Returning to My Childhood Years, Part 2

Victorville, California
February 16, 2010

Guys really do read Playboy and don’t just look at the pictures. Case in point. I still remember the ambitions of July 1982 Playmate of the Month Lynda Wiesmeier, “To revisit all the places I’ve lived in the past.” Although I read that Playmate Data Sheet long ago when I was 21, her ambition has stuck with me as I have imagined many a time returning to my childhood playgrounds – Lincoln, Nebraska; Dayton, Ohio; Victorville, California; and Hahn, Germany. But I have not expended the time or energy to return to those playgrounds except for a quick drive through Victorville several years ago. My life has been the worse for not revisiting those memories.

An opportunity was now in front of me. Victorville was not far away, only a few hours of easy driving on freeways from Carlsbad, and I had all the time I needed to seek and cherish those places waiting for me in Victorville with precious memories of my childhood.

Our first home in the desert when my family transferred to George Air Force Base. I was only six when we moved to Victorville, and I couldn’t spot our exact house on Yucca Avenue. I narrowed it down to a few which were all alike. A typical 1950’s single family subdivision with single-story ranch-style homes, the backyards backing up to the parking lot of Victor Valley High School. I remember the adventure of my brother and me camping out in the backyard, snug in our sleeping bags underneath the stars. The memory is marred, or should I say forever etched, by the hoodlums in the parking lot throwing stones at us and forcing us to skedaddle to the safety of our bedroom.

Returning to My Childhood Years, Part 1

Lompoc, California
February 2 to 6, 2010

Vandenberg Village as viewed from Harris Grade

I returned to Lompoc, the hometown of my teenage years. Some tasks still needed to be done before I set off on my plan-to-be-year-long cross-country travels: placating my mother of my safety as I wandered around, storing items that I did not want sitting in a mini-storage unit in Reno, and completing paperwork so I could travel without worry of those pesky little things like health insurance.

Although I was fortunate in comparison to other Air Force brats as to all of the moving that we did in tow with our dads, I still settled oh so shortly in five places and ten homes by the time I was 15. It was by luck of the United States Air Force that I ended up in Lompoc, California, and I consider our final family resting place as my hometown:  Vandenberg Village, a classic 1960's subdivision just northwest of Lompoc.

Another Holiday Weekend Trip

Northeastern California and Southern Oregon
September 1-3, 2001

A holiday weekend trip to northern California and southern Oregon to visit Lava Beds National Monument and Crater Lake National Park. On the way back, Karen and I also made some quick stops to other sites of interest.

Lava Beds National Monument, California
Day #1

We started the morning in Reno, and our first stop was to the top of California to Modoc County. This was my second time at the Lava Beds, and this time I had a partner and did not have to solo into the caves. A drive through the park and stops at the following attractions:

• Big Painted Cave / Symbol Bridge
• Merrill Ice Cave
• Schonchin Butte Fire Lookout
• Balcony Cave / Boulevard Cave
• Gillems Camp and the Canby Cross
• Captain Jacks Stronghold
• Petroglyph Point

We arrived at our stop for the night in Klamath Falls, Oregon just as night descended upon us.

View from the Schonchin Butte Fire Lookout

The start of the trail to Balcony and Boulevard Caves

Inside Captain Jack's Stronghold

Petroglyphs etched onto Petroglyph Point

A Weekend on the East Side

Mono and Inyo Counties, California
August 11-12, 2001

This was a quick Saturday-Sunday trip with Karen to visit some highlights along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. Highlights not recorded by photograph: a nighttime dip in the unimproved BLM part of Keough's Hot Springs south of Bishop and another drive down Silver Canyon Road with a drop of 6,000 feet in nine miles (average grade 13%).







The west entrance to Bodie State Historic Park via State Highway 270, the last three miles on dirt road.

My First Visit to the Ancient Bristlecone Pines

Inyo National Forest, Mono and Inyo Counties, California
September 2-4, 2000

This was a Labor Day Weekend trip in my recently new Nissan Xterra. And I chose the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest as my destination since coming close to the oldest single living organism on the world would make the weekend a highlight. I also had dreams of hiking to the top of White Mountain, the third highest peak in California, since I read it was a fairly easy hike for a 14er.

After getting a late start, I ended up at the Grandview Campground as the sun was setting. I hurriedly prepared a sleeping spot in the back of the Xterra and fell asleep. I did not know much about the vehicle's security system, and after scurrying around the back trying to figure out how to get out from the back, the alarm went off for 15 seconds or so before I was able to turn it off (although I had no idea how I did that). Luckily most of the other people in the campground were already awake, and I got more laughs than I did grunts. I spent all day Sunday driving up White Mountain Road:

The Almost Forgotten Town of Boca

Near Truckee, California
May 7, 2008

Boca Historic Townsite Interpretive Trail - Tahoe National Forest website with general information on this recreation site.

Boca Townsite Trail - Tahoe National Forest fact-sheet on the interpretive trail.

The faint lines of the trail are visible in this aerial image

A Google street view of the trailhead parking lot in 2012

The start of the Boca Historic Townsite Interpretive Trail

The first interpretive sign - Boca's Railroad Roots

Headed up the trail

Interpretive signs just ahead

View of Interstate 80 and the first
transcontinental railroad from the trail

The second interpretive sign - A Town Mostly of Men

The third interpretive sign - Where the Jobs Were

In Memory of Franklin Marson
Born May 4, 1829. Died March 20, 1869.
Aged 39 y'rs 10 mos & 16d's
A native of Main.

The fourth interpretive sign - Boca Beer Wins in Paris, France!

View to southwest from Boca Cemetery

The fifth interpretive sign - The Children's Cemetery

Part of the Children's Cemetery

Wynford Francis
Son of Mr. & Mrs. R.C. Weeks
Born March 15, 1906. Died April 2, 1908.
Aged 2 Years 17 Days.
Our Loved One

Jos. B. Weldon
Died 20, 1872
Aged 2 mos. & 2 ds.

The sixth interpretive sign - Boca's Demise

Remnants from the Townsite Era

Pictures on Rocks, cont.

Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Site, Santa Barbara County, California
February 19, 2010

My next check box on this trip was the Chumash Painted Cave north of Santa Barbara. It is on a narrow road in the Santa Ynez Mountains, and although it is a State Historic Park, there is no parking lot. You have to park your car alongside the road and hope your car and yourself do not slide down the road embankment. Also you will not find a park ranger, only a metal gate restricting access to the cave with the pictographs outside your reach but within view.

The pictographs are vibrant, and on this rainy and dreary day of my visit, I imagined a group of Chumash with a warm fire waiting out the storm and drawing on the sandstone wall a story of their dreams. I have dreams too, but with modern conveniences, I did not have to wait out the storm. I soon was back on the road with Lompoc less than an hour away.

From the Colorado to the Pacific

Blythe, California to Carlsbad, California
February 14, 2010

A part of the Algodones Dune Field

This is the last part of California I have yet to explore, and I would transect this southernmost part of California from east to west, from the Colorado River to the Pacific Ocean. I knew I would have a full day of driving and sightseeing, and I got on the road just as the sun was rising. And before the sun set that day ...

• I sat on top of a sand dune. State Route 78 goes over the middle of the Algodones dune field with a parking area at the top. The parking area is not for the driving tourist but rather the dune driving recreational enthusiasts. Lots of dirt motorbikes and ATV's on these dunes.
• I stood underneath what was once (maybe) the world's tallest flagpole in Calipatria.
• I drove south through the middle of the Imperial Valley. The Imperial Valley is as flat as the San Joaquin Valley but it is mostly below sea level.
• I had an early lunch in Calexico within eye-shot of the international border with Mexico. I headed westwards on State Route 98 and hugged the border for twenty miles or so. Once I left the agricultural fields and headed into the desert, reminders of my proximity to the border started to sprout. There were the Border Patrol vehicles, but more interesting were the unmanned mobile surveillance devices with remote control cameras. Like a scene out of Star Wars, these devices were looking out onto the desert towards the border. Several times I was probably scrutinized by the remote control operator who was somewhere many miles away in an air-conditioned office. 
• My curiosity was peaked by signs pointing towards the De Anza Overlook and warning that four-wheel drive vehicles with high clearance are recommended. It felt good to get off the highway and put the truck into Hi 4-WD. The overlook of the Yuha Basin showed a desolate wilderness which has not changed much in the 235 years since De Anza and his party crossed it on their way to the coast of California.
• I stopped at a few spots in the southern part of Anza-Borrego State Park including the Carrizo Badlands Overlook and Box Canyon near Blair Valley which still has the roadbed of the old trail and stagecoach road that went through this area.
• I visited San Pasqual Battlefield State Park. California does not have much military history compared to other parts of the country (well, at least when it comes to battles), but San Pasqual is one of the more important reminders of California's past. The visitor center overlooks the San Pasqual Valley and the 1846 battlefield which is privately-owned and planted with crops. With the exhibits in the visitor center, I was able to trace with my finger in the air along the route that General Kearny and his troops took coming down the mountains to find General Pico and his Californios camped in the valley.

With the sun setting below the Pacific Ocean, I finally made it to Carlsbad. After checking into the motel, I headed out to complete one last thing for the day - planting my feet in some ocean sand.

The Yuha Basin
View to the northeast from the overlook

Calipatria Flagpole
The base of the pole is 184 feet below sea level
The top of the pole is at sea level

Cabrillo Namesakes

Cabrillo National Monument, Point Loma, California
February 15, 2010

Statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Being an attendee of Cabrillo High School in Lompoc, I naturally became curious as to who is Cabrillo and what kind of mascot is a Conquistador. Well, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was a conquistador – soldier, explorer, adventurer for the Spanish realm in the New World. In 1542 he and his expedition were the first Europeans to see the sights of the coast of California and set foot on the future Golden State. His expedition planted the seed for California's settlement by the Spanish two centuries later.

My alma mater is one of a small number of namesakes for Cabrillo. I've always been interested in visiting other Cabrillo namesakes, and once again, an opportunity was now staring at me just down the road. Mr. Cabrillo has his own national monument at Point Loma, and I guess this is the definitive namesake for him. The monument commemorates the landing of Cabrillo at San Diego Bay, and offers films and exhibits on his voyage and expedition.  The monument also has a statue of Cabrillo overlooking the bay, although I suspect most visitors come to the monument not for Cabrillo but for the spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean, San Diego Bay, and the surrounding lands.

To the Volcano

Amboy, California
February 13, 2010

At the interstate, I had another direction decision to make. East on Interstate 40 would take me to Needles and then to Blythe where I wanted to end up for the night. Continuing south on Kelbaker Road would take me to Amboy, a wide spot on an old highway which was left to whither when the interstate passed far to the north of it. However, Amboy has a namesake which has stood its ground for many a year:  Amboy Crater.

South to the volcano was my decision. Amboy back in its heyday wasn't much, a meal, lodging and gas stop on Route 66. Now it is even less with only a hardly used gas station and cafe, the closed-but-not-yet-forgotten Roy's Motel, and a few homes. A few miles to the west lies Amboy Crater and Lava Field, an extinct but relatively young (6,000 years young) volcanic cinder cone. With daylight burning, the crater was too far from the parking lot for my liking so I nixed the hike to the crater. Instead I headed out onto the basalt lava field to jump from one rock to another. Something I always do when I see lava.

A Slice of the Mojave

Mojave National Preserve, California
February 13, 2010

South Entrance

Interstates have a tendency to straighten our focus on the freeway and put us into a stupor as to what may be awaiting us if we just get off. That happened to me a number of times when I drove Interstate 15 for Las Vegas or Interstate 40 to get to or from Arizona. I was stupefied into a rush to get somewhere else that I never took a detour into the wonders of the Mojave Desert between I-15 and I-40. Even Congress was not able to get me to detour when it declared this area as a National Preserve in 1994.

Here was my chance as I drove away from Las Vegas on I-15:  Exit 272 Cima Road. Although I was not ready to get intimate with the desert, I thought it at least

Kelso Depot

deserved a drive through as my introduction to this part of the Mojave Desert. My drive along Cima Road and Kelbaker Road provided a 59-mile scenic tour of the National Preserve between I-15 and I-40. The highlights included Cima Dome, the town of Kelso, and the Kelso Dunes. Places that I had previously read about, but now I was able to put sights to the words I read. A couple of hours after starting my detour, I was back on the interstate.

Kelso Dunes

A Drive Through Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Park, California
March 4, 2003

One of the many rock formations in the park

An afternoon drive through the west side of Joshua Tree National Park. Lots of rocks, coyotes on the road, and great views of the Coachella Valley from Keys View. I took the rough exit from the park on Berdoo Canyon Road—unimproved with a drop of around 2,500 feet in 6 1/2 miles. A chef from Palm Springs had the same idea as me, but his Chevrolet sedan was not up to the task. He high centered his car, and I pulled his car back onto the level portion of the road with my Xterra. He had to drive back to the paved road and return to Palm Springs the long way, but I was able to go straight down the road to I-10.

A coyote on the main park road

The Berdoo Canyon Road exit / entrance to the park

Earthquake Country

Parkfield, California
June 27, 2004

Bridge over the Little Cholame Creek

There is an interesting sign at the bridge over the Little Cholame Creek as you enter Parkfield from the south. It simply says "San Andreas Fault - Now Entering North American Plate", but it loudly says you are in earthquake country. The San Andreas Fault, however, is not a thin line on the ground where you can step from the Pacific Plate onto the North American Plate in a single bound. The fault is a zone of crushed and broken rock between the plates that can be from a few hundred feet in width to over a mile.

Nonetheless, this sign gave me an opportunity to get out of the car, walk around, and realize that I was in a narrow zone where one part of California is sliding to the north away from the rest of California in ever a slow manner. And where I started the day on the Pacific Plate, I would end the day on the North American Plate.

A Look Around Donner Peak

Near Truckee, California
August 3, 2002

Unfortunately, I did not take full (or even part) advantage of all the outdoor opportunities that were available to me when I lived in Truckee. I hiked to the top of Donner Peak only once and that was in summer (when a snowshoe hike in winter is the best time to do it). However, Donner Peak will always be the place where I took my first panoramic photograph. It's quite a view with Donner Lake as the book ends of this 360 degree view.

Rainbow Bridge on Donner Pass Road (old US Route 40)

Donner Lake

Donner Peak as viewed from the Pacific Crest Trail

The Road to Lompoc

Santa Barbara County, California
August, 1973

Gaviota Pass in 2010, looking north

We had been on the road for four days, and we were about to drive through our first tunnel. After driving 2,670 numbing miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, it did not take much to animate three kids in the back seat of a Vista Cruiser station wagon. However, it was the sign just after the tunnel through Gaviota Pass that excited all of us:  Lompoc Next Exit. Our travels were about to come to an end.

Lompoc and Vandenberg Air Force Base have had a close relationship for over 50 years now. It has been a way of life for military families to move their lives from one base to another and another, and thousands of families accomplished the same journey to Vandenberg Air Force Base as my family did in August 1973. Because our expedition from Hahn Air Base in Germany to Vandenberg had eye-opening layovers in London and Florida, we probably took a little bit longer than most families in getting from their old base to Vandenberg. After eight weeks in transit, we were still in Florida, and the last part of our adventures entailed a cross-country drive in our just-bought station wagon. This drive would be the end to our assignment in Germany which started eerily enough with a cross-country drive from the Mojave Desert of California to New Jersey only four years earlier.

Goodbye to Greensberg

Choice Valley, San Luis Obispo County, California
November 22, 2001 and December 22, 2007

You will not find Greensberg, California on a map. You will not find it on the Internet.  You will not find it on the land. A few of us may remember it if we traveled through Palo Prieto Pass in the far eastern slice of San Luis Obispo County. What we remember is the Greensberg General Store: a desolate building with a mysterious past, a building once part of the land, a building now just a memory.

I traveled through Cholame dozens and dozens of times I drove between Kettleman City and Paso Robles. This route is the fastest way from Lompoc to the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra Nevada beyond it. My first time was in April 1981 on my way to Fresno to explore my soon-to-be university. I traveled through Cholame many more times on my visits back to Lompoc from Fresno and then Mariposa and Truckee.

There's not much to slow you down in this part of San Luis Obispo County along Highway 41, but in all my travels through Cholame, I did stop a few times to sample what Cholame had to offer. There was that time I had to stretch my legs, a couple of times to check out the Japanese memorial to James Dean who died in an auto accident only a few miles away, and the time I had the most delicious coconut cream pie at Jack Ranch Cafe. There was, however, one offering near Cholame that I did not avail myself. It would entice me every time I passed it – Bitterwater Road.

Pictures on Rocks

Carrizo Plain National Monument, San Luis Obispo County, California
February 18, 2010

I have driven through the Carrizo Plain several times over the last few years but never really stopped to smell the roses that this national monument offered. On my way back to Lompoc from the Mojave Desert, I decided I would stop at one of these roses, the Painted Rock.  Painted Rock is a horseshoe-shaped formation of sandstone rocks with Native American pictographs. One of the three major forms of Native American rock art, a pictograph as defined by the Archaeology Wordsmith is "Any design, picture, or drawing painted on a surface (usually rock/stone) and used to represent a thing, action, or event. Pictographs are believed to be the earliest form in the development of writing (pictography). It represents a form of nonverbal communication used by non-literate people."

Movie Magic

Trona, California
February 17, 2010

You probably have seen the Trona Pinnacles, but just didn't know it. Production crews for movies, television, and commercials have been drawn for years to this area 150 miles north of Los Angeles.

This group of over 500 tufa (calcium carbonate) towers rise up to 140 feet from the Searles Dry Lake and can be transformed into an alien world or the desolate reaches of the earth with the right lighting, camera angle, and special effects. Star Trek V, the 2001 remake of the Planet of the Apes, and many a car and truck commercial are just some of the video productions that have been filmed here.

The Pinnacles are best though when you are by yourself and have them all to yourself. You don't need any Hollywood magic to feel desolate in these surroundings.

The Trona Pinnacles in the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes

Pictographs, Petroglyphs, and now Geoglyphs !

North of Blythe, California
February 13, 2010

Sometimes it is by the wandering spirit and sheer luck that you find something you weren't looking for but glad you did. I've seen my share of Native American pictographs and petroglyphs as I've traveled through the West, but I don't remember if I've come across a geoglyph. I remember reading about geoglyphs as a teen when I went through a phase learning about aliens—the ones out there in space watching us. In 1968 Erich von Daniken wrote "Chariots of the Gods" hypothesizing that aliens visited our ancient cultures and imparted to mankind new technologies and religions worshiping these ancient astronauts. Part of his proof, mostly now debunked, were the giant geoglyphs of Nazca and Pampas de Jumana in South America. These geoglyphs ranged from simple lines and geometric shapes to figures of animals and humans up to 660 feet across. That is how I came to know the definition of a geoglyph: a large-scale drawing on the ground made by the arranging of rocks and other materials on the surface or the scraping away of the surface materials. Since then I have not thought much about geoglyphs.

The Devils Punchbowl

Dianas Punchbowl
aka Devils Punchbowl
Nye County, Nevada

Los Angeles County, California   May 29, 2000
Nye County, Nevada   May 24, 2009
Montgomery County, Indiana   July 3, 2011

The Devil has quite a number of punchbowls in the United States. Over 20 places in more than a dozen states have been called the Devil's Punchbowl or Punch Bowl. The Devils Punchbowl is also found in other English-speaking countries including Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, England, and Wales. Since the devil is known in other languages, his punchbowls are also found elsewhere in the world. In Ecuador at the Rio Verde it is called La Ponchera del Diablo.

We are not talking about a large bowl from which a beverage such as punch is served. Rather, these punchbowls are unique geologic or topographic features which to an explorer's eye may look like a bowl-like depression. These features include basins, springs, lakes, and waterfalls. The devil's ownership to the punchbowls has been usurped by man, but the devil's presence at one time or another engulfed these places. The anxiety of a placenamer who came upon one of these punchbowls may have spawned a fright that only the devil can bring. A legend telling of the devil haunting, causing mischief, or bargaining for a soul at the punchbowl may have evoked anxiety and fright in the placenamer. Or it may have just been a shiver down the back of the placenamer as the punchbowl brought visions of the devil's dwelling.