Hey there Camping friends,
Camping is on pause for myself this year. Tales be told, this exact time last year I was driving my little motor-home alone out of a hot, humid inferno in Mexico with a hurricane on my tail! I like to live a little more excitingly because after all, it creates grander memories and breathes a little more life into an encapsulated comfort aka an otherwise dull life right!?
Today is your lucky day. In fact, just reading this could be life-changing for you! You get to know one of my favorite SECRET places! Therefore, I recommend you stop reading here and turn on a TV game show or something less titillating!
Admittedly, I’m still Lulu so I am hardly going to make it EASY on you. Not only is it NOT “easy” to get to, yet anyone can get there! It will require some planning in advance, and some flexibility. Right now, at this time of year, you can’t even safely "BE there"!
This variety of photos is meant to scare some and lure others! A camping adventure bucket hit-list for your FUTURE! The time it's best to go there, is when it's the coldest time of year here! Please understand, I’m planting OFF-SEASON seeds for you because, well admittedly I don't want too many people to frequent a favorite place.
What the heck you ask? Well. My dear friend who sent me some of these photos wrote this: "Dear Lulu... S. Valley is a special place, please don't give your customers directions, just tell them that it's off I-395 in CA. If they can't figure it out, that's perfectly OK. Also, I broke the frame on my toy hauler, be SURE to pass that along too!".
So, let's stir up some guessing:
1. WHERE can you go and camp for up to month and for free in a NATIONAL PARK! Did you know such thing even exists?
2. Where can you soak in several choices of fresh, CLEAN, hot spring pools that range from 61 degrees to 117 °F. AND have the most luxurious hot showers that were ever to exist whist camping?
3. Where can you go and have rotating social experiences daily and meet interesting, adventuresome people, while having plenty of options of getting away from them too? ;-)
4. Where can you hunt for GEM stones, or prove your jeeps 4-wheeling skills in the same afternoon?
Don't worry! Once there, whether your afraid of joining those, wholesome, naked body hot-spring types, or you need a break from your traveling partner, or perhaps from the kids, there is a warm pool or another adventure somewhere in this place, that's just right for you.
Where can you go silver, rock, gold and gem hunting? And feed Burro’s from the historical mining days, your left-overs? Where can you see the pure, whole night sky, --like you've never seen it before?!
Where can you both challenge yourself and get that heart beating faster again, while also intermittently restoring yourself in the cradle of natures warm volcanic, spring waters?
The answer is, and I because I can't make it easy on you, I won't even bold this: Saline Valley Warm Springs in Death Valley National Monument! Now I said it. You can stop reading here and do your own research!
PART II
If I haven't lost you yet, read on a few more minutes and learn about it what you will.
When I had heard about such a place of paradise, or was it horror? I was told I would need a 4 wheel drive vehicle to go. So I put it off. I joined groups about it to observe and learn online what I could.
One group was full of old geezers telling terror tales of getting there and worse, getting stuck for a month back there in the snow, and trying to get outta there! That group made it seem that you had to be an insane person or a person with a vehicle outfitted specifically for the hazards of the journey, that somehow resembled a military tank. Note: this photo in snow is the third pass/way in and out known as Steel Pass.
Then fortunately, a day came when a really trusted friend told me he went up there in his Silverado truck pulling a toy-hauler! He was exhilarated and told a tale of surviving some RV damage and getting a repair but he loved it so much he was committed to going back! BOOM! Though he was a stretch in adventure, it perfectly matched mine! That was exactly what I needed to hear! I was now officially down for that adventure!
Like you might do now, I chucked that little nugget in the back of my brain to retrieve when the season was right. If he could drag a big bad-a*s toyhauler up there, surely I would be fine in my lil' girly motorhome.
Now, when the day came, keep in mind my little motor home had already traversed the treacherous highways of Baja including roads of dusty desolation that are in a perpetual mode of never being finished. Fear wasn't really my problem! Common sense, well ...maybe? Fortunately the desire for experiences always trumps my fear!
So despite all the internet warnings, that in hindsight, were actually more like bragging's' I went ahead and set out to journey to this place of caution, one fine January day. I was coming from the big city of San Francisco and was in serious need for some sunshine, and restoration from being in the big city.
I drove in from the North and it was the storm behind me that chased me down the pass in Mammoth Lakes California from the West. I almost got locked-in but luckily, I arrived in Big Pine, the last town-stop to the North just in time to refuel and get supplies as the storm followed me like a dark cloak. I knew I would soon lose my cellular service, so I cherished it one last night camping near enough to town.
In the morning the weather was fine. I screenshot a photo of the mapping on Goggle then headed due East with my hot coffee, then soon South heading down a long, LONG dirt road. I was surprised at how peaceful and quiet the drive was almost immediately, and how fast my cell went out! I took my time and spent most of the day traveling and stopping to explore a few abandoned historic mining shacks along the way and make lunch in a groovy spot.
The views were a stark unspectacular and yet somehow also fantastic! Is it too cliche to say that the silence was near deafening? It was hard to believe that just over that Mountain range to my right, was the greater "civilized" world. It was a hush world here. Would you like it?
The grated dirt road meandered mostly straight. Nothing too drastic or hairy in my book. There was one switchy mountain pass but I was in broad daylight in perfect weather so I barely noticed it. It was not a hazardous interesting road, but rather a wide road of wash-boarded hell! I made peace with it being hyper avoidant of tire and axle problems knowing my limits for self-done repairs were pretty much at a 10 year old level. I stayed vigilant and watched others speed past me kicking up dust. I was the tortoise, of the tortoise and the hare. One of the speeders was now behind me under his truck in the hot dirt dismantling a tire. I had been going slow enough to easily see and avoid the sharp, large rock that had slid onto the road, now just behind us. I was the one still driving. So this is the terror the geezer's spoke of? Yep, no cell service and just an annoying wash-board road to crawl on for 40 miles. It occurred to me that was a ploy to keep the masses out of their favorite camping spots.
There is a peculiarity that I like about driving off grid or as somebody's Auntie would say "out in the boonies!". Suddenly you are living a different reality that echos the past. Partly more vulnerable, partly more allowed to be your whole-self. So you wave at others and instead of them looking at you like you have a problem, they actually wave back. Some even slow down, and if you slow down, they slow down more. Then as if in a silent agreement, you both roll down your windows and say something like "...howdy there" and "how's the road ahead looking...". You might use language from a quieter time-period.
You gather information from each other as if you were pioneers on horses and you might need to know if the river is flowing over the path, as it could be life or death. In this case there is always another pioneer soon to pass your way. Although as I got closer, the sun was going down and there were no longer any pioneers heading out. The road was lonely and I liked it. Have you ever heard the saying that "Anxiety" when in a higher moment transfers though the body as "excitement". Probably not, because I made that up. But that's what I have discovered to be true, and that was coming up next!
Finally at the end of the long easy dirt road, I was relieved to see the markers for the left turn onto the infamous BAT ROAD, a few old and GIANT tractor tires on the side of the road! I carefully took the left turn and after passing a few RV's camped on the side, almost immediately began the navigation of well, that anxiety or sometimes excitement. It was now necessary to sit up straight and be alert! It was obvious that I needed to keep my speed up while navigating sharp rocks or risk my tires being dragged down into sand that had drifted over sections of the road. I also saw that if I kept in graded tracks my tires would ride on the land, not under! Apparently the parks department kept it graded enough to get their trucks in to service the toilet that is at the end of this road, and perhaps deliver supplies to the one brave man who lives here year round and maintains the park.
I came up to the tall famous marking post with BAT ART hanging from it. A ominous warning or turning back point for vehicles without high clearance or other risk factors. A playful, symbol for those outfitted with jeeps, toys or tanks! I stopped to take a few photos and catch my breath. The winter sun was all low and setting and the temperature was thankfully cool. I took a deep breath and wished myself luck. The next mile and a half there was no sand to worry about, now it was a narrow trail of huge rocks and holes. Fortunately my wheel base was short so I could easily navigate above most of the holes in a super slow speed. I stopped to get out and wipe the sweat off my brow and plan my navigation a few vehicle lengths ahead several times.
The most difficult part was the last section, about a tenth of a mile, where the problems were the same plus it was extremely STEEP! Steep in a way that meant I had to keep my speed up or I would stall and get stuck! Finally it was a big relief to make it to the smooth top of that trail they call a road, and not see any spilled stream of oil on the ground behind my motor-home nor any parts dragging underneath! That said, back at the turn off by the BIG tires I could see why some camped there choosing to hike or bike in the mile ahead, instead of risking the perils ahead! And I got the BAT Post Art...
If you are towing any travel trailer, no matter the size, I recommend camping at the intersection where the BIG tires or anywhere before the BAT pole, for the first night. Then disconnecting and driving your truck up the mile and a half in the morning to scope it out so you can strategize the tow. Not a bad idea to pre-camp in any case and then hike up the trail/road could to help lower the risk. If you do haul toys, you will be pleased to explore STEEL PASS behind the springs (it's the third way in/out). There are three sections of springs natural, upper springs and lower springs. I went the extra distance to the upper and the traversed the worse.
I will leave you with this vision now. The journey to this part of California, the broad part of getting there, be it down or up the Hwy 395 in this Eastern part of California is excellent in itself. There are no freeways, no heavy traffic. The mountains are a source of constant eye-candy. The quiet little towns and/or ski towns along the way, very pleasant.
If you are a hot spring seeker there are some of the best along the route both North and South (I can't give it all away in one newsletter) but you can do the research easily and make quite an adventure soaking along the way. Once you get there you will have friends or seclusion, at your choice. If you decide to go on Thanksgiving you will inevitably be planning to join a large feast with others as is the annual party. You need to bring everything except water.
Once there you will find yourself in the company of relaxed adventure seeker types who may invite you into their lives. Don't be surprised if you get invited to an Ancient Chinese Tea Demonstration in a little town named Rainbow, an Avocado farm near San Diego or the Ranch of Almond Firewood in Lancaster. Who knows where this could take you, but those were places where it took me next!
Until the next teaser! Happy Camping!
Lulu out!
A link to post photos of YOUR adventure RV on our google site
note: Photos are from a variety of blogs and websites, thanks to the contributors.
Here is a link to the blog.
Lulu here from Colorado Mountain RV! :-) By now your camping summer is well off the ground, or hopefully the highway! By now you’ve had a few, if not many, good camping trips. Most likely out there in those outrageously, majestic Colorado and Wyoming Rocky Mountains. Maybe even freezing your butt off in exchange for a Bullwinkle siting, if you went up high enough! Live and Let Live! Those experiences are the spice of life both the good ones --and those not so good ones where maybe the Bears ate your Oreos!
Heck ya! In my book, you get points if you’ve challenged ANY of your limits! This includes nature and the great outdoors, or for others....social! Camping with Family n' Friends can have it's challengings too. However it may be so, whether confronting a bobcat, Uncle Bucks cooking, or grimacing through "kumbaya songs" around a campfire. Maybe something perked you to escape and view the highest peaks in the Awe of the starry night sky, and that made it all worth it! Some of you finally had your first marshmallow cooked on a stick that you found in the woods yourself, soft and melty or charred to a crisp, I commend you too! Experiencing as much as your comfort limit can push you out of!
No matter what happened on your camp trips—Good job for getting out there!
Now admittedly, I carry-on a bit much in this post, and knowing the attention span of the average, digitally-aged human is not even close to this chatty written word, if you've made it this far, likely you are going to earn The Secret Location! But alas, you'll have to read on just a little more! ;-)
Heck ya! In my book, you get points if you’ve challenged ANY of your limits! This includes nature and the great outdoors, or for others....social! Camping with Family n' Friends can have it's challengings too. However it may be so, whether confronting a bobcat, Uncle Bucks cooking, or grimacing through "kumbaya songs" around a campfire. Maybe something perked you to escape and view the highest peaks in the Awe of the starry night sky, and that made it all worth it! Some of you finally had your first marshmallow cooked on a stick that you found in the woods yourself, soft and melty or charred to a crisp, I commend you too! Experiencing as much as your comfort limit can push you out of!
No matter what happened on your camp trips—Good job for getting out there!
Now admittedly, I carry-on a bit much in this post, and knowing the attention span of the average, digitally-aged human is not even close to this chatty written word, if you've made it this far, likely you are going to earn The Secret Location! But alas, you'll have to read on just a little more! ;-)
Camping is on pause for myself this year. Tales be told, this exact time last year I was driving my little motor-home alone out of a hot, humid inferno in Mexico with a hurricane on my tail! I like to live a little more excitingly because after all, it creates grander memories and breathes a little more life into an encapsulated comfort aka an otherwise dull life right!? 
Today is your lucky day. In fact, just reading this could be life-changing for you! You get to know one of my favorite SECRET places! Therefore, I recommend you stop reading here and turn on a TV game show or something less titillating!
This variety of photos is meant to scare some and lure others! A camping adventure bucket hit-list for your FUTURE! The time it's best to go there, is when it's the coldest time of year here! Please understand, I’m planting OFF-SEASON seeds for you because, well admittedly I don't want too many people to frequent a favorite place.
What the heck you ask? Well. My dear friend who sent me some of these photos wrote this: "Dear Lulu... S. Valley is a special place, please don't give your customers directions, just tell them that it's off I-395 in CA. If they can't figure it out, that's perfectly OK. Also, I broke the frame on my toy hauler, be SURE to pass that along too!".
1. WHERE can you go and camp for up to month and for free in a NATIONAL PARK! Did you know such thing even exists?
2. Where can you soak in several choices of fresh, CLEAN, hot spring pools that range from 61 degrees to 117 °F. AND have the most luxurious hot showers that were ever to exist whist camping?
3. Where can you go and have rotating social experiences daily and meet interesting, adventuresome people, while having plenty of options of getting away from them too? ;-)
4. Where can you hunt for GEM stones, or prove your jeeps 4-wheeling skills in the same afternoon?
Don't worry! Once there, whether your afraid of joining those, wholesome, naked body hot-spring types, or you need a break from your traveling partner, or perhaps from the kids, there is a warm pool or another adventure somewhere in this place, that's just right for you.Where can you go silver, rock, gold and gem hunting? And feed Burro’s from the historical mining days, your left-overs? Where can you see the pure, whole night sky, --like you've never seen it before?!
Where can you both challenge yourself and get that heart beating faster again, while also intermittently restoring yourself in the cradle of natures warm volcanic, spring waters?
The answer is, and I because I can't make it easy on you, I won't even bold this: Saline Valley Warm Springs in Death Valley National Monument! Now I said it. You can stop reading here and do your own research!
PART II
If I haven't lost you yet, read on a few more minutes and learn about it what you will.
Then fortunately, a day came when a really trusted friend told me he went up there in his Silverado truck pulling a toy-hauler! He was exhilarated and told a tale of surviving some RV damage and getting a repair but he loved it so much he was committed to going back! BOOM! Though he was a stretch in adventure, it perfectly matched mine! That was exactly what I needed to hear! I was now officially down for that adventure!
Like you might do now, I chucked that little nugget in the back of my brain to retrieve when the season was right. If he could drag a big bad-a*s toyhauler up there, surely I would be fine in my lil' girly motorhome.
Now, when the day came, keep in mind my little motor home had already traversed the treacherous highways of Baja including roads of dusty desolation that are in a perpetual mode of never being finished. Fear wasn't really my problem! Common sense, well ...maybe? Fortunately the desire for experiences always trumps my fear!
So despite all the internet warnings, that in hindsight, were actually more like bragging's' I went ahead and set out to journey to this place of caution, one fine January day. I was coming from the big city of San Francisco and was in serious need for some sunshine, and restoration from being in the big city.
In the morning the weather was fine. I screenshot a photo of the mapping on Goggle then headed due East with my hot coffee, then soon South heading down a long, LONG dirt road. I was surprised at how peaceful and quiet the drive was almost immediately, and how fast my cell went out! I took my time and spent most of the day traveling and stopping to explore a few abandoned historic mining shacks along the way and make lunch in a groovy spot.
The views were a stark unspectacular and yet somehow also fantastic! Is it too cliche to say that the silence was near deafening? It was hard to believe that just over that Mountain range to my right, was the greater "civilized" world. It was a hush world here. Would you like it?
The grated dirt road meandered mostly straight. Nothing too drastic or hairy in my book. There was one switchy mountain pass but I was in broad daylight in perfect weather so I barely noticed it. It was not a hazardous interesting road, but rather a wide road of wash-boarded hell! I made peace with it being hyper avoidant of tire and axle problems knowing my limits for self-done repairs were pretty much at a 10 year old level. I stayed vigilant and watched others speed past me kicking up dust. I was the tortoise, of the tortoise and the hare. One of the speeders was now behind me under his truck in the hot dirt dismantling a tire. I had been going slow enough to easily see and avoid the sharp, large rock that had slid onto the road, now just behind us. I was the one still driving. So this is the terror the geezer's spoke of? Yep, no cell service and just an annoying wash-board road to crawl on for 40 miles. It occurred to me that was a ploy to keep the masses out of their favorite camping spots.
There is a peculiarity that I like about driving off grid or as somebody's Auntie would say "out in the boonies!". Suddenly you are living a different reality that echos the past. Partly more vulnerable, partly more allowed to be your whole-self. So you wave at others and instead of them looking at you like you have a problem, they actually wave back. Some even slow down, and if you slow down, they slow down more. Then as if in a silent agreement, you both roll down your windows and say something like "...howdy there" and "how's the road ahead looking...". You might use language from a quieter time-period.
You gather information from each other as if you were pioneers on horses and you might need to know if the river is flowing over the path, as it could be life or death. In this case there is always another pioneer soon to pass your way. Although as I got closer, the sun was going down and there were no longer any pioneers heading out. The road was lonely and I liked it. Have you ever heard the saying that "Anxiety" when in a higher moment transfers though the body as "excitement". Probably not, because I made that up. But that's what I have discovered to be true, and that was coming up next! 
Finally at the end of the long easy dirt road, I was relieved to see the markers for the left turn onto the infamous BAT ROAD, a few old and GIANT tractor tires on the side of the road! I carefully took the left turn and after passing a few RV's camped on the side, almost immediately began the navigation of well, that anxiety or sometimes excitement. It was now necessary to sit up straight and be alert! It was obvious that I needed to keep my speed up while navigating sharp rocks or risk my tires being dragged down into sand that had drifted over sections of the road. I also saw that if I kept in graded tracks my tires would ride on the land, not under! Apparently the parks department kept it graded enough to get their trucks in to service the toilet that is at the end of this road, and perhaps deliver supplies to the one brave man who lives here year round and maintains the park.
I came up to the tall famous marking post with BAT ART hanging from it. A ominous warning or turning back point for vehicles without high clearance or other risk factors. A playful, symbol for those outfitted with jeeps, toys or tanks! I stopped to take a few photos and catch my breath. The winter sun was all low and setting and the temperature was thankfully cool. I took a deep breath and wished myself luck. The next mile and a half there was no sand to worry about, now it was a narrow trail of huge rocks and holes. Fortunately my wheel base was short so I could easily navigate above most of the holes in a super slow speed. I stopped to get out and wipe the sweat off my brow and plan my navigation a few vehicle lengths ahead several times.
The most difficult part was the last section, about a tenth of a mile, where the problems were the same plus it was extremely STEEP! Steep in a way that meant I had to keep my speed up or I would stall and get stuck! Finally it was a big relief to make it to the smooth top of that trail they call a road, and not see any spilled stream of oil on the ground behind my motor-home nor any parts dragging underneath! That said, back at the turn off by the BIG tires I could see why some camped there choosing to hike or bike in the mile ahead, instead of risking the perils ahead! And I got the BAT Post Art...
If you are towing any travel trailer, no matter the size, I recommend camping at the intersection where the BIG tires or anywhere before the BAT pole, for the first night. Then disconnecting and driving your truck up the mile and a half in the morning to scope it out so you can strategize the tow. Not a bad idea to pre-camp in any case and then hike up the trail/road could to help lower the risk. If you do haul toys, you will be pleased to explore STEEL PASS behind the springs (it's the third way in/out). There are three sections of springs natural, upper springs and lower springs. I went the extra distance to the upper and the traversed the worse. I will leave you with this vision now. The journey to this part of California, the broad part of getting there, be it down or up the Hwy 395 in this Eastern part of California is excellent in itself. There are no freeways, no heavy traffic. The mountains are a source of constant eye-candy. The quiet little towns and/or ski towns along the way, very pleasant.
If you are a hot spring seeker there are some of the best along the route both North and South (I can't give it all away in one newsletter) but you can do the research easily and make quite an adventure soaking along the way. Once you get there you will have friends or seclusion, at your choice. If you decide to go on Thanksgiving you will inevitably be planning to join a large feast with others as is the annual party. You need to bring everything except water.
Once there you will find yourself in the company of relaxed adventure seeker types who may invite you into their lives. Don't be surprised if you get invited to an Ancient Chinese Tea Demonstration in a little town named Rainbow, an Avocado farm near San Diego or the Ranch of Almond Firewood in Lancaster. Who knows where this could take you, but those were places where it took me next!
Until the next teaser! Happy Camping!
Lulu out!
A link to post photos of YOUR adventure RV on our google site
note: Photos are from a variety of blogs and websites, thanks to the contributors.
Here is a link to the blog.
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