Month: November 2017

Out in the Mojave desert, along Mojave road, is the Mojave Mailbox. I had heard rumors about it before and since we were at the lava tubes, I thought it’d be a great opportunity to visit it. From the lava tubes it is only about 5 miles away. So we drove down the relatively nice road that goes to the lava tubes and hung a left on Mojave road.

Right away, we knew that it would be different. Gone were the bone rattling washboard, and here were the soft sand and small boulders. We went from a regular desert road to an bonafide off-roading excursion, fit for only those with high clearance vehicles and, preferably, 4 wheel drive. The driver, who was chauffeuring us around in his relatively new truck, was less than excited. However, once you were on that road, there was no good way to turn around. Being somewhat unwillingly committed to our course of action, we pressed forward. Along the way out there our driver was becoming increasingly irritated and fearful of scratching his truck, so I would periodically cheer him up by saying, “I think it’s there… I don’t really know for sure”… Bwahahaha… I was fairly certain we would find it.

After several hours and many thanks to any off-roader who politely pulled off the road to let us pass, we finally arrived. Sure enough, it was a weird mailbox in the middle of nowhere.

It was kind of like a well traveled and well known geocache. It was filled with random trinkets and some food. There was also some water nearby for people who might need it. We had a good time going through the things and remarking on them. We also signed the boogie board and the guestbook.

Fortunately there were some other creative, colaborative art installations nearby. This one is the frog garden.

Then there is a hanging tree. Reminds me of the song.

Here is Jeep Mountain! A cleaver use of matchbox toys.

 

Some is more random. I don’t know what the theme of this was, but you can see the beautiful yucca and cinder cones around us. 

We finally got back to the paved road and we were greeted with a beautiful sunset as we drove back to camp.

 

 

This weekend we went out to the Mojave desert. It’s a dry, barren, desert. There’s lots of interesting things to see such as Kelso dunes, the Kelso Depot, the Lava Tubes, off-roading along the numerous desert roads, the hole in the wall… This time we went out for the weekend and spent some time at the Lava Tubes. Getting to the Lava Tubes took some time as we were camped near the Hole in the Wall campground and had to go around the Providence Mountains to get to the valley that has the lava tube. However, we did get there fairly easily.

Upon arriving, we were a little surprised at how busy it was. For being off of a dirt road, several hours drive from the nearest population center, there were easily a half dozen cars and a couple dozen people. Still, groups came and went, and there was hardly a time that we were alone in the Lava tube.

Nicely, there are some stairs to help you descend into the Lava Tube. Then you crawl a little bit and the tunnel opens up into a spacious cavern.

It was a good time of day to come as there were beautiful beams of light penetrating the cavern and the dust illuminated them quite nicely.

After looking around and taking photos, it was time to get ready for some fun. Earlier we had taken a look at the largest hole in the lava tube. We had read that there were climbing routes rated 5.10d and 5.11, which were beyond our capabilities, but we decided it would be fun to rappel down. So we walked out of the tube and retrieved the rope, climbing harnesses, and other gear from the car. We used an 8.3 mm Canyonfire rope from Imlay Canyoneering and for rappelling we used a Petzel Piranha descender and a Stearling Rope ATS Device. The Pirana has a little less friction, due to the metal being rounded, where as the stearling has more friction.

We all went down a couple of times, except for the 6 year old. He was incredibly patient while watching all the adults have fun on the ropes. So I took some time to hook him into a rope and had him ‘rappelle’ down a few feet. Just so he can feel what it’s like to sit in the harness and walk down a rock.