Got back early Sunday from a 2 night camp trip in Anza Borrego. We all took a half day from work and headed east on I-8 and started south this time and worked our way north. First night we camped near Dos Cabezas Spring which was lovely and had beautiful scenery. Very joshua tree vibey. Made a great dinner, had some drinks and say a few shooting stars, some of which were very, very bright, so maybe a little meteor shower? Around 9PM a 4 runner came into our camp and this guy just sat in there for what seemed like minutes (probably closer to 30 seconds lol). He got out of his car and started walking towards us, kind of hiding behind one of the trucks and pops his head out and asked if there were any cave dwellers here. It of course freaked us out and we were all on high alert and a few of us were under the influence. It ended up being the wrong campsite and he was trying to find some friends. Apparently they meet at that spot once a year and go cave hunting. There was some relevance to the way the Native Americans did it back in the day hence the cave dweller part. I didn't understand. Luckily there was 1 sober person there who chatted with him and once he was on his way talked us into not worrying as it was just an old guy trying to find his friends lol.
About 30 minutes later way off in the distance we see these crazy amber lights being shot up in the sky. From my perspective, they were just being shot up from the ground and hovering in place. My friends in camp had their own ideas and our imagination wandered because we had just finished up a ridiculous campfire chat about if Aliens asked us if we wanted to see another universe, if we would go with them or not.
I did not sleep well that night
Day 2 we had a big day planned so packed up pretty quick and early and hit the road. We saw our cave dweller friend about 100 yards away at another camp site and had a quick laugh with him. Continued on some trails and stopped at the offroad touristy sites in the southern AB area around the railroad. I have always wanted to try out Jojoba wash so we headed down that direction. Once we got to really the only difficult part of the trail we realized quickly that we did not want to squeeze our full size trucks through it. I would have done it personally but we were with a stock 22 Tremor and he understandably had no interest. We back up and out of the trail and took a different direction to S2.
From S2 we headed north to Canyon Sin Nombre and down Diable drop off. With all the rains recently there were many, many canyon walls that had collapsed, a few of them creating new obstacle to go over or around. At this point we had not seen anyone else out there other than our friend from the night before.....until Diablo Drop off. There were maybe 30 Jeeps as part of an all girls jeep club meetup. They would go down, then turn around and come back up. Over and over. Most of the jeeps were stock ish, no lockers so you can imagine how it looked. It was creating a bottle neck at the top and at the bottom. I was getting a little frustrated as I believe Diablo drop off is a one way and you're only supposed to go down and then there is trail etiquette that seemed to be non existent. So I moved forward and the 4 of us were able to go down no trouble at all. At the bottom were some other trucks waiting to go up the sand side and down the drop off but there were unable given the shenanigans up top, also frustrated (but a few really nicely built tundras ere down there so that was some nice eye candy compared to what we saw up to). Once we got down and continued through the trail someone got service and there was a work issue he had to take care of so we stopped on the trail for 15 mins and had a beverage. By this time it was 95 degrees , and 11AM and we were getting over it so passed through Fish Creek (also very crowded, surprisingly) and opted to take a 2 hour break at the Iron Door for some pool and some air conditioning and a few beers.
Doubled back to Fish creek and went around the other side of the fish creek mountains and found an awesome 100 yard silt bed. I had never been through silt before but knew I needed 4x4 and momentum so got on the radio and told everyone what was coming up and to wait for my radio call. It was awesome. A few times the silt splashed over my roof and I wish I got some pics. We all made it through. The tremor wanted to see how far he could get in 2WD and almost got stuck. Which would have been bad to say the least. Continued down the trail and got to the train bridge and took some touristy pics and did a donut or two. Hit it north to our awesome semi secret campsite by about 4. It was hot so we sat in the shade for a few hours swatting flys and drinking. We were all exhausted from not sleeping well the night before and being tossed around all day so hit it early and I slept like a baby.
Next morning we were all smelly and dirty and we got swarmed by bees. We were all pretty much over it so packed up very quickly, headed to the Ocotillo Wells Ranger station, hit the bathroom, organized and packed a little better and took off. I was home by 945 AM. Got the truck un packed and spent 2 hours detailing it.
Few things, I love having my garmin in reach to check in with my pregnant wife and toddler. It's worth every penny. I think everyone should have one just in case. Two nights in the hot desert was too much. It's romantic to think of doing it, and I have done it before but at this point I think I'm an early sat morning to sunday afternoon type of guy. Unless I am in cooler weather- different story. Lastly, I like taking my time. We had too much planned and were constantly trying to get the the next spot so didn't get to enjoy one spot for too long.
It was an awesome trip. Only took a few pics but will post them shortly.
