Southern California Desert, day 2

On April 10, we left Barstow and headed east. Our first stop was to check out the Afton Canyon campground. The old Mojave Road (rough dirt) crossed the Mojave River here and there were a couple of caches on the other side I was interested in, but we didn’t have much time and I did not see any vehicles crossing, so I had no idea how deep the water was. Maybe another time. We continued east on Interstate 15 to ZZYZX road. There is quite a story on the ZZYZX “resort” ruins built by a scam artist radio preacher.

We stopped briefly in Baker to check out the world’s tallest thermometer before heading north to Tecopa and the China Ranch Date Farm. Friends who had been there commented on how unique and delicious the Ranch’s date shakes were and I was looking forward to having one. Unfortunately, their freezer had failed. I wished for more time to explore the area, especially hiking along the Armagosa River, but my schedule was just too tight. I considered heading back on Excelsior Mine road but the weather looked pretty iffy in that direction, so we just returned the way we came.

After returning to Interstate 15 we headed east to just past Valley Wells and then turned north on Excelsior Mine road. We looped up through Sandy Valley, returning to the 15 freeway at Jean. We stayed the night in Henderson.

Links:
— Photo gallery for Southern California desert 2016