Joshua Tree’s Southern Environs

So, did I mention River Run RV Park in Bakersfield? Maybe I should have. We stayed there for one night on our way south, and it was just fine. Close-in to town, if you like that sort of thing. Very nicely maintained. Not particularly scenic, despite the river. We would recommend for an overnight, though there are no facilities for picking “free” oranges, an activity we will later discuss. So bring your own oranges if you need ’em.

We left the place early on New Year’s Eve and got over the Tehachapis for a mid-morning appointment at the Lance factory in Lancaster, California. Back on the road an hour later, skirting the southern edge of the Mojave, then over a very windy Cajon Pass and down into the Riverside area. Lots of freeways, concrete, palm trees, wind, and traffic: pretty much the southern California experience, but no ocean view. A tiring drive.

Our destination: the Cottonwood campground, accessed through Joshua Tree National Park’s southern entrance, and about seven miles north of some exit off I-10. The road is narrow, winding, and peppered with concrete sections placed wherever washes (dry when we saw them) cut across it.

Then you get to the campground, high up on a bluff, fill the water tank, and park here.

Our New Year’s Eve campsite at Joshua Tree.

We would love to have stayed for a few days (hope to get back some time). Other-worldly. Many stars at night. Authentic coyote-howling sounds, too. A good place to start the new year.

Arid landscape. Parched air. Rapid nightfall (and rapidly plummeting temperature). For the first time since leaving Washington, we felt a sense of true departure from home.

It was one of those wide-spot-in-the-road campsites, and the wide spot wasn’t very level. Getting tucked in to it was a challenge: boulders emphatically defined either end of the parking pad.

We also felt cold, after awhile, because our furnace stopped working. That evening, and several times overnight, I started what became a weeks-long process of fiddling with the furnace’s sail switch (a safety device that’s also a common weak point in RV furnaces). Couple of jackets, slip-on shoes, screwdriver, headlight, warm hat, good supply of swear words. Cold out there (around freezing I think).

Got it working (for a bit). Next day I began a lengthy search for replacement sail switches. We would have hookups for the next week or so, so there was time to effect a repair. I thought.

In the morning we rose early for a return to I-10 and our foray into Arizona. January 1: the first day reservations were open for a campground we wanted to visit in August, and we had to get back into mobile network range to make that happen. Success! Reservations secured, we pointed Chief eastward, toward Casa Grande. And cheaper gas!