Journey To Essex California
We had heard about a small ghost town (well, not really a "ghost town", I guess - there is about 50 people that still live there) called "Essex" out on the old Route 66 in California. So we decided to load up the desert blogger mobile and have a look on our way to the Old Woman Mountains to do some mojave desert camping.
We drove up Amboy road out of Twenty-Nine Palms and after about an hour hit Essex - and there was not a whole lot to it, but it did have some rather spooky "The Hills Have Eyes" type vibe to it. Here's a pic of the post office there:
After looking about for a few minutes and taking some pics, we headed out across the train tracks and into the desert on this road:
We got lost a few times (I was using a map, but there were so many little trails and many of them weren't marked) but managed to finally find a great campsite to spend the night. It was a perfect little sheltered area, although I have to say the weather was awesome, no wind and very moderate. It was still March, so the hot desert sun isn't at it's peak yet. We set up the tent and kicked back with some Cherry Pepsi's and Stoly's as our after dinner cocktail. (I won't mention WHO drank too much and got the pukies, 'cuz she'd KILL me!;)
This was the campsite:
And here was the view across from us when we looked out from the site. Pretty awesome, huh? And NOBODY for miles in ANY direction, just the way I like it when I'm out in the desert camping.
We got up early the next day and continued our exploration of the area. The mountains here are called "The Old Woman Mountains" because there is a rock formation that looks like an old Indian woman carrying a pack atop the highest peak. Personally, I thought it looked like an old man taking a dump, so I didn't take a pic. LOL!
More of the next day to come...
DB
Posted: Wednesday 26th April 2006, 4:45 PM
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