Dirt Road Diary- Joshua Tree / Old Dale Mining Road Part 2

So when we last left off we had been stuck behind an incredibly slow car and had finally made the turn onto Old Dale Mining Road. For about the first 30-45 minutes of the trip the road were sandy but smooth. So much that the girls both fell asleep. We eventually made it to the old cyanide tanks. All the kids woke up and we explored a bit..

 
We got back onto the roads and our trail went from smooth and sandy to steep, narrow and rocky and it was awesome.

At the top of a turn we saw this. Just sitting there. So of course we stopped for more exploring. We love abandoned buildings. 

Louie was stoked to find this bench with a fire pit. And then we noticed that the pan on the left was a make shift bathroom. GROSS.

So back on the road we go.

This was a fantastic trail. We really loved it. A great mix of easy and medium trails. A perfect birthday weekend adventure! 

Dirt Road Diary: Joshua Tree / Old Dale Mining Road Part 1

Over my birthday weekend Joey asked what I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to take a trip out to Joshua Tree. I wanted to see more of the park and do some off-roading. It was my birthday so my wish was his command. On Sunday we packed up to coolers and the Cruisers and headed out to Joshua Tree. It was a great trip with some pretty memorable moments.

The trip started at our house and we hit the road, only to get to the first stop light when we realized we forgot the paper plates so we headed back to the house. Back at the house Joey notices that his radiator was leaking. The hood went up and the guys did that thing where the look at it and stroke their beards and then declare what it's wrong. They were hoping that a new radiator cap would fix it so off to Star Auto they went. They got back with the new cap and by golly, as usual they were right and the crew was back on the road.

Our first stop was the Joshua Tree Visitor Center to figure out where the Old Dale Mining Trail was at. We got some maps and annual passes to the park. Now we have to go back a lot! Then we drove into the park. When you see these....

... you know you have arrived.

Everywhere you look it is breathtakingly beautiful. 

This rock had people rock climbing in the middle of it. So cool. 

Louie as cool as ever....

After getting into the park we turned off the main road to head over to Keys View. An amazing spot where you can see mountains on the Mexican border on one side and all the way to Morongo Casino on the other side. You can see the Salton Sea (and see how low it is!) and even a fault line. Even with the hazy day we had it was stunning. STUNNING! 

After Keys View we headed down to Caps Rock for lunch. A small little picnic area.

  A great place with a parking lot and bathroom. Apparently it is so nice that it is a great place for photo shoots. Photo shoots of girls in thongs. It was ridiculous. She was standing in the middle of the street while her friend took photos not giving a damn that her butt cheeks were out for the world to see. Talk about awkward. It didn't stop there. She actually made a few costume changes.

Anyways the night before we had planned it out so that Joey and I would bring the stuff to make hamburgers. Except Joey forgot the dang burgers. Since we had everything else, including the grill we went meatless and had grilled cheese sandwiches.

Thanks to my camera remote I was able to get a good group shot.

Muddy Buddies Por Vida

 After our vegetarian lunch we headed over to Skull Rock. Just a really cool place to explore...

 We continued on our way towards Old Dale Mining Road and we spotted the Cahuilla Cactus garden. This place looked like it was straight from a sci-fi movie. It was like stepping on another planet.

We got back on the road looking for our dirt road turn off. We were stuck behind the slowest car ever and it helped build the anticipation of those dusty trails. We finally made the left turn and we headed out to explore a new trail......

Dirt Road Diary: Butterfly Trail aka 1N12

We finally found some time to pack up the Cruisers and head out for the day. We kept it pretty local and headed to the San Bernardino Mountains taking trail 1N12 to Seven Oaks Dam. The trail was about 6 miles. Here is a google earth view of the trail.

The trail starts here...

It moves up really quickly and then the fun starts. We traveled through some really gorgeous landscapes. The girls and I decided to name the trail "Butterfly Trail" because we saw so many different types of butterflies.

We liked this plant because it reminded us of Phi's crazy shaggy hair-do.

This is a super easy trail. Really narrow roads so we were lucky to only run into a couple of other people because passing is really tight.

We were headed to the reservoir to let the kids play in the water. Except the drought is real people. There was almost no water left.

Of course the mud was still slippery and combine that with my slick flip flop bottoms and you get my ass in the mud.

Twice.

The girls are still talking about it.

I gotta say though, it was so awesome to just be dirty, and not care if you got even more dirty. 

See this pic of Louie with a walking stick exploring nature with her Poppa. Yea this is the best part of off-roading. Even Phi gets into the adventure... eventually. 

After we found a shady spot and busted out lunch.  This was a great lunch spot. Lots of shade and lots of sand and rocks for the kids. Oh and our phones were 4G'ing so that's always a plus. Most trips are way out of phone range.

You may wonder how well the Cruiser does with all the bumps. It usually does really well, except when your steering column plastic cover is already cracked and you hit a big bump and the whole thing falls off.

Of course the boys had to get their picture taken. They wanted it to be epic. I think the only thing they demonstrated is that they practice the skinny girl pose in the mirror at home.

Okay so this picture is kinda epic.

While heading back down the trail we made one more stop to take in the views.

It was so nice to finally be back outdoors. This was a perfect day trip. I am hoping we can get another desert trip in this month because once the weather gets hot the desert is out of the question. 

Dirt Road Diary: Tierra del Sol 2015

Last year one of our first off-roading trips was to Tierra Del Sol (you can see last years post HERE). Last year was fun but thanks to the crazy winds it was also a little bit miserable. To be prepared Joey bought the girls goggles. Of course this year the wind was nice and calm and instead we had to deal with the heat. I am guessing next year we deal with rain.

We met up with the Mendez family to drop off some parts. The night before while driving into Ocotillo Wells they had some wheel issues. How they rigged the tire on their hummer was crazy genius and I can't believe it worked.

We started the day walking the booths. The kids had some fun doing a little bit of coloring.

And even some remote-controlled off-roading.

We then headed over to what I like to call the obstacle course. A place where vehicles can test out their skills. Joey really wanted to take the cruiser in and try some of the less scary ones but since I did not want to get stuck in the desert with the kids if the car were to break I had to persuade him not to. We did get to spend some time watching other people give it a try.

I am still so surprised that Phi likes this part of it. She is a chicken when it comes to actually being in the car and on trails, but she loves to watch rock crawlers.

Afterwards we headed to Truckhaven trails for some off-roading. Last year this was one of the first real off-roading I had done and I was super nervous the entire time. After 12 months of trips I was excited to be out on the same trails. As usual we let Matt take the lead and he really just went for it. I swear he was just flipping a coin to decide on right or left. We managed to get ourselves into some tight spots and even a few sandy hills we just couldn't conquer.

When we found the arch that we recognized from last year we knew that we were close to making it out of the canyon.

It was a great day out in the desert and a stunning sunset and some Mexican food was a great way to end the day.