After leaving the Grand Canyon, we stayed at a hotel in Prescott, AZ for the night. We unpacked in the parking lot and then enjoyed freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the lobby when we finished! We were very grateful for warm showers and soft beds. It was quite a treat!
The next morning we woke pretty early, ate breakfast at the hotel, continued towards Phoenix and our camper. We had ordered a part for our sway bars back in Tuscon (we discovered one of our sway bars had fallen off because a pin had popped out). We had jerry-rigged a solution back in Tuscon, but we were looking forward to having the correct part. BUT, when we arrived to pick it up, the company we had ordered it from online had never processed the order, so it wasn’t there. Luckily our fix worked pretty well, so we decided to stick with it and find another place to get the part shipped to later.
We made it to Phoenix and picked up the camper and headed west. We made it to a KOA on the border of AZ and CA. It was actually right next to the Colorado River! Like we had just worked so hard to get to at the bottom of the Grand Canyon! The sunset was beautiful there.
We decided to stay two nights to do laundry, an oil change, sway bar adjustments, and grocery shopping. It was in the 90s the full day we were there. We were thankful for electric hookups and AC! The campground also had a pool and jacuzzi which we enjoyed after getting school and projects done. Reece also got a haircut from Matt! You may notice it in upcoming pictures.
Before entering CA, we filled up on gas and then drove over to Joshua Tree, CA. On the drive over we saw a LOT of solar – like SO much. It was impressive. Driving I-10 was pretty uneventful, but then we pulled off onto a smaller highway and drove in a pretty remote area for about an hour. It was a lot of desert with mountainous areas interspersed.
We stopped at the Joshua Tree Cultural Center in 29 Palms, CA to learn about the indigenous people that lived on these lands before us. It was in impressive compilation from many tribes that are still active and upholding their heritage to this day.
We arrived at our campsite to discover we were next to a community park with a baseball field. The outfield was probably the only grass for miles. Reece and I made use of it and played some catch!
The next day we made a stop at the Joshua Tree Visitor Center in Joshua Tree, CA. Then we headed into the park. We scrambled on rocks at Quail Springs, hiked the Hidden Valley nature trail, checked out the Ryan ranch (an old homestead in the area), saw skull rock, and hiked the Discovery trail near there.
The next day we thought we might try to find some top rope climbing, but it was cold and windy, so we did some more rock scrambling off the Barker Dam trail, drove to Keys Vista (saw the San Andreas fault line and the Salton Sea), and then watched the sunset from a random rocky point in the park.
The next day we continued west and south to San Diego. After a few wrong turns and tour of Coronado, CA with the camper, we made it to the Pacific Ocean later that afternoon! From CO to the far northeastern part of the lover 48 and now to the far southwestern part of the lower 48 – we’ve covered a few miles!
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