Spring Break 2017 Photoset • Hansenaz • 2017-03-09 • HikeArizona.COM

Spring Break 2017, CA

	2017-03-09
	3 by Hansenaz

Spring Break 2017, CA

Scenic Drive

Scenic Drive

no routes

Linked

none

no linked trail guides

Partners

none

no partners

A casual 3 day desert car loop with occasional stops for some exercise and sight-seeing. The basic trip was similar to one my wife and I did 5yrs ago but this time our youngest son came along and the itinerary was slightly altered: Joshua Tree :next:

Mojave National Preserve :next:

Christmas Tree Pass/Grapevine Canyon :next:

Laughlin

Oatman

home.

I got some tips from a helpful HAZ petrophile which allowed us to do a nice walk in JT near Barker Dam and find some cool pictographs. The ground there is covered with large boulders and we tried to take a creative route to another site. This consisted of a lot of scrambling and tunnel ducking. We didn't get where we wanted but we had some fun.

Next day we drove North from Twentynine Palms, stopped at Amboy Crater to look at the lava flow then continued on to Kelso Dunes. It's about an hour slog to the top and our route was not the best (hint: don't take on the big face straight on). Still a very nice place. The disappointment of the trip was that the lunchroom at Kelso Depot (a highlight 5yrs ago) had closed down 3yrs ago so there was no lunch to be had in the Mojave Preserve and we detoured to Baker.

Continued on to Searchlight and took the ~17mi dirt road over Christmas Tree Pass. I had correctly guessed that the Christmas Trees were junipers but I hadn't figured that about 100 of them would be decorated for the holiday. Grapevine canyon is sign posted off this road. It is not a secret petroglyph site, in fact it is prominently advertised in Laughlin. Many, many, glyphs at the canyon entrance - impressive place. We didn't venture far past the entrance.

On to Laughlin for the night. Had never been there before but it's clearly the polar opposite of Twentynine Palms. Took the dirt road over to Oatman the next day where our enjoyable/surreal visit overlapped with some Japanese tour buses. Fun trip...

Photos:
Joshua Tree [ photoset ]
Kelso Dunes [ photoset ]
Grapevine [ photoset ]

_____________________

2 archives

username		X
password		X