Southward On the Road Again

January 5, 2020 

On the Road Again - Southward and Eastward

We left Portland Friday, Dec 27, and headed south and a bit west. We spent our first night at Sunset Bay State Park on the Oregon Coast near Coos Bay.  We stopped here because we wanted to see the Christmas Light  Display at nearby Shore Acres State Park. We had seen it in the past, and it was very lovely.

Saturday, we headed south through the Redwoods and along route 101 to Richardson’s Grove State Park near Garberville, California.

Sunday, we switched to route 1 along the California coast. It rained hard all day and the roads were curvy and a lot of up and down bu the scenery was stunning and we stopped to see the Point Arena Lighthouse, because we love them!!

We stopped at Bodega Dunes campground just north of Bodega Bay, California, which is known for being where Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds was shot. Monday, we turned inland and headed east stopping for the night near Bakersfield.

Tuesday, December 31, we headed to our first major stop : Joshua Tree National Park. We had heard that Joshua Tree had a major snow storm a few days earlier which dropped 5 to 13 inches of snow on the park.

At one point the campground was closed to all but 4 wheel drive vehicles, but by Tuesday, the campground was once again opened with only about 3 inches of snow on the ground. We stayed at Black Rock Campground for 4 nights and did a lot of nice hikes. Some of our earlier hikes and other hikes at higher altitudes were somewhat treacherous with packed snow

and ice on the trails or otherwise large puddles to walk around where it had melted. We were glad for our hiking boots, poles and winter coats.

Friday, January 3, we took a nice hike to Forty Nine Palms Oasis and it was finally warm enough that we hiked in just T-shirts.

After our hike, we went to the Noah Purifoy Desert Art Museum of Assemblage Art. Laurie read about it somewhere and we finally found it out in the middle of the desert. It was quite interesting to say the least! 

Saturday, January, 4, we left Joshua Tree National Park and headed east on Route 62 to Arizona. Talk about miles and miles of barren  landscape!  We made it to Apache Junction, and our campsite at Lost Dutchman State Park

in the Superstition Mts east of Phoenix about supper time. We will be here for a week. Today, Sunday, we had a busy day . We first went to the very nice Desert Botanical Gardens and then to the Nearby Phoenix Zoo.

We finished the day by going out for pizza at Organ Stop Pizza, which along with pizza has a huge Wurlitzer organ played today by Brett Valiant who played every type of music you can think of from movie themes to classical music, popular tunes and even Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars. We had a fun time listening to the mighty Wurlitzer.