South Eastern California, South Western Arizona and Southern Nevada best bets

[ramblinboy]

Newbies off to the desert for some months. We'll be in and around Anza Borrego, Joshua Tree, Yuma, Las Vegas area. We hike and cycle to keep highway-butt at bay.

The Colorado River area seems to be a big draw up by Parker and Laka Havasu. The river valley seems to be a good place to be less windblown we're guessing.

We'd certainly appreciate any recommendations of things to see and do so a mix of Dry and RV camp recommendations'd be great! Thanks rB

[tbutler]

Sounds like you have a great time ahead. We really enjoyed Joshua Tree National Park. There are so many great trails that will take you to old gold mines, mine relics, oasis (Fortynine Palms Oasis is magical, appearing over the hill after a hike thorugh typical desert) and scenic views. We hiked many of the hikes, exploring and enjoying the desert. One of our favorites was the Lost Horse Trail. There is an old stamping mill that is still in good condition on that trail and as you continue on the seven mile loop there are other mines and relics along the way. Get a map before you go on this one so you are sure to stay on the trail as it isn't that well marked in spots. We stayed near in Palm Desert to explore the southern part of the park and in Twentynine Palms to explore the northern part of the park. There also an extensive area for rock climbing in the northern part of the park and there are local shops to rent equipment and give classes in rock climbing if you are really interested in firming up your posterior. The park where we stayed in Twentynine Palms, Twentynine Palms Golf Resort, had a golf course and you could play nine holes a day as part of your campground fee. We were in the Joshua Tree area for over three weeks just exploring and enjoying a great desert.

Another top park to be seen is Death Valley National Park. As with all these deserts, you need to be there in the early spring. This one in particular is notable for its extreme hot weather. We left Death Valley on May the 9th and temperatures were regularly hitting 100 degrees during the day. We explored the southern part of the park from a campground outside the park. We stayed at Longstreet Casino on the California/Nevada border. You are several hours drive from Las Vegas at Longstreet. We don't gamble much but enjoy having a restaurant available once in a while. They have a nice campground and the prices were very reasonable when we were there. We enjoyed exploring the Amargosa Valley and drove to the ghost town of Rhyolite from there. It is about a 30 mile drive from Longstreet to the visitors center at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. We stayed at Stovepipe Wells in the park for a week while we explored the northern part of the park. There is fantastic scenery if you like bare naked rocks and we do! You'll hardly see a plant anywhere but the rock colors and formations are spectacular. We hiked many trails including hikes to Keane Wonder gold mine (temporarily closed now), Ubehebe Crater, sand dunes, salt deposits on the valley floor. Dante's View is spectacular, looking across the valley from 1 mile above the lowest point. I did a 35 mile bike ride from Dante's View to Furnace Creek and hardly had to peddle the bike at all. Louise clocked me at 35 mph on the way down the alluvial fan. Scotty's Castle in the northern part of the park is an interesting tour as well. There were dry camping facilities in the park, basically large parking lots but they were empty by the time we got there in mid-April.

We stayed at Louise's mothers home in Lake Havasu many times. It is worth a visit but I didn't find a lot of hiking and exploring to be done around that area. It is a great place for boating and fishing. South of Lake Havasu on US 95 at I-10 is the RV Winter Mecca of Quartzite. There is dry camping in the desert around the area and many RV parks along US 95 between Quartzite and Lake Havasu.

The Anza-Borrego desert has good hiking but we never visited the State Park there. We've been through Yuma but never stayed there. We saw lots of off road vehicle activity in the deserts near Yuma. Many of those folks were dry camped along the desert.

[ramblinboy]

Many thanks for your usual well detailed travel recommendations Tom! You do know how to take advantage of opportunities available at each location. Can't wait to bike through the badlands. We have similar landforms here in Alberta - a must see for those who will attend the 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede. Dinosaur Provincial Park - pics attached. Kids especially (10 years and up) love the opportunity to see a working recovery of dinosaur bones. The park is 3 hours east of Calgary it does have sites for RVs but big rigs might be a tad tight in the sites.

http://www.tpr.alber...pgroundmaps.asp

[jlsnyder]

If you are going to Anza Borrego State Park, check out the state park campground (reservations made through reserveamerica.com). I believe this campground fills up during the winter/spring months so plan ahead. We have not stayed there but drove thru on a day-trip and it is great for being within the state park. While there are no amenities or shade trees to speak of, you can get full hook-ups (30 amp) at a very decent price and the sites are paved. 35' RV max length listed but the driveways are much longer than that, so call the park if you need further info. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a very nice RV park with all the amenities in Borrego Springs from which to tour Anza Borrego, The Springs at Borrego RV Park is very nice and has a golf course.

One of our favorite spring short trips is to Sam's Family Spa Hot Water Resort in Desert Hot Springs, not far from Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree. If you like to soak in mineral hot tubs, this is the place! There are several mineral hot pools RV parks in the Desert Hot Springs area.

Joyce

Have a great trip!

[fossfactor]

Hi. If you feel like a little adventure, try either of the 2 places We just came back from. We went to Benson down by Tombstone, Elgin for wine tasting, We stayed at Cochise Terrace RV resort *pet friendly and the folks there are extremely friendly, nice place to stay. Also by Tuscon is Catalina State Park. Large pull thru and back in sites. Beautiful hiking and Mountain Bike trails. Electric and Water on the B loop w dump station nearby.

Enjoy!

Brad and Kathy