On the Road in the Left Whale: April 2025: Gene's tour of the Southwest

So before I started heading back to Boston, Gene decided she wanted a tour of the South West highlights. I went and got the Whale out of Storage in Menifee and then met up with Gene in Burbank at Greg and Loretta's. After a great visit, we headed to the Anza-Borrego desert - which is on the west side of the Salton sea in south east California. Amazing area - still part of the San Andreas fault with Death Valley to the north and the Sea of Cortez to the south. Designated the 2nd Dark Sky area (after ?) the star gazing was just awesome. Somehow it seems the Salton Sea area really attracts the unconventional people. Weird art, amazing little town and all just fun. The craziest was walking around between all the giant sculptures in the Galleta meadows. (click the link).

Dinosaur in the distance

Barbie looking mightily small against the Serpent

Gene not looking much bigger

The Serpents tail

The local birds do not think much of the donkey

Gene was working so I spent the morning walking around in the local town - Borrego springs - seems to be a weekend get-away for San Diego and LA people with too much money.

The Ocotillo's were just coming into bloom

The area is famous for their Ocotillos

Fascinating story on how they can grow anything in this arid desert scape

We actually saw one a few days later - funniest little bird

Last of the T-Rex

After a too short visit we headed to "The Fountain of Youth" rv park (FOY) on the other side of the Salton sea - I had stayed there in early 2024 for a week or 2. This time around it was near empty as the temperatures (even in April) was hovering around 100F. We used the park as base to go get a beer or 2 at the Ski Inn in Bombay Beach, see what new sculptures were on the beach, ...

The Youths

The actual fountain of youth...

Still here from last year

A place made for photos

The Open House

Gene cannot resist an Open House....

An amazing contraption that was standing upright by just balancing studs and cables

C3P0 had survived

Gene providing some much needed therapy to someone in the box

When I was in BB last, someone was digging this out to create a night club. We did not see it in operation, but it looks good

The best vending machine

Unfortunately the owners had died since I was here last, but still a functioning bar in Bombay Beach

Its all about the perspective - see the pic before this one

With the FOY as our base, we visited the mud pots near Calipatria with their unearthly sounds and finally got to East Jesus and Salvation Mountain - as I said earlier - this area really attracts some interesting people. Probably going to be adding too many photos, but the place is just crazy.

Lots of photo opportunities

Large geo-thermal power plant in the background

The walk to the top of salvation is long and hard, but there is salvation at the top

The start of East Jesus

and Costco provides

This barbie doll car was seriously macabre

Gene revisiting her youth

After FOY we headed up to Joshua Tree National park. We could unfortunately only get a single night at Cottonwood campground, but that gave us time to do a great walk to an old abandoned mine in the mountains. I had stayed here last year and had woken up one morning with snow on the ground. This time around it was 100F at 5am.

Cottonwood spring

Start of our walk to the abandoned mine

Mine entrance bottom right - at least they had an amazing view

Rock within a rock

More Ocotillo's

Seeds from ... felt like cotton

Weird stream of quartz - always a sign that there is gold nearby

Spent the next day driving through the park - stopping at "Cap Rock" for lunch and a hike.

Skull rock behind Gene

Even in the desert, spring is springin'

Our first tortoise. I really think some more evolution stuff needs to happen here - at least 2ft extra on the legs as they were struggling between the rocks

Grows 1/2 inch per year... so 20ft tree = 150years

Amazing rocks

After Joshua Tree we headed for La Paz - a county RV park on the Colorado river. Main reason I came back here was with the help of Barbie we could actually go to "The Desert Bar" - an off-the-grid bar about 10 miles into the desert - 4x4 with high clearance required... In the end, the dirt road was not too bad, but if you did not come with an all-wheel drive, it had better be a rental, as the road was a car-wrecker. The bar is only open Saturday and Sunday and always has some type of live music. It was lots of fun. Lots of sxs (side-by-side offroad vehicles) and sds magats.

Quite a large bar area

Hot dry sun in the desert = many beers

The band was actually quite good

Most people were over 60 and ...

Middle of nowhere

Very little left of the mining town

Why we need gun laws...

Barbie holding her own between the big boys

Then it was on to Havasu City. Took Gene to all the sites - the ferry ride over to the casino on the California side, walk down the local slot canyon, Mustang Sally's for live music, etc. We also rented a car to do a loop through the mountains to see Oatman - another 'abandoned' town on Route 66. Fortunately/Unfortunately it was biker weekend when we were there, and Oatman was overrun with bikers. We did see a few of the famous donkeys and stopped off in Kingman - another historic town on Route 66.