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Mojave Desert March 19-25, 2015
Trains
Until a few years ago it was the Santa Fe (AT & SF) but they were bought by Burlington Northern (BNSF)   (Mojave Desert routes avoid the Sierras unless you follow it into Bakersfield over Tehachapi)
Union Pacific waiting at the crossing at Kelbaker Road in  Kelso
Old Route 66
Part of what is left of Ludlow after I-40 replaced Rte 66	A salt cedar in the middle of nowhere
Amboy Crater
Amboy Crater is recent (last 10,000 years) Some recent basalt flows in the area may only be 500 years old
Arizona Camp
I was planning on camping down on Lake Mojave on the Colorado River but the mountains beckoned        (Or pissed me off by giving me the finger)
Mya finds some friends. She gives up the chase, after a fair amount of time of my yelling at her.	Male brays loudly in triumph after Mya turns back
Laughlin casinos across the Colorado River from my Arizona camp
Beavertail cactus waiting to explode with flowers	Beavertail in bloom
Laughlin at the Aquarius for a night with the wife & family (Camper in the parking got up to 93, Mya was fine)  I dropped about $100 gambling which is a lot for me
Kelbaker Road
San Bernadino County wants nothing to do with Kelbaker Road	No domestic sheep or goats without permit   (There is a Bighorn Basin in the Granite Mountains)
Granite Pass Camp
East towards Mitchell Peak and the Providence Mountains	Camp for two nights
Left hand Chloe was in Arizona camp the other two around Granite Pass. The Arizona one is nasty, it drops little balls of barbed needles. (Not good for the dog)
Flowering Yuccas, flower masses are about 3 foot tall
Mya smells the flowers	And eats the critters
Kelso Sand Dunes
Kelso Dunes from the parking area after the climb   (little black spot on the summit is about a dozen people)	Providence Mountains in the distance
The dunes are fueled by 45 square miles of sand called the Devil's Playground	Mya makes friends at the top of the dunes
At 700' they are almost as high as the highest in California which are the Eureka Sand Dunes at 800'. As we were approaching the summit two people appeared, eventually followed by almost a dozen more. Colorado college kids on spring break.                (Additional pictures of them they can download)
	The kids brought beer to the top and since they were still fairly cold I took one that was offered. Genesee was the cheap beer in Colorado. Genesee is a Upstate New York beer. When I was growing up in the Albany area the slogan for Genesee was "Brewed with pure Hemlock Lake Water" Hemlock was the poison Socrates was forced to drink for corrupting the youth of Athens. I see they changed their slogan but it seems to corrupting the youth of Colorado.
Kelso Depot
The old facility was going to be torn down by Union Pacific but instead was restored and made into a museum
Where I-40 & old Route 66 area is Burlington Northern and Santa Fe the Kelso area is Union Pacific. (So is Afton Canyon). At one time Kelso was needed for helper engines to make sure trains could get up the grade. Newer technology and better engines put an end to the need for Kelso. The old Depot is now a museum.
Afton Canyon
One of the sites actually has a couple of bushes	Mya decides the water is too deep for her liking
Afton Canyon Campground had plenty of flies, gnats and mosquitoes as well as very happy frogs that serenaded you all night. The signs say they are working on improving the facility from fall 2014 to fall 2016 but I see no signs of any change. Still at $3 a night senior half price who cares. The Mojave River comes above ground twice in the canyon where the road crosses it. I walked the first crossing and the water was 6 inches above my knees, too deep for my camper or Jeep's tail pipe.
March 2015  (posts and cables covered by indications of heavy water flow since last time I was there. There also seems to be some of them missing)	March 2013
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