Category: Hikes

11-13 Aug 2023: Joshua Tree/Perseid Meteor Shower

by JamesCalifornia / Campgrounds / Day Trips / Hikes / Joshua Tree National Park / National Parks / RV Parks / Sightseeing / Southern California / Trips

I saw a post about the 2023 Perseid Meteor Shower on Instagram. One of the best places to see this event in California is Joshua Tree National Park, a dark-sky area. But Joshua Tree is 105°F during the day in August. Regardless, all available campsites at Joshua Tree National Park were booked.
Our last trip to Joshua Tree was the same way, so we stayed at TwentyNine Palms RV Resort. It’s located 3mi from the north entrance and usually has available sites with full hookups. Until we install or buy a RV with 12v A/C, we prefer to stay at a place with electrical hookups when it’s that hot. We do not want to run a gas/propane generator for hours to stay cool.
Since we arrived before sunset on Friday Aug 11th, we drove into Joshua Tree to find a location to photograph the Milky Way. The Perseid Meteor Shower was already happening but peak viewing was Saturday, the next night. I wanted to photograph the Milky Way with Joshua Trees. So we stopped at Cap Rock and I found a Joshua tree foreground for my Milky Way photo along the southern trail.
On our way out, we stopped at Skull Rock to watch shooting stars for an hour before heading to the RV. Since Saturday night was forecast to be peak viewing of the meteor shower. I focused on getting a Milky Way+Joshua Tree photo Friday night. Saturday, I’d spend photographing shooting stars with a star tracker.


As we were leaving Joshua Tree NP Friday night, we noticed many people had chairs & recliners that made star gazing more comfortable. So Saturday, our mission was to find two zero gravity recliners in Yucca Valley. We found the last two on clearance at Home Depot. Tip: definitely invest in zero gravity recliners if you plan on spending any serious time star gazing.
Saturday, I wanted to do a hike before we setup for the meteor shower viewing. The temperature that evening was cool enough to hike the Heart Rock and Arch Rock Trail before it got dark. Turns out the area around the Arch Rock Trail parking lot would work for meteor shower viewing. Especially since we were lucky enough to grab one of the last parking spots. The lot was full and people were already setting up for meteor viewing when we arrived before sunset. Little did we know how CRAZY crowded Joshua Tree National Park would be tonight.

We saw an amazing display of shooting stars but not the hundred per hour predicted. I set up my Move Shoot Move star tracker and shot 2 minute exposures of the northeast sky and straight-up. After 3 hours of exposures from 2200-0100, ~90 frames, I was disappointed that the many shooting stars we saw were not in frame. This was my first try at star-tracked astrophotography and I was successful at polar alignment & tracking the stars. But successful astrophotography images are the result of practice & patience and I definitely need more of both. I didn’t want to interrupt the interval to check for successful capturing of what we were seeing. I thought the 14mm focal length was wide enough to catch the meteor trails.
We packed it in a little after 0100, after 3 hours of star-gazing. Our RV park is still in the dark area so if the meteor shower improved at 0200. We could still watch from outside our RV. As we left the park, the line of cars to get in stretched the 3mi to the main road. Crazy that hundreds of people were just arriving at 0100.
Regardless, we had a great time and were glad we got there early – the zero gravity recliners were a wonderful, comfortable way to star gaze. We’ll definitely make it a point to visit Joshua Tree at night often.

We packed up and departed 29Palms at 11am. Unfortunately, all the other thousands of people who came to Joshua Tree for the meteor shower were also heading West at that time. It took a few extra hours to get home because of the traffic.

25 Mar 2023: Imperial Sand Dunes

by JamesCalifornia / Day Trips / Hikes / Sightseeing / Southern California / Travel

After spending the morning at Center of the World, & lunching in Yuma, we drove an hour to the Imperial Sand Dunes. We couldn’t find the turnoff for Ted Kipf Rd to North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area so we stopped at the Hugh T. Osborne Lookout. There are restrooms and a large parking lot & it was busy. This is the ATVs & ORVs meet-up place with large parking spots for their support vehicles. The dunes south of highway 78 are etched with tire tracks so not the best for sand dune photographs. It’s an epic place to offroad w/ friends & carve up the dunes, or take photos of such activities. A permit is required to operate vehicles on the Imperial Sand Dunes – permit info here; area Map pdf here.


North of the 78, is the beginning of the BLM protected wilderness area where motorized vehicles are prohibited. We parked at Osborne Overlook then hiked across the road (78) where the Wilderness Area begins and no vehicles are allowed. There were some photo-worthy dunes so I made the best of the afternoon light. Hiking the dunes is challenging and be sure to bring water.

I wanted to find the road to the North Algodones Dunes which google maps outlines so clearly. It turns out Ted Kipf Rd is a barely marked, easy-to-miss dirt road that turns north off highway 78 at Glamis. After hiking the nearby dunes and the busy morning, we decided not to navigate Ted Kipf Rd. I was okay with the few images I took near the Overlook – below is a mix of north & south dunes. I will definitely be back to explore the North Algodones Dunes at sunset & Milky Way season.

23 Mar 2023: Tanque Verde Falls Trail

by JamesArizona / Day Trips / Hikes / Travel

One of most popular trails in east Tucson, according to AllTrails and other online hiking sites, is the Tanque Verde Falls Trail in the Coronado National Forest. It is rated ‘moderate’ by Alltrails and only ~2 miles out & back. We found this to be a really challenging hike. There wasn’t an obvious trail by the river, perhaps, because the water level was higher than normal due to the rainy/snowy winter. Working our way up the river required a lot of rock scrambling, which we expect, with strong current water-crossings.

The trail down to the river is an easy-to-follow dirt trail that brings you down to a flat rocky plateau next to the river. But once you reach this spot, the ‘trail’ a hundred yards upstream becomes a scramble or criss-crossing the river. You can choose to go over boulders, cross the river, or hike high along a ridge. But any path can end abruptly into brambles or a scramble up or down.
We managed to make it to the very last bend before the falls but were unable to make it to the falls. The only way to continue was to climb a 10ft wall. It had decent handholds but it was already a work-out to get to this point . We had to save enough energy to make it back and hike our way up the hill. Perhaps later in the season when the water level was lower or hiking some sections in the river, like the ‘Narrows’, would have been easier. But we watched other hikers have similar problems – picking a route then back-tracking to an alternative – it wasn’t just our unfamiliarity with the trail.
It was a beautiful day to hike and the area is awesome with many pools to cool off. But be aware the trail is a rock-scramble when the water level covers the shoreline and you may have to make your own route.

22 Mar 2023: Saguaro National Park East

by JamesArizona / Day Trips / Hikes / National Parks / Trips

The weather continued to be cool and rainy but great for hiking and photography. Saguaro National Park East appears to have more hiking trails than the west. There’s also a popular scenic drive loop through the park that has many pull-outs and trailheads. I thought the terrain was more interesting than the valley of the national park west. Along the trails, there were more wildflowers and changes in elevation. We enjoyed the scenic drive while it rain, stopping at a few scenic spots.

When we had stopped at the Visitor Center for a trail map. We overheard the park ranger recommend the Garwood Trail to another group of hikers wanting an uncrowded hike. This trail is part of several trails on the northern edge of the park which includes Douglas Spring, Converse, Wildhorse Loop. On one of the bends of the Garwood Trail, 1.5mi from the trailhead, is a rare crested saguaro cactus. It became somewhat of a scavenger hunt for us since the crude map from the visitors center, where he drew an X, was not to scale. Trail markers were also confusing since many different trails criss-cross the Garwood Trail. So we wondered if we had missed it but we continued along the trail and finally found this beautiful, unusual cactus – definitely worth the hike.


The rain has pretty much stopped so hike conditions were pretty good – cool but not muddy. The rain added to the photography by saturating the colors and adding water droplets. We did a lot of closeup photos.

Along the main road, we spotted another crested saguaro. It wasn’t nearly as intricately detailed as the Garwood Trail cactus. Perhaps in ~20 more years it will develop the flowery lobes. It was on someone’s property so not part of Saguro National Park East.

21 Mar 2023: Saguaro National Park West

by JamesArizona / Day Trips / Hikes / National Parks / Sightseeing

We read that Saguaro National Park West is more popular than the East so we visited here first. With winter rains generating large patches of wildflowers in California and Arizona. Our first stop was just over the ridge dropping into Saguaro National Park West valley on W.Picture Rock Road. The Cam-Boh/Ringtail trailhead was covered in Mexican Poppies and a colorful start to the trail. Further along, the wildflowers densities faltered, mainly concentrated in the shadow of Mt. Picture Rocks. So we cut our hike short after taking some wildflower photos. We had just started and wanted to head further into the valley.

Oddly, as you continue west on W.Picture Rock Road, you exit the park. Entering from the east on W Gates Pass Road or the south on S Kinney Road are probably better ways to enter the park. W Gates Pass Road take you past the scenic overlook and both roads take you by Old Tucson.
W Picture Rock Road skirts the northern edge before you head south to the Saguaro National Park West (aka Red Hills) Visitor Center.
There isn’t a lot of infrastructure in this national park. There are restrooms at the Visitor Center and Sonora Desert Museum, which also has a cafe. Fortunately, we stopped at a Speedway gas station w/ Subway sandwich shop & grabbed a sandwich before our hike.
Most of Saguaro National Park West is in the valley west of Tucson. There are hills surrounding the park carpeted with Saguaro and other cacti. Apparently, the density of Saguaro is a lot lower than when the park was founded but they are still abundant.
We picked the short Valley View Overlook Trail to see the panoramic view of Saguro National Park West. It was an easy hike with only ~50ft elevation gain.


20-23 Feb 2023: Wildflowers & Wildweather

by JamesAnza-Borrego State Park / Day Trips / Hikes / Sightseeing / State Parks / Trips

Finding a campsite for 3 days at Anza-Borrego State Park, even during the week, is challenging during peak season (Oct-May). Desert spaces are extremely popular during the winter, especially around Joshua Tree and Anza-Borrego. Fortunately, we found a spot at the Palm Canyon Hotel and RV Resort for 3 nights. It was a very different experience than last year when we dry-camped inside the park. This place has full hookups and is just west of downtown Borrego Springs. But for our first trip of 2023, we were happy just to be back on the road. We were hoping to see wildflowers everywhere but the ‘better-than-usual’ bloom was near its end.
Update: starting the day we headed home, there has been a week of continual rain and cold weather. So there will be a bunch of new blooms and if it turns into a Spring Superbloom, we’ll day-trip from Oceanside.

Borrego Palm Canyon (Our only hike)

We hiked the Borrego Palm Canyon trail our first morning in Borrego Springs. This has become one of our favorite hikes in the area – a 3-4mi easy hike with a potential Bighorn Sheep encounter (often at ~1130am near the trailhead). It’s a great hike to start the year. The Bighorn Sheep did appear but I unfortunately made the poor choice of taking the alternate trail back to the parking lot. The Bighorn Sheep were on the main trail so we only got a ‘tail-end glimpse’. I should have listened to Carol’s suggestion to hike the main trail back. The alternate trail meanders along the west side of the canyon and is the less-traveled trail. These particular sheep do not seem to mind being around people and are not skiddish. They might be the same group we saw last year, in nearly the same spot, same time of day (noonish).

Wildflowers

Anza-Borrego Wild Flowers Status Weblinks:

Anza-Borrego State Park Visitor Center posts wildflower locations (online as well)

There were wildflowers scattered around Borrego Springs/Anza-Borrego State Park when we visited. This was our first trip to specifically view them. But the weather was not our friend with high winds forecast for Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday. Now we are familiar with high winds around Desert Hot Springs and Indio because we have family there and visit often. But the winds that blew through this trip were extreme, unlike any we’ve ever encountered. So strong, they snapped the poles providing power to Borrego Springs. The miles of toppled power lines caused a regional power-outage all the way to La Quinta.
We had a nervous night trying to sleep in our wind-blown 20ft travel trailer. The wind break of trees and small slope behind our site helped but it was still an experience we won’t soon forget. The power went out Tues around midnight and didn’t come back till after midnight Wednesday. Because the power outage disabled the two gas stations in Borrego Spring. Wednesday became a search for gasoline since we needed to refuel before our Thurs departure. Not knowing when power might be restored, we ended up driving to Red Earth Casino, about 40mi, to fuel up.
The other consequence of the storm was the snow level had dropped to ~2000ft so chains were required on our planned route home. So we ended up driving the long way back through Palm Springs to avoid the continuing stormy weather and ice. Thursday morning the winds had slackened but it was raining hard, even hailing. We made it home without incident and Howie handle the craziness without issue.
This is the first time we’ve encountered these kind of conditions so it was good it happened on a short trip near home. Our preparedness for such a situation is okay – Howie has batteries and a solar panel. But we need to keep some fresh water in our tanks & be able to dry-camp even when we are staying at a full hookup campground.

07 Oct 2022: Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

by JamesDay Trips / Hikes / Kanab / State Parks / Utah

About 20 miles from Kanab is the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. According to the State Park website, these 10,000-15,000 year old sand dunes are created by three things: sand, high winds, and a notch between the Moquith and Moccasin mountains, that causes the dune formation. The eroding Navajo sandstone gives the sand dunes their ‘coral pink’ hue.


The park is popular with ATV/OHV vehicles and has campsites for visitors who want to stay overnight. Many people, like us, come to sled or sand-board down the dunes. There’s a $10 state park day-use fee and sand-board/sled rentals are $25 for all-day. With the sled, the Ranger will give you a small block of wax and instructions on how to apply it to the underside of the board. They also explain the best technique to successfully ride the sled down the dunes. Properly applying the wax to the bottom of the board greatly affects the speed downhill.
For $5, you can get a permit to fly your drone in the park – one of the few State Parks I’ve visited that allows this. I brought my drone so after sledding, I flew it over the park (video below).

Coral Sand Dunes State Park (drone footage; slow to play)

Most visitors come to sand-board or sled down the dunes. There are several smaller dunes but everyone seemed to pick the largest dune to ride. We started lower then moved higher as we got the hang of it and got braver. You can have some great, fast runs if you start high on the right slope angle. But climbing back up in the soft sand is an exhausting workout. The higher you start, the longer the climb back up. After a few runs, we were done.

Carol’s Best Run (slow to download & play)

In the afternoon, the wind can start blowing so be prepared for everything, including you, to be covered with the fine, red sand. Bring sunscreen, water and snacks with you cause once you hike out to the dunes. You will not want to trudge back to the picnic area or parking lot unless absolutely necessary.
We had a great time and highly recommend spending a couple hours here especially if you have kids.
One tip – a couple was having a terrible time sledding successfully down the dune. They tried all the tips & suggested techniques but their sled would turn sideways and catch-an-edge after several feet. Since we were done, we offered them our board and, like us, it worked fine for them. Applying wax to the underside of theirs wasn’t working because it was so heavily scratched/gouged. So when you rent, be sure to check out the underside of your sled and ask for a smoother one if it looks rough. Ours had gouges but not nearly as many as theirs. These sleds look like they’ve been around a long time and the undersides surely shows their age.
They log the board number when you rent so you’ll want to return the same board. When the couple were done with ours, we got it back to return. I do not know the park’s policy if you swap boards with somebody & return a different number.

06 Oct 2022: Grand Canyon North Rim

by JamesArizona / Day Trips / Hikes / Kanab / National Parks / Sightseeing

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is 8000ft. It’s much cooler, heavily forested, and more rustic than the south rim. Most of the facilities, like the lodge, close by mid-October or at first snowfall. The North Rim is lesser-visited than its Southern counterpart. So less crowded, except at the lodge, which is the main destination for visitors. We were treated to wonderful fall colors and deer during the 80mi drive from Kanab.

We had a great morning exploring the trails & viewpoints along the north rim. Then we enjoyed a panoramic canyon view during lunch at the lodge restaurant. We wanted to see more and taking advice from our campground neighbor familiar with the North Rim. We drove the Cape Royal Road to access the many viewpoints along the canyon.


There was very little traffic on this long winding back-road that takes you east through dense forest then south along the canyon. The viewpoints by the lodge were wonderful but these other viewpoints are even better. For example, at Angels Window, you can walk out to the viewpoint for an unobstructed 260° panoramic view of the canyon from east to west.
After missing a spectacular sunset at Bryce Canyon, I had to stay & photograph sunset. Intermittent rain squalls were creating dramatic light so I knew it would be special. Photographing a Grand Canyon sunset at Cape Royal/Angels Window viewpoint is ideal. There were so many angles catching the changing light along the canyon from this location. The atmospheric conditions with intermittent cloud bursts over that canyon created haze and rainbows. As hoped, the sun broke through with amazing light, striking the canyon valley, pinnacles, and back-lighting the trees along the rim.


The only drawback of staying till dark was the slow nervous 2hr drive back to Kanab, trying not to hit deer or other wildlife. Arizona does not recognize Daylight Savings Time so by the clock, it took 3hrs to get back. We stopped at the Jacob Lake Inn for a break & wonderful, home-style dinner before driving a more relaxed hour back to Kanab.

Deer
Longhorn Cattle

05 Oct 2022: Sand Caves

by JamesDay Trips / Hikes / Kanab / Sightseeing / Utah

When searching for things to do in Kanab, the Sand Caves just north of town are a popular stop. This feature is close to the road as you drive into town from the north. It’s a short easy hike that becomes moderate because it requires scrambling up angular sandstone slabs ~100ft.

Sand Caves

It is an easy-access location that’s not part of a state or national park so very busy. The amazing detail of the sandstone walls are partially obscured by the etched graffiti defacing this man-made wonder. But this is a great short hike that doesn’t take long and is worthwhile. It rained lightly while we were there which made the scramble down tricky. The loose sand-covered slab becomes even slicker when wet.

05-08 Oct 2022: Kanab Utah

by JamesArizona / Day Trips / Hikes / Kanab / National Parks / Sightseeing / State Parks / Travel / Utah

After all the hikes and scenic drives at Zion & Bryce Canyon, by the time we arrived at Kanab, we were tired. So we shortened our 4 night stay at Kanab RV Corral to 3 nights. It’s a RV campground with full hookups on the south end of town. Close to everything, practical, affordable but not scenic.

Kanab is a great base-camp to explore southern Utah and northern Arizona. We were hoping to hike the Wave but did not win a permit in the online lottery. The Wave Lottery has changed from ‘in-person next-day permit’ lottery at the Kanab Visitor Center to an online ‘two-days-from-now permit’ lottery at recreation.gov. The details including ‘geofencing’ (ie you have to be in the area when participating) can be found at visitsouthernutah.com and here at BLM.gov.

Sand Caves

Sand Caves

Grand Canyon North Rim

  • Besides the Wave, another excursion we planned was visiting the north rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s about 80mi south of Kanab and a great drive for fall colors in October.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

  • Since we didn’t get the Wave permit, we visited the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park our last day. We rented a sled and had a great time sledding down the huge coral sand dune. The ride down was incredibly fun but the trudge back up was exhausting. This was a great change to our usual routine of finding a trail but still quite a workout.