dirt was and were VERY stuck. Before we even had a chance to worry that we had ZERO cell service and very little other options besides gathering sticks, a Jeep sees us, pulls over, and immediately gets out to help. This was Roger, our savior! Roger was ready to get down to business immediately, and had his new tow strap ready to go. After a few tries, he pulled us right out! Roger told us he was probably going to be talking about this more than we were. We were excited to not be stuck. Thanked him 10x then went on our way. Did not stop anywhere else …. SO GRATEFUL for Roger.

We’re driving along from the Salton Sea to Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and Bri gets in the left lane to pass a white pickup truck with a pretty loosely secured couch on the back. As we go by, Bri says, “Hey! Free couch!” and almost in unison, the couch falls OFF the back of the pickup truck, and the drivers don’t seem to notice! Fortunately neither we nor anyone else was behind them.

As we drove up to Picacho, it started looking familiar, and we realized that we had already been here last year. It’s just so convenient and beautiful. So. No biggie.

The screen door handle officially broke but Bri was able to replace it pretty easily.

Now we know

At Joshua Tree, we noticed the rangers’ hoods were always up. Apparently there’s some little desert critter that can get up into the engine; but if you leave the hoods up, they don’t stay there. Giggle.

Similarly… right as we were leaving Joshua Tree, Bri talked to another younger guy and they were staying somewhere else in the somewhere before and left because they were “overun by mice.” (!!!)

Discovered Kodiak Cakes oatmeal through a “How I Built This” episode and we’re very into it.

Almost found out where the fuel gauge lands when you run out of gas…almost.

Dudley from Harry Potter is the tall, skinny, awkward dude in “Queen’s Gambit”!? What?!

There aren’t a lot of RV storage lots that have available spaces in Southern California. We had to park Layla out to Menifee.

In between White Sands and San Angelo Park, we went through Tatum which has very cool metal work street signs throughout the town. That’s about it though.

Where we stayed

Nights one and two: Megan and Franco’s, Pleasant Hill, CA

Nights three through 14: The Turpins, Laguna Beach, CA

Nights 15 through 17: Site 41, Black Rock Campground, Joshua Tree, California

Nights 18 and 19: Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, Arizona

Nights 20 and 21: C12, Picacho State Park, Arizona

Nights 22 and 23: B74, Catalina State Park, Arizona

Nights 23 and 24: B71, Catalina State Park, AZ

Night 25: Las Cruces Rest Stop, New Mexico

Lovely rest stop with gorgeous views and close to Chick-Fil-A … : )

Night 26: Rob Jaggers Campground, second to last pull through on the downhill side, NM

This is actually in Lincoln National Forest which is part of the Fort Stanton/Snow River Cave National Conservation Area managed by BLM. Great dry spot. And free! Very windy.