Wednesday, December 22nd

Last night we stayed for free in a Walmart parking lot in Kingman, AZ.  There were about a half dozen other RVs there and it felt very safe and was pretty quiet too.  It was also super convenient because we made several trips inside for items we decided we needed in addition to the groceries we got earlier in the day. 

In the morning, we got up a bit early at 7am.  I made pancakes and sausage for breakfast and after eating and cleaning up a bit, we headed for the Monolith Garden Trail, a nearby hiking trail. 

We downloaded a trail map and headed out.  On the map above we only did the first little bit of the purple path. The kids loved getting off trail a bit and exploring.

We saw lots of different kinds cacti and other plants. 

We also saw evidence of some large herbivores.  I guessed big horn for the biggest “evidence” we saw.

This was a very short hike, about 1.3 miles total on and out on the same path.  The terrain was a bit uneven but not overly steep.

At one spot, Asa said “This would make a good screen saver” about the view. 

Asa also spotted a water bottle wedged in between two rocks.  It turned out it was a geocach and it had some cool trinkets inside.  The kids snagged some treasures from it.  We searched our pockets and backpack for something we could put back in (you’re supposed to replace it with something of equal or greater value) but we couldn’t find anything that wasn’t food.  Nole put a $5 bill in in the end.  I’m sure the next person will be surprised to find that!  Our treasures included a shot gun casing, a Shopkin, Lego R2D2 minifigure and this animal jaw that Nova took. 

We stopped for gas on our way out of town, having been warned about California gas prices.  We drove along Historic Route 66 toward Oatman, AZ. 

The road was winding and went through the mountains but there was almost no traffic and we got there easily.  We had to stop for two wild donkeys on the road in one spot but we convinced them to move without having to get out of the RV. Once in Oatman we met more donkeys, or burros or asses as they call them.

We bought some food from a shop to feed them then we walked along the small main street visiting other shops. 

We finished with an ice cream and visit to the candy store then we hopped back in the motorhome and headed out of town towards California.

Originally I wanted to do Amboy Crater today but we spent more time in Oatman than I thought we would.   Nole was the voice of reason and said we should get to our first-come first-serve campsite before it got dark.  The road to the site was very bumpy and it took us a half hour to go 3 miles.

The site is on BLM (or Bureau of Land Management) land and is free.  It is dry camping (no electricity or water) and is located at the Kelso Dunes in the Mojave National Preserve.

Once we got to the site, we brought down the bikes to try them on the packed sand but the plan quickly changed to a short hike to the dunes and back. Nole was apprehensive about hiking this close to dark so we turned back and plan to visit them again early tomorrow. The boys want to climb one of the higher dunes and slide down.

We had pork chops and salad for dinner. The kids and Nole played outside wearing headlamps and Nole spotted a gerbil.

There was no cell service at our site so we couldn’t upload this blog post. We will probably have this same problem the next few nights since we are, quite literally, in a desert.