I was parked outside the Mad Greek Cafe until 2am going over this blog and email and no one ever told me to leave. I parked across the street at an empty RV parking area and left for the Preserve at 5:45am. It was still dark out yet Baker and its neon lights was like a bright beacon in the desert. I'll definitely stop by this town again and eat at the Mad Greek cafe!
My van sputtered going on I-15 toward the Preserve. Elevation in Baker is around 2000' but I gained 2000' in the 25 miles to the Preserve exit off Cime Road. The only thing there is a Shell Gas station on the south side, recessed on a hill. Signs warning of a ROUGH ROAD weren't joking.
The Teotonia Peak trailhead is off Cime Road, across from the White Cross Memorial. I saw the cross first and had to turn around. I parked the van and got on the trail right away. I was the only one on the trail. The dogs enjoyed getting out. Zeke seemed especially interested in the smells here. It was 53F and my face was chilled. This 3.8-mile hike was a great way to get the morning started. The peak was ahead and easy to keep in site. This park of the Preserve has the thickest concentration of Joshua trees. There are also cholla, sage and a low bush, several deep mines, but no wildflowers.
I got to see the sun rise from the peak. I saw three bighorn sheep jump up the cliffs. What solitude there was on this hike! Best of all, it stayed cool even after the sun rose.
It was now approaching 10am. My next goal was visiting the Kelso Depot. The place doesn't open until 10am and I arrived at 9:20am. I walked around, took photos, but was generally disappointed that not more of the old town remains. The depot is now a Visitor's Center for the Preserve. A post office remains, with its faded paint visible on the facade. Lush green grass was cared for via irrigation, but in excess as far as I was concerned. Pigeons were bathing in the small pools!
I drove past the Kelso Dunes but didn't stay, since hiking on hot sand is probably not what the dogs think of as fun. Instead, I made an impromptu decision to leave the park and see the Amboy Crater, not realizing that was 40 miles away and out of the park. The Crater is off historic Route 66 and south of I-40 and run by the BLM. It's 250 feet high, a mile around, and made of ash and cinder. I would have hiked it if it hadn't been so hot. The dogs were in the van and I only went out long enough to take some photos. On a winter's day I'd have taken the trail, but not in 84F heat on hot lava rocks. The geology certainly is interesting, and the ground was covered in yellow flowers.
I now took Route 66 west back to I-40 and Ludlow, where lunch was a Dairy Queen meal and treat. That place is popular, as there were lines of hungry visitors. I'm glad I stopped. I ate the fries and ice cream cone, but that sandwich was my dinner hours later.
The Mojave Preserve is big. It takes up three interstate exits on both I-15 and I-40. These main roads like Kelbaker, Cime, Black Canyon are paved. Many more are not and those are for the diehard 4Wheelers. I returned to the Preserve to explore Rock Springs Canyon, and entered the Preserve via Black Canyon Road off I-40, perhaps one of the more remote entrances to the park. Sand was collecting on the road. No other drivers were on the road. The higher mountains were safely guarded in the middle of the preserve, rising high to my north. The closer I got to these mountains, the cooler it got. What a relief! I stopped briefly at the Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor's Center for a map; Rock Springs Canyon was still 15 miles away and most of that was on a curvy dirt road that had a few deep ruts from last month's heavy rains. This was cattle country, with several active private ranches and its windmills marking the landscape. This was clearly a popular park of the Preserve, as several 4Wheelers passed me by. I guess I wasn't driving fast enough for them in my clunky van.
We arrived at the Rock Springs trail head at 3:30pm. There were several cars parked here, including a red Roadtrek with three young guys carrying beer cans. Another photographer was out taking pictures. The three guys walked over to the Rock House where the trail starts but then went back to their van. The dogs and I took off on the trail. I had it all to myself again! Weather was mild with cirrus clouds high above.
This trail is the site of an old army fort, Camp Rock Springs, but not much remains of it. The rock house didn't get built until 1929 by Bert Smith, a WWI veteran who lived here 25 years. Then an artist, Carl Faber, used this until the 1980s as his gallery. It's now closed but I could see old furniture in the rooms.
The well-marked trail went down into Watson Wash. It then turned away from the springs, which is what I wanted to see, and there was water trickling in it. The dogs drank from the water. Here I went off-trail and continued up the rocky canyon, rock hopping the whole way. The longer I was on this trail, the more difficult it got so I turned around to resume the official trail. And that's when I realized I had lost my keys. Oh god. I retraced my hike back to the van (the parking lot was now empty) to no avail. The dogs were wondering why I wasn't opening the side door. I then hiked the trail again, keeping my eyes on the trail. Thoughts of being stranded in a dark parking lot in the desert night spooked my mind. All my windows were closed, too. I then realized I may have lost the keys when I went into a rock corner to pee. And sure enough, my black van keys were barely visible in the brush. They had fallen out of my pants pocket! I scolded myself, as I tend to place my keys in my chest pocket to avoid losing them, but today I violated my own rule. Never again will I place keys in an unsecure pocket. The pockets to my UnderArmour hiking pants, while very comfortable, just don't have deep enough pockets.
I hadn't felt so relieved finding my keys as I did at this point. I apologized to the dogs for repeating the hike but they didn't complain. We finished the 2.8-mile loop hike in 1:18 hours. I hadn't been this thankful for getting back to my van as I did tonight.
I still had plenty of daylight but now I wanted to find a campsite, preferably a free dispersed one this Preserve is popular for. And I found one right off Black Canyon Road, north of the Mid Hills turn-off to the campsite. Two windmills marked the turn-off. A mound of granite rocks formed a huge circular drive around which were fire rings and wide spaces for campers. A motorcyclist, a tenter and a large group of Jeepers were already here. I parked facing the north and got to watch the calming sunset. With no internet to distract me, I got out a book and started reading it, before by 9pm I got tired and climbed in the back. Despite the many people around me, I neither heard nor saw anyone. It was the best sleep I had on this roadtrip.
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