US Desert Tour November 2021

Day 1. We arrived at San Diego airport and by mid afternoon we were driving a Toyota Camry. We felt like small town people let loose on the boulevards and freeways amongst the fast cars of Southern California. Even with a phone enabled GPS, we missed a couple of turns but that only enhanced the experience with extra U-turns. We made stops at Home Depot (for a cooler), Wal-mart (propane cylinders, folding chairs and some food items) then we skidded into REI to collect a curbside order (butane cylinders & freeze dried dinners). Before long, we were crawling in rush hour traffic on the I-15, but we squeezed into the Lamplighter Inn parking lot as darkness descended. After checking in, we walked over to Chuy's Taco Shop and returned with two burritos for dinner outside. We had forgotten about food quantities in the USA; it meant we had plenty left over for the next day's lunch.

Day 2. Early starts would be the theme of the trip and our first full day in USA was no exception. We made a quick Wal-mart stop (I had forgotten to buy powder milk on Day 1) and then we rolled into Trader Joe's Grossman location as the front door was opening at 8:00am. After over an hour of bingeing at Trader Joe's, we got out onto the I-8 and set course for Arizona. We had a 7 1/2 hour drive ahead of us, so we didn't make many additional stops. We passed by the PCT where we crossed under the interstate in 2003, skirted El Centro, drove through the dunes at Imperial, then Blythe, around Quartzite, then through Prescott and the Chino Valley. The north-south highways were fairly quiet while the east-west interstates were busy with trucks. Once again, we arrived at our hotel (El Rancho) in Williams at dusk. Some organizing our food purchases and a mediocre dinner at Dara Thai Restaurant (despite the glowing internet reviews) rounded out the day.

Day 3. There was frost on the car that morning in Williams. As we drove north on Hwy 64, we had to slow down for an accident with police and ambulances on the scene. A southbound car had hit a cow. It was a reminder that anything can happen on the road. I resisted driving much over the speed limit through the trip to the annoyance of many a fast driver behind us. We reached the back-country reservation office at the Grand Canyon by 9:15am. Although there were only a few people in line, it was a long wait to meet with the attentive reservation rangers. Some of the hikers seemed to be there for conversation with rangers covering many topics including college football. Ranger Nate laid out some of our available options and we left the office with a back-country permit for Hance & Cottonwood creeks (at-large camping) beginning the following day.

We followed up with some sightseeing (gawking at the views from the South Rim) beginning with the Desert View Tower area. We bought a few items including a new sun hat for Glenn and an Outsak (metal mesh food storage bag) at the large, well-stocked market. We spent the remainder of the afternoon gear packing before the cool night descended on us. We retreated to the car and watched S1E1 of "Traitors" on an Ipad, that fit nicely on the dashboard.

Day 4 . We opted to take showers on the morning of our departure at the Grand Canyon facility that opened at 8:00 am. As a result, we didn't start down the trail till 9:15am. Later in the day, when we hit the warmth of lower elevations, we wished we had started earlier. There were a couple of other small groups hiking down at Grandview and for the first 15 minutes, we seemed to be hiking in a herd. We then left them behind and never saw them again. We hadn't been hiking since first half of September. The descent to Horseshoe Mesa and then to Hance Creek seemed a little more difficult than the first time we had done it more than a decade earlier. The summer rains and washouts slowed it down but mostly it was because we are older.

We found full shade at Hance Creek. I was proud that I had finished my water before we reached the flowing creek (I could see the water a kilometre before the crossing so I drank my last half litre). We recharged and then carried on east along the Tonto Trail, loaded down with a generous amount of water for the evening and following morning. In less than an hour we found a great, mostly flat, open area. So, we dropped our bags down and put up the tent. It was mild, no wind (just a few bugs appeared and quickly disappeared at dusk) with amazing views. Perfect Grand Canyon and we were lucky that it was on our first night.

We had encountered a small group of trail runners in the late afternoon and from our campsite, we watched their moving head torches approach the South Rim many hours later. The stars were impressive that night. Later in our Grand Canyon trip, the moon marched onto a full moon phase, it would try to monopolize the night sky.

Day 5. The kitchen crew had overlooked bringing a backpacking coffee system or purchase instant coffee in San Diego. The market at Grand Canyon village had Folgers instant coffee for sale, but I could not stoop that low. We brought ground coffee and our insulated plastic French press, a little heavier than instant coffee, but we had decent coffee to start the day with.

After breakfast, we went for a hike further along the Tonto Trail and found some fabulous viewpoints looking down to the river. the early morning mixed clouds added changing light. It was extraordinary.

We knew that we had a short day, hence the late start to carrying packs. By the time we hit the lunch hour, we were paying attention to any possible shade we could find. The air temperature was comfortable, but we northerners aren't used to the lower latitude sun. We later found that most Grand Canyon backpackers are also shade-seekers.

We ran into 2 other backpacking groups in the afternoon (both in shade) and one of them camped a little ways up from us that evening. The wind had kicked up, so we ruled out an open, big view campsite, but instead camped in the comfortable confines of Cottonwood Creek canyon. It was Halloween but we saw no goblins nor trick-or-treaters.

Day 6. We had booked 2 nights at Cottonwood, so we had a relatively easy, "zero" day. We hiked along the Tonto Trail towards Grapevine Creek. We had hiked to Grapevine on an earlier trip and remembered that it was a longish return day, so this time we went only part way into Grapevine Creek drainage. We both had tight little muscles in our quads from the Grand Canyon descent, two days earlier.

When we got back to camp, we decided to move further up to give us a shorter day back up to the rim and for a change of scenery. We met a group of three grad students doing a study in the area and they were the only people we saw that day. It was warm enough for discreet late afternoon bucket showers.

Day 7. We may have awoken earlier than we should have. It was getting dark so early that it wasn't hard to be asleep by 8:00pm. We were moving by 6:15am, we could turn our head torches off at 6:30am. We motored up the trail at a steady pace and we were back on the South Rim and our rental car before 10:00am.

We had a dashboard warning light for low tire pressure when we started driving, so we added air at the Texaco station in Tusayan just outside the park gates. We had a picnic lunch just south of Flagstaff, drove through Sedona and stopped in Cottonwood for groceries. We visited a Verizon and then a T-Mobile shop for a US SIM card. Verizon checked my phone ID and said they could not help me. T-Mobile figured that my phone was OK, but after a few false starts, their SIM card was not compatible with my phone (the technician spent over an hour on it without success). For the remainder of the trip, we would rely on "public" WIFI's for internet connections, which meant that we would have to think ahead. We had booked a campsite at the Dead Horse Ranch State Park, so we headed to the nearby campground. We had stayed there before, but this time it was much busier and, as a result, less appealing.

Days 8-10. The first order of business was to top the air up on the passenger rear tire. It was starting to look like it was a slow leaking flat tire. It is a little over half an hour drive from Cottonwood to West Sedona, so we got to the Fay Canyon parking fairly early. We had hiked a number of Sedona trails on previous trips but I wanted to see something different. Despite the good reviews of the Fay Canyon hike on "All Trails", we found it to be a yawn. Similar with the Cockscomb (it looked like nice, easy, flowy bike riding around there).

The next day we opted for the popular Cathedral and Bell rocks. Cathedral, in particular, heaves with visitors but we wandered around the quiet, back side and clambered about, finally ending up back with the daily flow of people on our return. We made a visit to Tuzigoot National Monument close to Cottonwood. It seems that the Sinagua people abandoned the village, likely because of drought and life became too hard. That theme has played out at many pre-Colombian sites that we have visited in the US SW.

On our last day in the Sedona area, we started on the edge of town for the Brim Mesa and Soldier Pass trails. They were pleasant enough. The back tire was still leaking so we had it repaired in Sedona and then we were on our way south on the I-17. After a short visit to another pre-Colombian site (Montezuma Castle was busy with visitors), we did some grocery shopping in NW Phoenix and drove to White Tank Mountain Regional Park on the west side of Phoenix. It was a Friday and we had booked a campsite for 2 nights. Friday was a little noisy with a group across the road at a walk-in site, but Saturday night turned out to be very quiet.

Days 11-12. One of the first things that we noticed as we dropped down from Sedona into the Phoenix area was the temperature rose quickly. Temperatures were comfortable when the sun set, so we knew that we should get off to an early start the following morning. Ford Canyon loop was about 15km long and was quite enjoyable, but by 10:30am it started to get too warm for these northerners. Sheila struggled in the last hour. We then drove to a picnic area in the White Tank park and had lunch in a shaded ramada (roofed shelter with open sides). Later on, we drove to the park entrance to the visitor center and a comfortable county library that offered air-conditioning and internet access. The temperatures were a little higher than we expected. Later on, we discovered that Phoenix broke a November temperature record with 25 days over 80F.

We made an earlier start the second day and hiked the Goat Camp trail. We were finished well before lunch, packed our tent up and headed through NW Phoenix, mainly to make a laundromat stop and later dropped in on a Trader Joe's before driving up to Lake Pleasant.

Day 13 . Lake Pleasant is a large reservoir that keeps the taps of Phoenix flowing and the jet skis afloat on week-ends. We pulled in late Sunday afternoon as the last of the week-end motorboats was coming out. Nearby campers had a wildlife experience; first the ravens went after their food, racoons arrived after dark and finished off their Doritos. Finally , in the early morning, a feral donkey clomped around, looking for breakfast. One of the family later said to us "We are learning".

We made another early start for nearby Govenors Peak. We traveled on a somewhat rough trail through some impressive saguaro stands for nice views of the surrounding mountains and distant Lake Pleasant. We met one other hiker on the trail.

Day 14. Cave Creek was next on the agenda. We left Lake Pleasant early and drove in darkness into a beautiful sunrise along the north edge of Phoenix. We had a campsite booked so we didn't need to pay an additional entrance fee when we arrived at the gate around 7:00am. We walked the Go John Trail that took us through a recent fire burn. We finished the 10km loop before 10:00 am so we drove over to the town of Cave Creek for a look and went up to Spur Cross Ranch Conservation. The Dragonfly Trail goes alongside a small creek and it supports a healthy saguaro population.

On the return to our campground, we stopped in at "Sprouts" and "Fry's" to stock up on some groceries. With the delayed onset of winter, we decided to abort our multi-night hiking trip into the Superstitions. Instead, we decided to return to the Grand Canyon for another multi-day hike, where the canyon elevations are about 1,000 feet higher than in the Phoenix region, enough to make the daytime temperatures more comfortable.

Day 15. It is almost a 4 hour drive from Phoenix Valley to the Grand Canyon South Rim, so we arrived at the back-country reservation office after 11:00am. With the Veteran's Day long week-end looming, there was less availability of back-country sites. The ranger gave us a printout of available use areas by date and we cobbled together an itinerary for 4 nights. We mostly organized the food and gear over at Mather Campground that afternoon. It felt cooler than a week and half earlier.

Day 16. It was -3C when we got up. After breakfast, we drove to the Hermit trailhead. The west side of the South Rim is gated; buses and overnight hikers are only permitted (pass code was provided to us). We stopped at a number of viewpoints along the way and then packed our back packs at the trail head. There were a couple other hiking parties but they all split off on the Hermit Trail. The trail shrunk when it veered off to Dripping Springs and then at the start of the Boucher Trail, it shrunk again. We met one other hiker coming up the Boucher Trail who described the washout ahead of us as "scary". We did a slow long traverse for a couple of hours before a steep (washed out in one place) descent, then over to a small pass for another steep descent, traverse to the Tonto Trail and dropped down to Boucher Creek. We arrived at 5:15pm and it went dark at 6:00pm. We saw no other campers. Sheila was tired and happy that we got down safely, especially through the washout.

Day 17 . We had a slow start, then after some scouting of the area, moved our camp down lower but still near Boucher Creek. We spent an enjoyable day out on the Tonto Trail going towards Slate Creek. We had heard that Slate Creek was dry. We got back to camp by mid-afternoon and took bucket baths. We didn't see anyone else that day.

Day 18 . We walked down to the Colorado River first thing in the morning (a couple of hours return). Then we pulled up camp, collected water, made lunch and then set out on the Tonto Trail eastward. We ran into three guys who were flaked out in the shade, that looked like they were very tired. We pushed on, then found a large overhang and sat under it to keep cool. We found an open campsite nearby, the shade from the upper canyon walls reached the site before long. We sat up on a small knoll for dinner and enjoyed the overwhelming scenery.

Day 19 . It was early to bed and then early to rise the following morning. We had a lovely walk along the Tonto Trail, while admiring the sunrise along the way. It took a couple of hours to reach Hermit Creek where there were a number of campers. We carried on to Monument Creek. Our pace slowed around 10:00am and we reached our campsite by 11:30am. This was the first and only designated campground of our 2021 Grand Canyon hikes. There was no one else there. We had lunch, took bucket showers and walked down to the Colorado in a less inspiring canyon than at Boucher or Hermit. Two other groups arrived later in the day. Our permit indicated that there are aggressive rodents at the Monument Creek campground. However, we were somewhat disappointed as we saw no rodents. that evening.

Day 20. While we were eating our breakfasts in the dark, along came Pepé Le Pew, a skunk, onto our (rock) table. We moved slowly, but the combined wattage of our head torches seemed to dissuade the skunk from further interest in ourselves, and it left. Phew. The overnight temperatures had dropped since our earlier trip but they were moderate ranging from 6 to 10C at night for elevations of 2,700-3,200 feet for our four nights in the Grand Canyon.

The hike up to the South Rim was perhaps an hour longer than we wished. The Hermit Trail itself is fabulous and we enjoyed it immensely until we got to the last up section. The sun was out in force and we were both happy to reach the car around noon. The rear passenger tire was acting up again and it was quite low. We drove to Tusayan, but the air pump at the Texaco station was out of order. We ended up at the airport borrowing a tiny bike pump and I put some air in the tire and then we carried onto the Chevron at Grand Canyon Junction, 22 miles further on to fill up the tire. It held up for the drive back down to Phoenix. We purchased groceries along the way, drove through North Scotsdale and arrived at McDowell Regional Park in the early darkness. The "primitive" campsite was wonderful, however we could hear the traffic on a nearby road.

Day 21. McDowell Mountain Park didn't seem to have much topography where we were, but it featured impressive vegetation on an easy nature walk.. We set out for Scotsdale in search of a tire place to fix the flat/slow leak. Sometimes we under appreciate the reliability of motor vehicles, but our rental car was occupying more of our attention than we wished. After long waits at traffic lights, a Big O Tire shop told us that it would be a three hour wait to fix the leak, so we pressed on to Apache Junction, via the 101 and 60 freeways. There was plenty of fast moving traffic, sometimes with garbage blowing across lanes; you probably shouldn't judge a city by its drivers but it is not a place that I would want to live in. Never mind, the absurdly hot summers.

We met with success at the Apache Junction Tires and Service, thereafter had no tire problems. The Superstition Express Laundromat also scored high points with us. After stopping for groceries, we made the short drive to the nearby Lost Dutchman State Park. There were a few camp sites available. The US snowbird population seems to have grown since we last visited Arizona. The Lost Dutchman had beautiful sunsets and it does offer good views of the "Phoenix Lights" (hovering extraterrestrial spacecraft which are simply incoming aircraft to Sky Harbor Airport).

Day 22. With the continuing warm conditions, we had nixed our multi-day hike in the Superstitions but we got off to an early start for a day hike from the First Water Trailhead. We were impressed by the green vegetation (from good summer rains). We ended up hiking almost 17km and predictably, the last hour was hard going in the heat. We spent most of the afternoon chilling under a ramada in the park day-use area.

Day 23. We drove in the early darkness on Hwy 60 to Superior and then in light along Hwy 177 past mines and Winkelman to the trailhead of the Aravaipa Canyon. We have hiked there before but we forgot that permits are required. We were surprised to see half a dozen vehicles in the car park, all displaying permits (not available at the trailhead). A ranger arrived and he apologized that he couldn't allow us to continue with our planned overnight trip. So, we turned around and drove back to Superior. We checked out the Gila River area (we saw 4 javalinas along a dirt road) and then paid a visit to the Boyce Arboretum. Boyce was nice enough, but we prefer our cactus out in the wild.

Picklepost Mountain is near Superior, Arizona. It is on the very edge of the Sun Valley, a little higher than Phoenix so temperatures were a couple of degrees cooler. We camped on BLM land and got ourselves organized for an overnight hike the following day.

Day 24. We hiked Passage 17 of the Arizona Trail past Picketpost Mountain up to a pass area. The AZT passed in and out of a fire burn, which we learned took place in June 2021 ("Telegraph Fire"). We felt like we were walking through the set of a Spaghetti Western. We met one other person (a day mountain biker). The plan was to find a nice camp site, then collect water at a AZT rainwater collector a little further up the trail. We were happy to find shade in a wash that also made for a level tent site. I was acclaimed to walk up to the rainwater collector and it seemed to be quite full of water. It is a beautiful area.

Day 25. It had been on the warm side the previous day and the forecast was for warmer temperatures, so we started walking in the dark. We had heard that there was going to be a bike race in the area and we encountered the leader before 7:00am. He was doing a 70 mile course and it turned out there were only a handful of competitors doing that distance.

The hike back to the trailhead seemed more enjoyable than the hike in. The mountains, grasslands and cactus make it such a delightful combination. Back at the car, we found some shade for a picnic lunch, then drove into Superior. It was a Saturday, so we figured that we would stay in the same area and drive west the following day. We topped up our fuel & water at the Conoco station and picked up an open WIFI on the main street (thank you, Silver King Saloon). It was back to the BLM lands for a bucket shower and we hiked a little ways in to a quiet campsite for the night.

Day 26. It was another drive in the morning darkness, this time to the San Tan Regional Park. We joined the Phoenicians for a Sunday morning constitution (7kms). It had some appealing aspects however it did feel like it was on the edge of a city, which it is.

The balance of the day was focused on driving to Organ Pipe, National Monument. We stopped for groceries in South Phoenix and hunted for a block of ice in Maricopa. We didn't find an ice block, but a burrito instead. Later at Gila Bend, we discovered that Circle K's often carry ice blocks (they last about 3 days). That would have saved us time earlier in the trip, searching for blocks rather than cubes. There was a fair amount of RV traffic heading south on HWY 85 towards Organ Pipe, but it turned out that almost all of it was continuing onto Mexico and the Organ Pipe main campground was as sleepy as ever when we arrived.

Day 27. This was our third visit to Organ Pipe NM. On our first day, we drove the Ajo Mountain Loop. The Arch was as lovely as ever. We have hiked up to the top of Ajo Mountain before, but this time it was a little warm and it was late morning so we gave it a miss and stuck with the Estes Canyon wander. In the afternoon, we drove along the Mexican border to Quitobaquito Springs. In earlier visits, much of the park had been closed due to border issues, but the new wall may have reduced the flow of smugglers and migrants.

Day 28. We had the opportunity to wander in sections of the park that had previously been closed. We did a 16km walk that began with the Red Tanks Tanaja Trail. We were quite impressed by some of the huge organ pipe cactus stands. We lunched under a ramada at the Pinkley Peak picnic area. We had considered camping at the primitive Alamo Canyon campground but we found the main camp to be comfortable so we didn't budge. The air was so dry that Sheila opted to do some minor laundry by hand; it dried almost immediately. I spotted a pick-up truck with Colorado plates and two kayaks on top in the campground; it turned out to be Jay & Jane who had met in the Baja in 2015.

Day 29. Our last day at Organ Pipe was mellow. We did a couple of walks near the campground (Victoria Mine area and the Desert View Trail) and relaxed in the desert surroundings in the afternoon.

Day 30. We drove north to Ajo in the early morning. There was an open WIFI available in the main square; our car rental had expired and the rental company was supposed to have forwarded us a renewal for signature but my previous correspondences led to nothing. I was concerned that we might get nailed with overdue charges; we figured that we would sort it out on our return to San Diego. The Circle K in Ajo stocked ice blocks.

We re-provisioned at a Fry's in Yuma. It was a windy day so Yuma felt like a real dust bowl. We didn't want to picnic in a sandstorm so we looked for open Mexican restaurants without success (USA closes down on Thanksgiving Day). McDonald's seemed to be the only show in town so we swallowed our pride and ate a couple of quarter-pounders and headed for California.

The Salton Sea is an accident of history; water spilled out of a poorly constructed irrigation channel in 1905 and it took two years to stop the flow. It became a popular recreational destination in the 1950's and 1960's, but evaporation with rising salinity and toxicity put an end to that. We drove to the south end of the sea for an unusual hill climb on an ancient volcano. The summit of Red Hill is well below sea level.

We carried onto Slab City, "the last free place in America", which is a collection of derelict looking squatter homes. We thought that we had arrived on the set of Mad Max and half expected Mel Gibson or Tina Turner to make an appearance. Nobody shot at us either. It looks like the community makes revenues from visitors, by selling crafts and services. so visitors are indeed welcome.

Bombay Beach is further north on the east side of Salton Sea. The water has receded but the home owner's interest in lawn art seems to have grown.

Finally, we were tired from the day's driving, so when we spotted a primitive camping area on the eastern shore, we stopped there late afternoon. There was one other camper at the other end of the camp area.

Day 31. We continued north and drove through the outskirts of Mecca, up through Box Canyon, over the I-10 into Joshua Tree National Park. It was US Thanksgiving week-end and we figured that we would do a short overnight hike in the park (back-country camping is allowed, so long as you are well away from roads). On the way to the central area of the park, we stopped at the non-reservable White Tank campground and had a choice of 5 campsites, and went with Plan B (day-hiking).

We hiked the Split Rock Trail and by the time we had finished, it looked like a large part of Los Angeles had arrived. We maneuvered around all the cars and then went for a quiet walk on the less popular Lost Horse Trail through a Joshua Tree "forest" to Hidden Valley. We settled into our campsite mid-afternoon and watched the day trippers streaming on the Arch Rock trail.

Day 32. We saw the sunrise from the boulders near our campsite, stopped at the Cholla Garden and then headed back over the I-10 to the Mecca Wilderness where we dd an interesting, albeit warm, 5km hike to a small palm garden. We could see the Salton Sea and what looked like a dust storm on the other side. Later, we discovered that it was a man-made dust storm caused by the week-end warriors buzzing around in dune buggies. We drove around tidy Mecca which looks like it has a significant Latin farm worker presence (e.g. Mexican market & restaurant). We carried onto Borrego Springs and had a picnic on the green grass of the central park. There are a number of interesting sculptures on the north and south ends of the town that kept us busy for part of the afternoon.

We had reserved a room at the Stanlands Inn which was a classic American motel ringed with palm trees. We had food for dinner, so we had a cook-out in one of the town parks.

Day 33. We were out of Stanlands Inn before 7:00am and walked up the popular Palm Canyon Trail on the edge of Borrego Springs. There were only a few people around in the early morning. Further along the road, we did a couple of short hikes. Traffic on HWY 78 was heavy with retreating RV's & desert machines returning from the Salton Sea recreational areas, but most of it was heading in the direction of Los Angeles and the road split to San Diego soon after.

When we reached the outskirts of San Diego, we stopped at a Costco for an $8 car wash. The machines accepted neither Mastercard nor Canadian debit cards, so the attendant waived us through for free. Our next stop was REI to have a look around. As it sometimes happens, Sheila found nothing of interest but I bought a few items. We made another Trader Joe's stop for groceries and checked into the La Jolla Riviera Inn for three nights.

Day 34 & 35. On the first morning, we drove into San Diego from nearby La Jolla right out to Coronado Island for a beach walk and to snoop around the historic Hotel del Coronado. We had a 9:00am appointment for Covid PCR testing at an airport clinic. We then went over to the airport car rental center to sort out the contract renewal (no issue) and we left in a BMW X-1 because the Camry was overdue for an oil change. We spent the afternoon wandering the La Jolla coastline.

The following day, we drove up to Torrey Pines for a hike, then drove through some of the surf towns to reach Oceanside. The pier was a little run-down. On the way back, we stopped in at Blacks Beach. There wasn't any parasailing going on, but it still afforded nice views of the coast. We had one last sunset, this time on the La Jolla beach.

Back to home. It was a foggy morning along the coast, but less so on the I-5 for the short drive to the San Diego Airport. We flew first to San Fransisco then onto Vancouver and finally to Comox on the same day. We had clear skies until half-way up Oregon.