Lewis Family Stuff

Saturday 12th March

We entered the park from the east, and camped in Arroyo Salado Primitive Campground about 20 miles east of the visitor centre in the Badlands.

 

We arrived late, and had a little trouble finding a spot (not sure we did but I parked and we pitched the tent beside the car deciding it was a spot for one night at least), were lucky time-wise we had enough light to set up camp in a hurry, then climbed up an earth mound to watch the sunset. Ronán had decided that the tent was the place to be and didn’t want to come with us so we picked the mount right beside the tent so we could keep close to him as well; unfortunately thankfully nothing stole him.

 

After that we quickly climbed down and already started to see some wildflowers.

 

Then Ronán and I thought dinner was a good idea.

He thought my red light on my headlamp was like Rudolf’s nose!

Sunday 13th

We woke early (actually as we forgot to pack our sleeping pads we woke more than once). Had breakfast looked around and packed up.

After a brief stop in the small town of Borrego Springs (where we picked up some post cards – that we will post … I promise) we arrived at the Park Visitor Centre.

The centre itself is built into a small rise and is quite hidden from sight (and cooler as most of its underground). We watched a short film on a year in the park and looked at the exhibits. By far the best resource there were the helpful volunteers dispensing information.We found out that the trail nearby although busy was probably the best for viewing flowers and the Desert Bighorn Sheep (the Borrego in the parks name is in reference to the sheep).

We set off to the trail, walking from the visitor centre, after eating a quick lunch (and a side trip on my part to get Krazy glue to fix my glasses) despite being told it was a good idea to drive to the trail-head ($6 to park seemed a bit much).

Before we even got to the trail proper we started to see flowers and animals.

From there on it just got better.

It was impossible to get pics of most of what we saw for a couple of reasons, 1 we don’t have a good camera, 2 in typical fashion for us the camera we did bring had a full memory card and empty battery so most pics are from phones and we had no zoom.

The trail started out busy but the crowd thinned a little as we got further in, on the alternate route back it was almost empty.

We were lucky enough to spot the sheep on a ridge on our way in and through Suzanne’s binoculars we could see them very clearly.

I tried taking a pic with the phone held to the end of the lens but it was so blurry you could make out nothing. We also saw lots & lots of lizards.

After a while we arrived at the Oasis. Some of us may remember it better than others

The return route took us about a 100 feet higher on the canyon wall and with that small gain we got great views on the way out.

 

we spotted a tarantula in its hole on the way out but even after being told they were gentle and that their bite couldn’t seriously harm a healthy adult i still wasn’t willing to  try and get close enough to get a photo. We also had great light on our return as the sun was no longer beating straight down on us.

 

We again walked through beautiful flowers all along the trail

On the way back to the visitor centre from the trail head I got very excited only to be told that what I initially thought was a

roadrunner were two quail. Feeling dejected and the trip might be a total loss as I’d been driving everyone including myself mad singing the Roadrunner theme we walked to the parking lot, when all of a sudden what do we spot but its close cousin the car park runner.

As it was getting close to sunset we decided not to go to the Blair campground (which we were told had amazing flowers and a number of short hikes) as it was 32 miles away and instead got 2 cold beers for after dinner and headed for Culp Valley Campground which at 10 miles  seemed a better choice. It was also 3,400′ and as the day had been in close to 90f / 32c the cooler air appealed (after carrying a passenger most of the afternoon, I had sweat quite a lot) We had our choice of spots once we got there.

We set up camp ate a quick meal and enjoyed the stars. Half way through setting up a little mouse came to see us. Ronán got such a fright he refused to come out of the tent for a while and was still talking about the scary mouse the following evening.

I think we all slept really well.

Monday 14th

We woke early, Ro and I watched the sun rise over the desert bellow us.

 

It was definitely his turn to cook at this stage.

He makes a good coffee but the porridge wasn’t great.

After breakfast Ro and I set off again this time we climbed the pile of rocks / hill beside the campsite, after quite a while a very proud Ronán summited his “mountain”, the view again was great.

 

We then packed up and started to head home. We left the park via the west on the way the fields of flowers were stunning.

 

After driving for a while I realized we were running low on gas, the first station we stopped at had none left! so with a light foot we drove on, finally (after what seemed much further that it was) we found the pump with the golden gas ($4.49 us/gal).

 

 

 

 

After that magic gas the car turned into a hover craft for a while and we were home in no time.

 

-B