Thursday, January 8, 2015

Fun Week At Borrego Springs

 

A little over a week ago we started our boondocking adventure with our friends Rayn and JJ with a trip to Borrego Springs and the Anza Borrego State Park. Borrego Springs is a very small town on the northern edge of the state park. It has several RV resorts but the attraction for many RVers is the free dry camping just outside of town. Basically it is a dry lake bed that has many acres of desert area to park. You just have to be careful where you pull off due to soft sand.

We have been here before, and knew that the closer we got to the base of the mountain the less cell reception we would have. We drove back in and pulled off the main road to leave the fifth wheel so we could scout out an area with the Jeep. We finally found a spot back towards the entrance that was away from other campers and gave us a great cell signal. We went to pick up the fifth wheel and as I turned it around I got into soft sand. I instantly buried the truck up to the rear axle. Oh Oh!!

The first time I have ever been stuck!

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After about an hour of digging, un-hitching and re-hitching I was pretty well exhausted and we were no closer to getting out. Luckily a Jeeper pulled up and offered his winch to help us get out. With his winch hooked up and my 4x4 on we were out and on the main road within seconds. We probably could have done the same thing with our Jeep and a good tow rope.

Finally, we got set up with Rayn and JJ’s rig with no ill effects, other than frazzled nerves.

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We visited the desert sculptures at Galleto Meadows

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A beautiful overlook at Fonts Point

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Our friends Dave and Diane also came to Borrego Springs a few days ahead of us. They were staying at an RV resort in town then after a few days the moved out here close to us. We got together and did some off road exploring. We hiked to the remains of an old homestead that was built out of adobe in the 1930’s. The family lasted here for 16 years.

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The view from the cabin remains were very nice

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Then we did some canyon exploring with the Jeeps

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On our last day we took a three mile hike up Palm Canyon to look at the oasis.

This view was looking back on our way up

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The palm trees in the distance

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Max standing in the palm trees

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From higher up

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We had a great time at Borrego Springs and since it is only 90 minutes from our home base at Jojoba I know we will be back many times.

We gave our hugs to Dave and Diane knowing that we would see them in a few weeks at Quartzsite and headed south to Yuma to spend some time at Mittry Lake Wildlife Refuge. We can camp here for free up to 10 days a year.

We arrived about 15 minutes ahead of Rayn and JJ and started scouting for a campsite. Most of the sites are just pull offs next to the water. All of them were pretty full but luckily we found a spot further away from the water but with better views. So after discussing it with Raynn and JJ we settled on a spot.

The view from our front yard.

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There are lots of water fowl and we can hear the coots and the ducks most of the day. The down side is that we have no AT&T cell service or internet here.  Rayn and JJ are getting 4 bars of 4g with their Verizon. Rayne gave us the password for their hotspot but we are camped just a little too far apart for me to get the signal. I have to carry the laptop over next to them to get connected.

We are not sure how long we will stay here. We wanted to check out the area and Rayne and JJ wanted to go into Algodones Mexico for dental cleanings. We will probably move on up to Quartzsite soon.

Enjoy Your Day!

3 comments:

Chuck and Anneke's RV travels said...

An exciting start but looks like a lot of fun.

owensontheroad said...

The more fun you have with your Jeep, the more I want one :)

gypsygirl said...

Looks like a neat place and look forward to getting back to the desert.