Beautiful Deserts

We stayed the weekend in Barstow, waiting for the second diesel repair place to open on Monday...they let us stay in their parking lot.  We took a walk each day, but I have to say it was not the friendliest place.  I bought some yarn to start making a crocheted blanket for our new
grandbaby on the way...Dave's son, Chris, and wife are expecting.

"Burning bush" at Kelso Dunes

The staff at American Towing put us on the schedule first thing MON morning.  They confirmed the issue was a faulty "O" ring in the power steering pump...The part cost less than $10 and about $160 in labor to put in.  This was really good news, because if it had been the pump itself, the cost could have been in the thousands!  Dave left his book, Beggarman Bob, with the tech that he got to know.  (He has been leaving a book at many of our stops.  We are getting interesting feedback "all of a sudden."  It's a God thing again, I'm sure!  If you have not read it, check it out from his website:  www.walking4kids.com.)  We were on the road again by noon. 

We had planned to do some boondocking near Barstow, but a stop at the BLM office informed us of

Critter tracks at the dunes

some boondocking and camping available in the Mojave Desert.  It actually sounded perfect so we headed for Kelso Dunes and Hole-in-the-wall.  We stopped first at the Kelso Visitor Center which was an old mining/railway station/town...very interesting...worth the stop.

Camping in the desert is very interesting.  There is a surprising variety of life and there is something in the atmosphere of the desert that invites one to seek God.  The Bible records many times where Jesus went to the desert or "a solitary place."  I spent quite a bit of time reading the Bible and journaling.  Dave and I took walks each day.  Though we did not see any creatures--other than birds--the tracks in the dunes betrayed the presence of many other critters!

Holes in the wall

We stayed at the dunes for 4 days then headed over to Hole-in-the-wall Campground.  The place is so named because it was formed by an ash flow that had a lot of air in the mass.  As it cooled and then eroded, it left a variety of holes in the volcanic wall.  There was an interesting trail called the Ring Trail that had a bunch of petroglyphs and in order to complete the loop, we had to shimmy up two cliffs with the aid of rings set in the stone.

Peek-a-boo

Climbing the rings

Thunderstorm to the west

silver cholla

We also had the rare opportunity to experience a Mojave thunderstorm...Fortunately the bulk of the storm went south and west of us,  We only got a few sprinkles...but it was followed by a lot of wind, which ultimately motivated us to move on.  One other neat thing that we will keep in mind for next year however is that there was a beautiful horse camp just a mile from the Hole-in-the-wall campground.  Nice pens, water, tables, and dry camping.

Horse camp water and pens