Quartzsite and a Catch up Post---Seventeen Palms, Five Palms, Una Palma, and A Ride Through the Borrego Badlands

(Clicking on the pictures will open them larger in a new window.)

March 2, 2018

We got up this morning to beautiful blue skies, spent some time talking, and deciding where we wanted to be parked while we enjoyed our morning coffee. Tom has to fix a kitchen drawer, the track just fell apart, so he will need a part for that. Plus, we need to get the wash done. So we decided to drive back in and park out at Dome Rock. It is closer in then Roadrunner and how many times when doing a repair job do you get everything in the first trip? Answer: when you are close by the first stop has all the parts you need and they really are all the parts you need.

When we looked out the window in the morning after parking
in the dark we found we had down a pretty decent job.
Nice view!

A little rant: Why are people so inconsiderate of others that will follow behind them? We pulled into this site and luckily drove in on the left side of the fire pit because on the right side I found two areas where there had been fire pits that had been dismantled but all the nails had been left behind. Obviously, someone had burned pallets and couldn't be bothered to pick up their mess. There are even a couple of long screws in with the nails. Not sure how good that would have been for our tires. The rocks you see in the picture I put there so others will hopefully not drive over because honestly I have picked up after "kids" enough.  Done.

Took this picture of the moon after we arrived home tonight. We had come back after spending a lovely evening with Kathy and Rick, It's about time. After enjoying a fish fry at the VFW we drove over to their spot at La Posa South and chatted until Kathy noticed the moon was up and shinning brightly. The time had flown by with great conversation but it was time to say our see you later's and head home. It was nice that we had the opportunity to spend some time catching up and look forward to next time.
Interesting note: When I was looking for some information about the Fish Fry at the VFW my blog post from last year when we first met them in person popped up. They had come out to Plomosa Road where we where parked and we had talked until dinner time then decided to head in for a Fish Fry at the VFW.  It was almost exactly a year ago.

February 26, 2018 

(The Catch up part)

Today's plan was to take a ride out on Buttes Pass Road, which is off of 78, then turn onto Borrego Mountain Wash, park and take a walk through The Slot. Well if you keep reading you will see that did not happen. We pulled out of the American Legion, turned left onto Borrego Springs Rd, and Tom noticed the Jeep needed gas. So we turned around and headed back into Borrego Springs. On the way I mentioned maybe it would be a good idea to stop and get a sandwich to take with us for lunch. By the time we got that all done we decided to continue on S22. I could see that there was a road that would take us by the palms and then we could connect to the Borrego Mountain Wash and get to The Slot. We both agreed that sounded like a good plan so we headed east towards the Arroyo Salado.

We are on our way.
Side note: there are places to park just down this road.
We saw a couple of smaller rigs parked in nice spots.
Our first turn we made the wrong choice and ended up in someone's site.

Then, we had a hard time believing it, there was an arrow telling us which
way to go. If you have been down primitive roads you know how unusual
this type of sign is.

For the most part this was pretty decent primitive road.

There were a couple of spots you would not want to be in a vehicle
much wider than our Jeep.

Riding through the Borrego Badlands.

Looking back.

It is amazing what shapes and colors mud turns into over time.

Seventeen Palms

Believing the sign we did not count them.

Five Palms, again we believed the sign.

It looks like rocks but it is mud.

Una Palma has seen better days.

As we turned into this wash Tom remarked, we are on a "super highway".

Today's lunch view.
Glad we stopped and bought the sandwich.
The ride is always longer than planned.

We are on the Cut Across Trail and for about two miles we had mile markers.

Plus, there were "street signs".

San Felipe Wash
By now we had decided to just keep going towards Borrego Springs.
We will save the ride to and walk through The Slot for next time.

This was the wash, Borrego Sink Wash, that would bring us into
Borrego Springs. Do you see the lovely arrow pointing the way.
This by the way was the last sign we saw.

Not to much farther down the wash things got sandy.
Tom coming back after checking the road ahead.

The views are still wonderful.

Since, neither one of us needed to know bad enough to climb up.
This chimney will forever remain a mystery to us.
Mysteries can be a good thing.

Remember I mentioned no more signs.
This is a wrong turn.

A man and a dog in a small truck camper were ahead of us (not in this picture)
 and we could see him coming back towards us so we stopped and waited.
This road just looped back. 

Back to the road choices and try the other one.

Caught the tail end of several quail running across the wash.

We can see Borrego Springs in the distance.
According to the license plate on the truck, they were from Alaska.
What he was doing down this road in that rig we are not sure.
We saw him scrap bottom more then once.

We just drove by several signs warning us we were driving by a gun range.

We are back out on pavement.
Safe and sound.

March 3, 2018

Our spot parked at Dome Rock BLM.
Not a bad view to look at while we sat and enjoyed our coffee this morning.

The day we took the ride down Arroyo Salado and saw the palms was a very good day. Yesterday, we enjoyed a wonderful evening visiting with friends. Today, Tom is getting our wash caught up. Once he gets back and we get the clothes put away we will just relax and enjoy our evening together. I am thinking beer margaritas, salsa and chips, time relaxing, then chicken alfredo fathead pizza for dinner sounds like a pretty nice way to spend the rest of the day.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

If you would like to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.