Monday, February 23 (continued)
The previous post ends with Bridget and me heading east on Interstate 10 toward Blythe, at the California-Arizona border. We don’t go that far. About ten miles east of Desert Center, we take exit 201 onto Chuckwalla Road.
We immediately approach a “Road Closed” sign.
Fortunately right before the barrier, Corn Springs Road goes off to the right (south), and that’s the road I want to take!
It’s a wide, gravel-and-dirt road in washboard condition (not terrible . . . We’ve been on worse!). As you can see in the above photo that looks back toward the interstate, we are crossing flat desert, part of Chuckwalla Valley.
What the heck is a chuckwalla, you ask?
It’s a lizard, specifically Sauromalus ater or Common Chuckwalla. Their range is the Mojave and Sonoran deserts of southeastern California, southern Nevada and Utah, western Arizona and south to Sonora, Mexico and the mainland and islands of Baja.
Click this link to learn more.
Bridget and I are on Corn Springs Road which takes us into the Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness.
My California Benchmark atlas shows a campground about ten miles from the interstate on this road. Dark clouds hover over us, as well as over the mountains ahead of us.
The bumpy road agitates Bridget.
“Okay, honey. Let’s stop for a minute and get our bearings. You probably need a break.”
Sure enough. I let her out and she’s relieved in more ways than one. While Bridget wanders around, I check my Verizon air card for signal.
Hmm… 4G and two bars.
Since we’re heading into a canyon, I want to know where the signal disappears.
Then if there’s no signal at our camp, I’ll know how far out of the canyon I need to travel to get online. I’m always thinking of my blog’s readers!
I like camping in a wilderness.
Vehicles are restricted to roads. I pass a “No Hunting” sign. As we enter the mountain area, the road curves along a wash and goes up and down and around.
I know we have reached the campground when palm trees come into view.
I researched the campground before setting out this morning.
The BLM Corn Springs Campground site says there are petroglyphs and sixty palm trees.
Sadly several of the palms are dead or dying.
I’m not going to let this dark day and dead palms color my perception of the campground. It is what it is . . . . .
I pull into the campground loop and park next to the vault toilet building.
“C’mon, Bridge. No one is here. Let’s walk around and see what we can see!”
She loves that idea!
Instantaneously Bridget turns from passenger dog to Junior Camp Host. She leads me to the different campsites. This is a good one . . . .
The site below once had four palms around its picnic table and shelter. Now they’re only poles.
We climb up a knoll for a wide view of the area.
The campground is surrounded by mountains, near and far. It’s quiet here, very pleasant.
The fee is $6 a night ($3 with Golden Age pass, the half-price discount for seniors over 62).
The campground has two vault toilets and nine sites, including a group site. Picnic tables, fire pits, and grills. A few sites have shelters. Trash containers are here and there. Also a hand pump for water, although a sign says water is limited. Sites are back in. We’d fit fine at our 34 feet.
I grab a bottle of water and the foot-long, turkey breast sub sandwich out of the PTV.
I pick a table for our picnic and share the sandwich with Bridget. While eating, I consider where we might camp.
We could camp here. It’s nice enough and no one is here. Of course, someone could pull in at any time and ruin the peace and quiet. It’s not likely, but still . . . . I saw that boondock on the way here . . . Gee, that was a great spot . . . .
I wrap up the remaining half of the sandwich and get up from the table.
“Let’s go. You want to be a boondocker, Bridge?”
She answers by scampering around me and scurrying toward the PTV, stopping briefly to check on another tantalizing smell.
As soon as I pull into the boondock camp, I like it better than the campground.
It’s located at the entrance to the mountains and feels less closed-in. We’re in compliance with the camping rule, well within 100 feet from the center of the road at an established site as evidenced by a fire ring of rocks and a pull-through around some creosote bushes.
I appreciate the view from the back window of the Best Little Trailer.
Later, after dark, I’m at my laptop desk, writing a blog post.
I peek through the curtains and see the tiny lights of vehicles on the interstate several miles away. Wind rushes through the canyon. The BLT rocks slightly.
When a calm day arrives, we’ll move to the next camp. In the meantime, Bridget and I can hike, relax, and enjoy this place!
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Bridget in our front yard in the Chuckwalla Mountains Wilderness
