The entrance road to Cabri Regional Park, Cabri, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Where are Kevin and Ruth right now? Cabri Regional Park, Cabri, Saskatchewan.

Where are they going next? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on August 27th.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Not according to plan, but still a good day.

Well, yesterday didn't quite go as planned, but it was still a good day. Nice to be able to show Helen and Tony that things don't always go the way you'd like them to with our lifestyle, but you just roll with it and tomorrow is another day.

We decided that we had seen everything we wanted to in the general area near Jumbo Rocks Campground in Joshua Tree National Park and that we would head for the southern campground called Cottonwood.

There is only one decent stop between the two campgrounds, and that is at the Cactus Garden. It's a huge stand of cholla cactus.

Ruth, and the cholla cactus.

The cholla cactus are in bloom now too.

There is a short trail through the cactus.

We then drove on to the Cottonwood campground. This campground isn't as popular and it's not as scenic as the ones in the northern part of the park. It's also $20 USD ($26 CAD) instead of $15 USD ($19.50 CAD). Pretty hard to justify, and not even showers, although they do have flush toilets.

We made use of their free dump station and fresh water refill. And, we decided not to stay at that campground. We would instead head south outside the park and find a boondocking spot.

But, we had a hike to do first!

I had thought that the Lost Palms Oasis hike was 4 miles, but when we got to the trailhead we realized that it was 7.2 miles (11.5 kms) round trip. Not sure where I got the 4 miles from. Oh well. Helen stayed behind with Sherman because her leg has not healed well enough from her December broken leg injury to be doing that length of a hike.

A bit of a late start to be doing a hike of that was 11:30am when we set out. And, it was hot...but we had lots of water with us.

The trail goes from this stand of fan palm trees to another one. Most people go to the trailhead and look at these palms, and never do the hike to the other ones.

A rare sighting of a desert tortoise!

Tony, Ruth, and a yucca plant.

Another cactus in bloom.

On the trail.

Another cactus flower.

We made it to the Lost Palms Oasis around 1:00pm. Not bad. We sat around in the shade of the palms for about a half an hour and relaxed for the hike back. We were the only ones there.

Kevin, standing on the big rock beneath the palms.

Palm trees in the middle of the desert.

Interesting lizard.

More pretty flowers.

A silky flycatcher.

Sherman, back at the trailhead.

We made it back to Sherman at 2:45pm. Had a late lunch, and then we decided this was a good time for showers since we had a free dump station and water. So, we each had a shower and then went and used the dump station and water refill again. I don't think we've ever done that twice in one day!

It was about 4:30pm when we set out for our boondocking spot. But, it doesn't get dark until after 7:00pm, so lots of time, but certainly not our normal schedule. I had scoped out a site not too far away, but when we got to the turn off  it was going to be 3.5 miles of rough dirt road and we decided it wasn't worth it.

Scenery along the way.

We continued on towards the town of Borrego Springs where I had read of a popular boondocking spot called Peg Leg Monument. It was almost 7:00pm when we arrived there and we had done 79 miles (126 kms). Definitely not how we normally plan our travel days!

Yesterday's drive, 79 miles (126 kms).

Think we may stay here for two nights. So, just a relax day planned for today, with a trip into the town of Borrego Springs just to wander around.

Thanks again for remembering to come back here to do any of your Amazon shopping through the following links...just click, and then shop as you normally would!

And for our Canadian readers...


  1. Check out Agua Caliente County Campground, which is south of Borrego Springs on Highway S2 for their refreshing soaking pools. Just don't go on the weekend as there are too many kids.

    1. We won't be stopping by there as we are on our way to San Diego today. We however have spent 2 nights boondocking at Borrego Springs and have enjoyed our time here.

  2. I believe that interesting lizard is a Chuckwalla, and it's sure a looker! That hike is appealing, but I'd have to get an earlier start. Did you find water? Those trees usually mean a spring nearby or runoff. Borrego Springs is a cool place to visit -- enjoy! (we've done the two showers in one day when hiking in heat. Aren't we lucky to be able to do that?)

    1. Yes, it is a Chuckwalla, we found that out yesterday when we were at the Borrego Springs Visitor Center and yes he was a nice healthy specimen.

      Agreed, we too should have gotten an earlier start but with lots of water with us, it really wasn't too much of an issue. No, we couldn't see the water source at the palms but it is obviously there somewhere underneath the ground.

      We never had two showers, we dumped our tanks and filled our water twice in one day which we had never done before.

  3. When we lived in AZ, we once had an old native tell us that if an Indian Brave disgraced the tribe, they would throw him into a huge patch of cholla for his final punishment.... That would be a horrible way to die, for sure!

    1. Oh, that doesn't sound nice for sure! We think with a threat like that it would be enough to make anyone behave. ;-)

  4. If you have not already; go to the State Park iterative centre and they have lots of info on hiking and driving trails.

    1. We did that yesterday and today before we leave for San Diego we will do a short hike to see if we can spot any big horn sheep.

