Road Trip 2020 - Surviving the Desert Rats of Tucson, Arizona

Roadtrip - San Diego to Tucson, via Peoria, Arizona
January 28 - 31, 2020
Surviving the desert rats of Tucson, Arizona

Tucson Mountain Park glows red with the light of the setting sun.

    We departed San Diego on a sunny morning and felt that we were finally starting our road trip after spending most of January visiting family and friends in California. The next two nights, we would also visit a lifelong friend of Roger’s who lives in Peoria, Arizona, next to Phoenix. They have been friends since their Humboldt University days, and both have retired from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Roger and his friend golfed while I caught up on trip planning and writing. 

Hiking in Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona

     That night, we enjoyed a delicious meal at the Persian Room in Scottsdale. I don’t think I had ever been to a Persian restaurant. First, the server brought us a plate of warm naan with a side of fresh basil leaves and onion slices. We had to ask about how to eat it. She explained how to wrap the basil and onion in the bread  — it’s to prepare your palate, she said. It sounded odd to us but was quite tasty. The naan was so good, I couldn’t stop eating it, with or without the basil and onion. We then shared an appetizer called Chicken Eggplant Borani, a hot dish of sautéed chicken and eggplant in a tomato sauce with fresh lemon juice, seasonings, and topped with fried onions. For my entree, I ordered Fessenjan, a stew of chicken and ground walnuts, simmered in a sweet and sour pomegranate sauce with basmati rice on the side. Roger ordered Gyro, thinking it was a sandwich, but it was just the seasoned beef, broiled and sliced thin, served with basmati rice and a homemade gyro sauce. We shared Baklava for dessert. The restaurant was beautifully decorated, so it made the dining experience feel even more exotic.

The view from the rear window of the van.

     The next morning, we said goodbye to our friend and his sweet German short-hair pointer, Baylee Lu, and made our way to Tucson and Saguaro National Park. Saguaro National Park West does not have a campground, so we reserved two nights at the Gilbert Ray Campground in Tucson Mountain Park. I had expected the Tucson area to be flatter, but it was quite hilly with many up and down dips in the road. I was getting a little seasick as if we were on the ferry to Pelican, riding the swells of Cross Sound.

Barrell cactus

     Gilbert Ray is by far one of the most scenic campgrounds I have ever visited. Parts of it are still “campy,” for example, the hand-painted signs in the bathroom and the heavy wooden pegs on the wall, clearly made in the campground’s carpenter shop. The other campground guests were mostly retired people like us who seem to have a great appreciation for natural places.

     The beautiful desert landscape is full of a variety of cacti, shrubs, and trees. Some of the cacti are named after their appearance: teddy bear and staghorn cholla, hedgehog, beavertail, barrel, and fishhook. Of course, the stately saguaro cacti dominate the landscape. The mix of cacti, shrubs, and trees are on display as if arranged by a professional florist.

The sun begins to set in Tucson Mountain Park.

     We arrived just in time for the beautiful sunset, overlooking the city of Tucson. Sunset reminded me of being in Hawaii, everyone stopped for a few moments, turned to the west, and enjoyed a few peaceful moments as the sun dipped below the horizon, turning the sky fiery orange. 

Sunset at Gilbert Ray Campground

     As we settled into camp and prepared dinner (chicken and vegetable stir fry with leftover rice from the Persian restaurant), we noticed several of the vehicles parked nearby had their hoods up, and rope lights were strewn on the ground under the engine area of the trucks.

Beautiful desert scenery surrounds our campsite.

I then remembered a campground review I had read about how to prevent desert rats from eating the electrical and fuel wires of your vehicle. Keep the hood open and light on to keep the desert rats out. I told Roger about it, and he skeptically replied, “It does a good job keeping the giraffes out too.” The next morning, a man walked by and asked, “How come everyone has their hoods open? Can’t everyone be working on their vehicles?” We explained the story of the desert rats. “Hmmm, said the man. I don’t know about that.” 

The hills below the Tucson Mountains create
the perfect habitat for the saguaro cacti.

     The next day, we drove to Saguaro National Park West, which abuts Tucson Mountain Park. We went to the visitor center, where I looked for a rat mascot in honor of The Year of the Rat. Surely, with all these desert rats, there would be a cute little rat in the gift shop. I didn’t find a single rat. 

     We drove the five-mile, unpaved, Bajada Scenic Loop and stopped to hike on the Valley View Overlook Trail (.8 mile) and the Signal Hill Petroglyphs Trail (.3 mile). Also in this area is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Old Tucson Studios theme park. We did not take the time to go to either of these attractions. Several of our friends recommended the desert museum, but we just didn’t have enough time. I recall visiting Old Tucson Studio (or a similar place) many years ago on another visit to Tucson. 

Petroglyphs from the Hohokam period,
450-1450 CE.

     Thank goodness someone had the forethought to set aside these lands for the public to enjoy. As one of the displays described at an overlook, you can clearly see where the border of the park ends, and private ownership begins. If not for these parks, development would continue to encroach the desert and mountains, and we wouldn’t have these them to enjoy and appreciate.

View from a picnic area in Saguaro West Tucson Mountain District

“If much in the world were mystery the limits of that world were not, for it was without measure or bound and there were contained within it creatures more horrible yet and men of other colors and beings which no man has looked upon and yet not alien none of it more than were their own hearts alien in them, whatever wilderness contained there and whatever beasts.” — Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

#tucsonmountainpark #saguaronationalpark #gilbertraycampground #vanlife #me2ak #ontheroad #roadtrip

Road Trip 2020 - Detour: Las Vegas & San Diego

January 24-27, 2020 - Las Vegas, Nevada (Patte) & San Diego, California (Roger)

Las Vegas is better with friends

Red Rock Canyon is located just outside of Las Vegas.

     We sadly departed Jumbo Rocks Campground in Joshua Tree National Park after three magical days of biking, hiking, and stargazing. I was on my way to visit UMaine friends in Las Vegas while Roger would drive the van to San Diego and hang out with his brother and sister-in-law for the weekend. I had a Greyhound bus ticket from Palm Springs to Vegas. It made sense at the time. Cheaper and quicker than flying since there are no direct flights to Vegas from Palm Springs. 

We B 2 B Who B U B?

     Roger dropped me off at the North Palm Springs bus stop at a Shell station off I-10. The bus arrived about 20 minutes late. In the last minutes before the bus arrived, I went back to the van (thankfully, Roger was still there) and grabbed a couple of granola bars and two clementine oranges. (Lesson one, always travel with food and water.)

     The bus arrived, and I took a seat near the back. The bus originated in Yuma, Arizona, that morning and was heading to L.A. I would get a connecting bus to Vegas in San Bernardino. I settled in, looking forward to a relaxing ride to Vegas.

Not a happy bus customer

     At 1 p.m., a half-hour into the ride, after picking up new passengers in Banning, the bus chugged a few times then quit, and the driver pulled over to the side of Highway 10 near Calimesa, about 20 miles southeast of San Bernardino. The driver went outside and opened an engine compartment near the back of the bus. Then he tried to start the bus again. He repeated this procedure a few more times. It didn’t look good. 

     We sat on the bus for two hours before the passengers started to lose their patience. Some called a customer service number. Then someone said that everyone needed to call the number until we got results. This is wrong. We should get a refund. We need water.

New York, New York, in Las Vegas

     The customer service person said, “I’m sorry that happened to you. You need to call the customer service number.”

     The passengers said, “This is the customer service number. You are customer service. That’s you!”

     The customer service person said the phone lines must be overloaded because the calls were being forwarded to him. All we could do was call back. Eventually, one of the customer service people verified that indeed, we were broken down, the driver had filed a report, and either a mechanic or another bus was on the way. Which one? They didn't know. In this situation, the procedure was to send a mechanic, and if the mechanic couldn't fix it, then they would send another bus. How long would that take? They didn't know.

Feeling better in Red Rock Canyon

     There would be no real-time customer service. No questions or concern about our well-being. No offers to improve the situation. Just an apology and a remote customer service agent reading a script from a procedural manual.

     The driver then returned to the bus and announced that Greyhound was sending another bus FROM L.A.! It would be there in an hour. AN HOUR. We had already been sitting on a hot bus in the desert for two hours. Many of the passengers had no food or water.

I've been looking for a Year of the Rat mascot.
This story to be continued...

     Following the lead of another passenger, I decided to call a Lyft driver to take me to San Bernandino to catch the next connection to Vegas, scheduled at 4:45 pm. I had already missed my earlier connection. I felt bad about leaving my fellow passengers on the broken-down bus. Most of them were going to L.A. Another passenger and I shared the Lyft to San Bernardino where her ride would pick her up. 

Beautiful sunshine with beautiful people --
NJ - ME - AK - CO

     The San Bernardino Greyhound station was a rough-looking place. A security guard checked me at the door. “No guns or knives,” he said. “No, absolutely not,” I replied. Then he passed a wand over me just to make sure.

     The station was full of passengers waiting for the bus to L.A. and other connections, including mine. My bus was late because of the heavy L.A. traffic. The 4:45 pm connection I made didn’t leave San Bernardino until after 6 p.m. I arrived in Vegas around 11:30 p.m. (My original schedule was supposed to arrive at 5:30 p.m.)

Red rock at Red Rock Canyon

     Despite a terrible bus experience, I had a wonderful time in Vegas. I hadn’t seen two of my friends since moving to Alaska seven years ago. The third I hadn’t seen since I graduated in 1988. I’d write more about what we did in Vegas, but, well, you know what they say about Vegas.

     We rented a car on Sunday and drove to Red Rock Canyon for a hike and then had lunch at Cottonwood Station in the village of Blue Diamond, Nevada. 

A Joshua Tree stands guard in Blue Diamond, Nevada.

     Sadly, we were in Red Rock Canyon when we learned about the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven other people. The irony of the situation was not lost on me. The heavy L.A. traffic was the reason Kobe traveled mostly by helicopter. I hope L.A. does something to address its traffic and smog problems.

     A the end of the weekend, I flew (yes, flew) to San Diego to reconnect with Roger. We dined on lobster he and his brother caught the night before on a charter fishing trip. I hadn’t eaten lobster in a long time, and it was delicious. 

Roger caught our dinner -- a California spiny lobster.

     As I will continue to learn, traveling includes adventure as well as misadventure. It’s important to be prepared for the unexpected, but we don’t have to let the unexpected ruin our experience if we can help it.

#lasvegas #redrockcanyon #sandiego #vanlife #me2ak #ontheroad

Road Trip 2020 - The Magic of Joshua Tree National Park

January 15, 2020 - Malibu, Calif.

January 16-20, 2020 - Palm Springs, Calif.

January 21-23, 2020 - Joshua Tree National Park

Exploring the land by day and the starry sky by night

     After our visit to Pismo, we spent a few days in Malibu and Palm Springs, Calif., visiting family. We took in a UCLA vs. Stanford basketball game and also got a taste of the LA traffic. Our days in Palm Springs consisted of morning walks (with a bit of geocaching), pool and hot tub time, happy hour, and going out to dinner. Not a bad gig if you can get it. After a few days of rest and relaxation, we were ready to hit the road again and go exploring. (To the Harding family — hugs & kisses and thank you for a wonderful time!)

The namesake of Joshua Tree National Park

      According to folklore, when Mormon settlers first saw the Joshua Tree, it reminded them of Joshua, who lifted his hands to the sky in prayer. In contrast, the Joshua Tree reminds me of the cat from Bloom County. 

The Joshua Tree reminds
me of Bill the Cat.

It’s certainly an unusual looking tree, and no two look alike.

     Environmental journalist and natural history writer, Chris Clarke, has spent 20+ years researching the origins of the name of the Joshua Tree. In this 2013 article, he describes the history behind the nomenclature. For whatever reason, the name Joshua Tree stuck, and the tree and the park have inspired artists and musicians such as the band U2 ever since.

I never got tired of the desert landscape at Joshua Tree.

     Today, the park’s diverse desert landscape — a transition desert between the Mojave in the north and the Colorado desert in the south — attracts a variety of wildlife and plants as well as human visitors from all over the world. Rock climbers especially like to scale the challenging large rock formations.

Most campsites at Jumbo Rocks were along the roadside.

     We arrived at Jumbo Rocks campground shortly before sunset and noticed everyone wearing parkas and knit caps. When I stepped out of the van, dressed for Palm Springs, I understood why. As soon as the sun sets, the temperature drops. We settled in and enjoyed the night sky. Venus appeared first. Then I could see the faint three stars of Orion’s belt. Slowly, as the night progressed, stars, planets, and occasional airplanes illuminated the entire sky.

We had the roads mostly to ourselves biking in Joshua National Park.

     The first thing we wanted to do was — finally! — try out our new bikes. We rode from the campground on the paved park road to the unpaved Desert Queen Mine Road. It was in decent condition with just a few sandy spots that caused me to fishtail now and then. Car traffic was minimal. A car may have passed us a few times, but honestly, I don’t remember. There was hardly any other bike traffic either, which surprised me. The scenery was so intriguing, and I kept my eyes open for signs of wildlife and kept scanning the landscape. That’s when I ran into the sand and almost wiped out a few times. We rode to Pine City, a backcountry camping registration site. 

Taking a break at Pine City

      We continued on the one-way Queen Valley Road, which brought us to the trailhead of Wall Street Mine Trail. We hiked to the old mine site and learned about the feuds for water rights. Apparently, a guy shot and killed another guy arguing over water rights. After serving his prison term for murder, the shooter returned to the site and erected a monument commemorating his shooting of his enemy. Talk about toxic masculinity. 

Some not-so-hidden history from the old mine

    Along the way, we met an Aussie who is biking across North America. He had already been to Alaska. He specifically mentioned Fairbanks and Juneau. (Read the following with an Australian accent.) “I picked berries they-ah. And ate salmon from a jah.” This guy (we didn’t get his name) is traveling by bicycle, and his girlfriend is traveling alongside by van. She works remotely, and the two of them rendezvous now and then. After chatting with the Aussie and hiking to Wall Street Mine, we rode our bikes back to the campground via Bighorn Pass Road. This area is home to bighorn sheep, but we did not see any. 

A good place to rest from biking and hiking

     That night, we enjoyed another beautiful night sky with a campfire this time. The next day, we tried riding the Geology Tour Road, an unpaved road for four-wheel-drive vehicles. Unfortunately, it was too sandy and washboardy for our hybrid bikes. We turned around after two miles of a downhill slope and had to climb our way back out. It was good gear training.

     When we returned to camp, we hopped into the van and rode to Hidden Valley and Barker Dam Trails. We hiked them, and then we rode to the Cholla (pronounced choy-ya) Cactus Garden.* On our way back to the campground, we stopped at Skull Rock and watched the sunset. Back at camp, we enjoyed another fire and the beautiful night sky. 

Cholla has become my favorite cactus.

     We had been looking forward to this part of our trip for a long time, and Joshua Tree didn't disappoint us. No wonder many of my friends list this park as one of their favorites. Many others have it on their bucket lists.

Skull Rock is the most popular attraction at Joshua Tree.

*Since this day, I have learned there are many types of cholla cacti. I think most of these are called Teddy Bear Cholla because of their fuzzy covering.

#joshuatreenationalpark #vanlife #me2ak #ontheroad