Back to the bad lands...

I guess we never learn from our mistakes because yesterday we decided to try again with a "4WD only tour". We headed out and met up with 2 other rigs for a trip out into the desert. The ranger never showed so we decided to venture out on our own and see what we could find. This is an area that has no roads and is in the desert rather than the mountains. Should be no problem compared to the day before. We will tell you in advance that we made it the whole day without any mishaps except at the end of the day heading back to the main road we just about crashed into a very large critter. More about that later; have we peaked your interest?

This is about 20 miles into the desert with nothing growing for miles.

A typical track running up a dry wash. Every corner brings a different geology look. Unbelievable so barren and dry. It was only 61 degrees and it felt like 80, that is until you get in the shade and then it's cool. Would not want to be out here without lots of water.

Someone had some fun creating their style of art. Go back to the last photo and see where this was taken.

We found two areas out in the desert where there are palm groves. One of these was a stopping place for travelers in the 19th century and was one of the few spots where they could get water. You can see here again that the only thing growing is the palms. There was not any surface water, but it must be here or these would die out real fast.

Another view of a palm grove with the dry was road going by it. There is a box tied to two palms that was full of messages from people who have visited this spot. It was used in the 1800's just for this purpose.

We took another road was that we were told was a neat place to go. We went 4 miles up another dry wash and were not excited by what we saw. We got to the end of the trail, parked and walked up the short trail to look over the edge and see this. Our mouths fell open and we backed away from the edge real quick.

We got our picture taken just to give you some idea of how deep, barren and beautiful this really is. Notice that there are not any guard rails at the edge of the dropoff.

This will give you an idea of how deep this is. Yes that's Dick standing on the edge in the distance. If you enlarge this picture and at the top of the road in the distance just left of center is where we are camped. It's just at the base of the mountains in the distance.

This is the critter that was walking across the wash as we headed back to the highway. Glad Dick was able to stop before he did damage to the front end of the truck. Must have been about 5 feet across. So there are large critters out in the desert.

Did I say 5 feet? I think I should have said 5 inches. Either way he/she is big. Go ahead, click on this one and fill up your screen with this harry critter (tarantula?).

To be continued...