Buckeye Creek - Bridgeport, Ca

This is an awesome site with a natural hot spring near by. This is a picture from up the hill looking down. GPS Coords: 38.239006, -119.331695

This is the location from eye level. This is the last camping spot along a short spur road just over the bridge from Buckeye Creek. You will first get to an open area that can accommodate a group of rigs of almost any size. Then there a couple for smaller sites before you get to the one pictured below.

This is a picture of the river from about where the truck is in the above picture.

To get to these beautiful sites from Bridgeport, CA turn on Twin Lakes Road (where the shell station is) and follow it until you get to Doc and Al's campground. Turn right on Buckeye Road and cross over a small creek. Just on the other side of the creek is the first of many places to camp, but continue up the road and follow it past many other sites. Once you cross over the next bridge (about 2 miles up) veer right and you will be there.

Here is an aerial view

There is a campground if you follow the road to the left but it can't accommodate larger rigs. If you follow the road to the right you will find one more decent site just up the hill.

Enjoy!

Benton Hot Springs

A rustic oasis in Benton, California, about 40 miles southeast of Mono Lake, Benton Hot Springs offers nine spots for campers and RVs, as well as a bed and breakfast. 

This place is absolutely gorgeous.  My idea of paradise.  Not fancy (for camping - I didn't see the B&B part), but lovely and very peaceful.  Each site comes with a fire ring, a picnic table, a private hot tub and a gorgeous view of the nearby Sierras.  They drain and scrub the hot tub after each check-out, so we arrived to our tub filling with beautifully clear natural hot spring water.  There's nothing like soaking under the stars in your birthday suit. Each site has quite a bit of privacy, so if you're shy, this is the place for you.  The water comes out of the ground at approximately 135° F (57° C).  If you want to cool it down a bit, just turn off the spout.

They are dog friendly and as long as your pets (and children) are controlled, they do not have to be on leash.  Yay!  Stella spent most of her time frolicking in the beautiful little meadow adjacent to our site.  (If your children are unruly, I'm afraid they will have to be leashed.)


There is a small grocery nearby but not much else, so bring your water and supplies with you into Benton.  But even if you don't need anything, I would recommend paying a visit to the store, just to pick up some cheetos and a diet coke.  And the local paper.  The people who run it had lots of interesting stories about the area and they were raising baby chicks in front when we stopped by.  A must visit.

Disclaimer: As always, my husband's photographs are more beautiful than real life could ever be.  $40-$50 per night for two people.  Spring and autumn are the best times to go.  Reservations are recommended.  No hook-ups.

To accurately duplicate the Cait experience in Benton, I recommend reading Pontoon by Garrison Keillor while you are here.  It is part of the Lake Wobegone series, but you don't have to have read any of the others for this to be a delight.  Just find a nice shady spot and a cool beverage, and dig in.  It's a fast read -- funny, touching and utterly charming in that self-effacing mid-western way.  Keillor is brilliant at revealing the sweetness and beauty of small town life while at the same time skewering its rigidity and petty tyranny.  The feel of this book is a perfect compliment to the surroundings here and I have nothing but praise for both.

Chakras realigned....

The wife and I jumped in the truck early Saturday morning to find our little piece of happiness near the dry lake bed in Joshua Tree, CA. After we arrived without a generator I realized my batteries were low and wouldn't  run the furnace for the entire night. The temp was already 50° and wind was howling. So we ate lunch, packed up and and cruised up the hill 2 more miles to Joshua Tree Lakes Campground where we got ourselves a site with electricity and promptly turned on the electric heater and setup the TV.

One sight we wanted to see was Giant Rock. Giant Rock is just that -- a giant rock near the town of Landers, CA. On our way out to Giant Rock we had heard about a place called Intregratron and wanted to see what it was all about. After getting directions from the camp host we headed out. We came upon this sign.

We turned in to the lot and were greeted by a nice man asking if we were here for the "Sound Bath." We said we just wanted to look around at first, so we parked and walked into the compound and found one of my favorite things, hammocks! So I got in to test drive a hammock in the hammock village!

The Integratron!

 The Integratron is a pretty cool place.  The upstairs has the kind of acoustics where you can whisper at one end of the building and a person directly across from you at the other end can hear you as if through an amplifier.  And the acoustics are what make the Sound Baths so intense.  You lie on the floor on mats and a woman "plays" quartz crystal bowls (the way you would play wine glasses).  The sound reverberates throughout the dome, creating a strange, pleasant, relaxing effect.  The sound bath lasts for about 25 minutes and you are encouraged to rest and relax (and soak up the good vibrations) for another half hour or so.  We enjoyed it and may well come again some time.  Our chakras get way out of whack and need to be realigned periodically....

Now on to Giant Rock. Not nearly as big as I have heard but still impressive. Giant Rock is only about 3.5 miles from Integratron down a dirt road that for most of the way is great.  After a few miles you will hit the "whoops". Still passable with cars but I think trucks will fair much better.

The rock itself is impressive but has been all but ruined by the graffiti on the rock and on all the rocks that surround it. Still worth seeing if you are near by, but I wouldn't go out of my way to get there.

Now to the boondocking sites near here.

Dry lake bed near Joshua Tree. 34.16637 -116.22926 Great spot but note this is also a OHV area.
Near Giant Rock. 34.33263 -116.388862 All surrounding area is open for boondocking and is also OHV area.

Heading out to check some boondocking sites in Joshua Tree, CA

So Friday night the wife and I will be Joshua Tree, Ca for the weekend scoping out some cool sites to boondock when were retired (See our plan here). Near by is Giant Rock with more boondocking sites. Pictures will be posted Monday.

The dry lake bed is located at 34.164264, -116.229484. There is plenty of space for everyone here. Giant Rock is located 34.332850, -116.388725.

Enjoy camping and tread lightly!
 

Over Thanksgiving weekend we traveled to Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park. Furnace Creek campgrounds do have some full hook-up sites (recreation.gov). Though we stayed in a dry site. I wanted to take advantage of the dark sky's, so I took some long exposure pictures of the stars.

I also wanted to comment on 2 other campgrounds in Furnace Creek, these being Sunset campground and Texas Springs campground.

As you can see this is a big parking lot style campground that I am assuming never is completely filled. Bathrooms and water are available along with a dump station just outside the campground.

Texas Springs on the other hand is a very nice little campground just up the hill from Sunset CG.  I highly recommend this campground. Reservations are required for Texas Springs and well as Furnace Creek.

Boon-docking is available out side the park is a few areas but make for a long drive into the valley for sight seeings. The most notable is Dumont Dunes (http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/barstow/dumont.html). Another nice option that is the close is just out side Beatty NV. on the road to Titus Canyon right before you get to the cattle grates. 36.85910 -116.84620

Enjoy your trip!

Stella in Yellowstone National Park (A Video)

Just a quick video of Stella romping in Yellowstone National Park last summer.

Enjoy!