Monday, November 5, 2007
Joshua Tree
Mauricio and I took our teenage nieces camping at Joshua tree this weekend. It turned out to be an excellent trip despite all the trials that plagued us at its beginning. We left Saturday (the oldest had Saturday school) and could not seem to get on the road. The check engine light had gone on in the car, then the battery died and we had to go buy jumper cables and jump it. We didn't have nearly enough room for all our stuff- and by the time we arrived (around 3:30pm) all the regular camping was full. groan...
It turns out the overflow camping is north of the park on a dried up lake bed. It is a vast nothingness of dirt. The directions actually have you follow electric poles because the makeshift roads are not marked. When we got the lake-bed we drove over to where we saw a port-a-potty and a couple of hippy vans and almost exploded out of our car. Soon after we had all used the facilities, a man with a grateful dead shirt hiked over to tell us that they had rented the port-a-potty for a private party, that they were going to be very loud, that there was going to be a live band and that they would shortly be shooting at a makeshift range: we might want to move. We agreed- gave him eight dollars so we could keep using their bathroom and then drove to the other side of the lake bed and set up camp.
This turned out to be very spooky. The walk to the bathroom was a little under a mile and in the dark the flashlight would have nothing to land on for most of way besides pieces of scrap and funny shadows in the dirt. Then bouncy lights came up on the other side of a nearby mountain. (maybe there is a millitary base?) This would have been strange enough but then blasts started from where the lights had been that shook the lake bed and made us all go very quiet in anticipation. The girls were ready to get out of there and Mauricio and I had to pretend like we weren't worried.
Since I had hardly slept the night before, I did fall asleeep before they all went out to greet the strange parade of police, motorcycles and cars that passed our tent and went up the mountain; we assume to investigate. Ironically, we had offered to take them camping in place of a promised trip to knott's scary farm. In the end they decided this had been a lot scarier.
The next day we fooled around on some of the big rocks and then finally hiked Ryan mountain. This was really a challenge for the youngest- and made arriving at the peak feel truly triumphant. I am posting some completely cheesy photos as proof.
(mauricio insisted on buying firewood ahead of time...)
This was going to be the great group photo of the trip- only I managed to "kill" it by poking Mauricio in the eyes. I though he was giving me horns but he had actually leaned his head on top of mine. Afterwards he gave me a big lecture about using my five senses; a speech which my nieces found endless opportunities to repeat back to him. It became a pretty big joke. I still feel bad- but can't help cracking up at how awful the photo is.
It turns out the overflow camping is north of the park on a dried up lake bed. It is a vast nothingness of dirt. The directions actually have you follow electric poles because the makeshift roads are not marked. When we got the lake-bed we drove over to where we saw a port-a-potty and a couple of hippy vans and almost exploded out of our car. Soon after we had all used the facilities, a man with a grateful dead shirt hiked over to tell us that they had rented the port-a-potty for a private party, that they were going to be very loud, that there was going to be a live band and that they would shortly be shooting at a makeshift range: we might want to move. We agreed- gave him eight dollars so we could keep using their bathroom and then drove to the other side of the lake bed and set up camp.
This turned out to be very spooky. The walk to the bathroom was a little under a mile and in the dark the flashlight would have nothing to land on for most of way besides pieces of scrap and funny shadows in the dirt. Then bouncy lights came up on the other side of a nearby mountain. (maybe there is a millitary base?) This would have been strange enough but then blasts started from where the lights had been that shook the lake bed and made us all go very quiet in anticipation. The girls were ready to get out of there and Mauricio and I had to pretend like we weren't worried.
Since I had hardly slept the night before, I did fall asleeep before they all went out to greet the strange parade of police, motorcycles and cars that passed our tent and went up the mountain; we assume to investigate. Ironically, we had offered to take them camping in place of a promised trip to knott's scary farm. In the end they decided this had been a lot scarier.
The next day we fooled around on some of the big rocks and then finally hiked Ryan mountain. This was really a challenge for the youngest- and made arriving at the peak feel truly triumphant. I am posting some completely cheesy photos as proof.
(mauricio insisted on buying firewood ahead of time...)
This was going to be the great group photo of the trip- only I managed to "kill" it by poking Mauricio in the eyes. I though he was giving me horns but he had actually leaned his head on top of mine. Afterwards he gave me a big lecture about using my five senses; a speech which my nieces found endless opportunities to repeat back to him. It became a pretty big joke. I still feel bad- but can't help cracking up at how awful the photo is.
0 Comments: