The Texas Trek Day 2
Day 2: Barstow to Quartzsite, Arizona - 248 miles
We were up and out this morning in a timely manner, on the road after 8. Occasionally after importing the day's route into the GPS, Ginnie (the name we gave our GPS) surprises us by sending us on a different route. Today was one of those days. Instead of routing us along I-40 to Needles, she directed us along a lesser road, Rt 247, then Rt 62 past the west side of Joshua Tree NP, until we joined I-10 around Desert Hot Springs.
Rt 247 turned out to be a road less traveled, with spectacular scenery. Wild, barren and unpopulated, this road took us due south across the Mojave desert.
This was my panorama for 78 miles (there was a glare on the windshield but you will at least get the picture):
We spied several areas with boondockers and also folks having fun driving their ATVs.
And so we continued happily along...
I spied a Joshua tree. Then later there were forests of them. We were at an altitude over 3000 ft, where these interesting trees grow.
The final section of Rt 247 took us down a steep descent into Yucca Valley. The large monzogranite boulders appeared seemingly out of nowhere, like the ones we saw in Joshua Tree NP earlier this year.
The steep downgrade, the first 8% grade we have seen, continued for several miles into the Morongo Valley. Michael reminded me that Palm Springs and Indio were once an ocean and at the same level as the Salton Sea a few miles further south. We had descended the desert plateau and were about to connect with Interstate 10.
A feature of the Desert Springs region are the hundreds of wind turbines doing their crazy 3-legged cartwheels.
We were now heading east across more flat desert terrain.
We crossed the Colorado River at Blythe and entered Arizona.
A few more miles further east, we exited into Quartzsite, filled up at the Arco truck stop east of town ($2.61/gallon), and headed to Holiday Palms RV Park.
Three other Alpine coaches had already arrived. Two more came in after us. We are all heading to the Texas rallies. The Collinses, Flemings, Fosters, Greg Vaughan, Frank Krauland and we enjoyed pizza dinner at Silly Al's.
