Living Our Dream

Joshua Tree National Park Part II

On our second day staying in Yucca Valley, CA, we headed back to Joshua Tree National Park. This time, we went to the closer, west entrance and drove east on Park Boulevard. Keys View is an overlook, and our plan was to go there early in the morning in hope the air would be clearer than later in the day. We would then work our way back toward the west entrance taking a little more time to hike and do some of the nature walks along the way.

On our way to Keys View we first stopped at Cap Rock, which is located at the beginning of the 13-mile spur road to Keys View. Cap Rock is a large, flat boulder precariously balanced on top of a large rock pile.

We walked the half-mile nature trail at Cap Rock. Although the trail doesn't go all the way around the rock, it does give you views from different angles than you see from the parking lot or from the road.

Along the nature trail we saw numerous paperbag bushes (also called bladder sage). The seed pods that form below the tiny, bright blue flowers are inflated, papery sacks. When the seeds ripen the wind will propel the light-weight sacks and scatter the seeds across the desert, that is if the ground squirrels don't eat the seeds first. We had seen paperbag bushes the day before, but the sacks were white. These were a beautiful pink. The largest sacks are about half an inch in diameter.

 

Datura is another plant common to Joshua Tree National Park. The beautiful, trumpet-shaped white flowers and the seeds are poisonous if ingested.

From Cap Rock we continued down the spur road to Keys View. Keys View is named for William Keys who was a miner and rancher in the early 1900s in the area that was to become Joshua Tree National Park. William Keys was a friend of Death Valley Scotty, and Keys was involved in the fake gun battle that was intended to scare Albert Johnson who built Scotty's Castle in Death Valley. Click here to read about Death Valley Scotty and our visit to Scotty's Castle.

Keys View sits on top of the San Bernardino Mountains at an altitude of over 5,000 feet overlooking the San Andreas Fault and Palm Springs in the valley below. The next photo shows the San Andreas Fault (running between the white arrows).

The mountains on the opposite side of the valley are the Santa Rosa Mountains, and the tallest peak toward the right is Mount San Jacinto. Palm Springs is the dark area at the base of the mountains and just to the left of Mount San Jacinto.

The next photo is looking to the south. The light, C-shaped outline (blue arrow) is the beach around the Salton Sea which we visited in 2007. It was quite a clear day for southern California because we could see the faint silhouette of Signal Mountain (red arrow) 95 miles away. Signal Mountain is near the U. S. - Mexican border.

We drove back up the spur road, then went back toward the west on Park Boulevard. We turned up another spur road to the trail head for the 1.3 mile loop trail to Barker Dam. There are natural depressions called tanks that trap rainwater runoff. In the early 1900s, the Barker and Shay Cattle Co. built a dam across the mouth of a natural depression. The dam was later enlarged by William Keys. When rainfall decreased in the early 1900s, the cattlemen began to move on. Today, the dam and tank are maintained as a wildlife and bird habitat.

The trail to the dam wound around between boulders and more rock piles.

 

 

The pond covered 20 acres at its maximum size. From the marks on the rocks, you can see the level is much lower today.

A pipe once fed a cattle trough in the wash below the dam. The trough is about 10 feet long and about 6 to 8 feet feet wide. It is made from stone and concrete.

The return side of the loop trail was a bit more open than the the part of the trail to the dam. We passed by more Joshua trees with more rock piles in the background.

Our last stop was at Hidden Valley. Hidden Valley is completely surrounded by large rocks and rock piles and is where legend has it cattle rustlers hid their stolen cattle in the 1800s. After climbing some low rocks and rugged stone steps along the trail that went between numerous large boulders, we entered the upper part of the valley, which seemed to have a larger variety of shrubs than elsewhere in the park.

As we got farther down into the valley, the shrubs and Joshua trees gave way to juniper and pinon pine, which grow better in rocky areas.

The rock formation in the center of the above photo is called "the Burrito." Although popular for climbing, we didn't see any climbers on it when we were there. There was, however, a climber on another rock we passed by.

Another interesting plant we saw that is common to juniper-pinon woodlands is Parry's nolina or giant nolina. The plants bloom in spring, and the stalks can grow up to 12 feet high. The lacy, dried flower stalks look like they are still in bloom.

After our hike at Hidden Valley, we continued west on Park Boulevard and headed back to the motor home. We had a couple of days to chill out, grocery shop and do some chores before taking off for our next destination.

We also got to experience several mild earthquakes while we were in Yucca Valley. One evening while we were watching TV, we felt the motor home shaking. When we checked the USGS web site afterward, we were surprised to find there are hundreds of earthquakes every day. Most are minor tremors with a magnitude of less than 3, and most occur deep within the earth so they're barely felt on the surface. What we felt were two 'quakes that occurred within a minute of each other with magnitude 4.2 and 4.9. They were centered about 60 miles south of Yucca Valley.

Then about the same time the following evening, we felt the motor home shaking again. This 'quake felt milder because it was farther away, but it was actually stronger. It was about 100 miles away east of San Diego near the Mexican border with a magnitude 5.7. Although there were no reports of major damage, the quake made national news because it happened on live TV during the broadcast of the San Diego Padres baseball game.

From California we headed to Las Vegas, so stay tuned.

Joshua Tree National Park Part I

With the long day the day before we didn't rush in the morning to get to Joshua Tree National Park. There are two main entrances on the northern side of the park - the west entrance near Joshua Tree, CA, about a half an hour from where we were staying in Yucca Valley and the north entrance about an hour away near Twenty-nine Palms, CA. A winding road known as Park Boulevard runs through the northern end of the park and connects the two entrances.

We decided to drive to the farther entrance near Twenty-nine Palms and stop at the visitor center to reconnoiter, then drive back toward the west on Park Boulevard. We planned to see some of the sights closer to the north entrance that were easily accessible from the road and save the hiking for the next day after we had more time to rest up.

Joshua Tree National Park gets its name from the plant known as the Joshua tree. The Joshua tree, which was named by Mormon settlers crossing the Mohave Desert in the mid-1800s, is not really a tree, but a large, branching variety of yucca. Joshua trees have root systems that spread out over a large area to gather moisture from the desert soil. The wood of the Joshua tree doesn't have growth rings, so determining the age is difficult; but Joshua trees can live hundreds of years and grow to be 40 feet tall.

Joshua trees bloom in April, and by the time we got there many had started to produce clusters of 4 inch seed pods.

 

Conditions have to be just right for the Joshua trees to propagate. It is thought a crisp winter freeze is required to stimulate the tree to send out flower stalks in spring. Once the flowers bloom, they are pollinated by the yucca moth. The female moth spreads pollen while laying her eggs in the flower's ovary. When the larvae hatch, they will feed on the developing seeds. When the seeds that haven't been eaten ripen and fall, they depend on well-timed rains to sprout. The young sprouts will grow several inches a year for the first few years, then they slow down to about half an inch a year.

We stopped at the visitor center at the north entrance and picked up a map and visitor guide. Outside the visitor center we walked the half-mile loop trail around the Oasis of Mara. The Serrano Indians settled at the oasis and gave it the name Mara meaning "place of little water and much grass." They used water from the oasis to cultivate corn, beans and squash. Later, ranchers used the water for their cattle.

The oasis also supports a colony of desert fan palms. The palms, which can grow up to 75 feet tall, are named for their 6 foot, fan-shaped leaves. The dead leaves frequently hang on to the tree and cover the trunk. For this reason the fan palm is sometimes called the petticoat palm. The dead branches provide a habitat for birds, insects  and small mammals.

When prospectors and cattlemen came to the area in the late 1800s, there were 29 palms growing at the oasis so the town that grew up adjacent to the oasis was named Twenty-nine Palms. In the early 1900s, rainfall decreased, the oasis began to dry up, and most of the Serrano Indians drifted away. Today, water is piped into the oasis.

The southeastern half of Joshua Tree National Park lies below 3,000 feet in elevation and is in the Colorado Desert which is part of the larger Sonoran Desert. In this area, vegetation consists of mostly creosote bush, ocotillo and cholla. We were more interested in seeing the Joshua trees that lie in the northwestern half of the park, which is part of the Mohave desert. For that reason, we decided not to take the road that branched off toward the southern entrance to the park, and we continued on Park Boulevard.

The rocks in Joshua Tree National Park are monzogranite, which is a form of soft granite. Granite is a volcanic rock that is formed from solidified magma.  The rock  formations in Joshua Tree, which are more like huge rock piles, were created when magma forced its way up into the overlying gneiss (pronounced nice) layers. The magma formed both horizontal and vertical cracks as it cooled. Chemical weathering caused by groundwater in contact with the rock rounded the edges and corners of the granite blocks. When the area was later uplifted and the surface soil and rock were eventually worn away, large piles of monzogranite were exposed.

There aren't any places to get food in Joshua Tree National Park, so we packed a lunch. It was mid-afternoon when we stopped at one of many picnic areas to eat. After lunch we explored some of the surrounding rocks. The stripe in the upper left of the photo below is called a dike. It was formed when new magma was forced into a crack in existing magma.

The next photo taken along Park Boulevard shows even larger piles of monzogranite off in the distance.

 

Joshua Tree National Park has numerous primitive campgrounds, most of which are located at the base of large rock piles. We drove into several of the camping areas to see what the sites were like and to see some of the rock formations. Most of the camp sites were small and only suitable for tents, but the way they were nestled in among the rocks was cool. The rocks had formed the small arch in the photo below at one of the camping areas. The arch was only about 6 feet long and 3 or 4 feet high.

Skull Rock is located along Park Boulevard a little to the west of the last camping area. There is a pull-off parking area, so we stopped for a photo.

We enjoyed the scenery as we continued on our way west on Park Boulevard. It was getting late, so we headed back to the motor home without making any further stops. Our next post will tell you about our second day in Joshua Tree National Park and about the hikes we took.

Simi Valley to Yucca Valley, CA

After we left Simi Valley we had a relatively short drive of about 100 miles to Riverside, CA. Simi Valley is located to the northwest of Los Angeles and Riverside is located to the east, which meant we had to drive around LA. Therefore, we scheduled our departure from Simi Valley for Sunday so we could avoid the infamous LA traffic. Even on Sunday traffic was heavy, but there were no tie-ups.

At Riverside we stayed at Rancho Jurupa Park, which is yet another county park (Riverside County). There are new and old sections in the campground. The old section (Lakeview) has no-hookup, partial-hookup and full-hookup sites, and it has gravel roads and pads. The new section (Cottonwood) has all full hookups with 30/50 amp electric, cable and free Wi-Fi. It has paved roads and pads with nice grass between the sites. The new section has recently been completed. In fact, it is so new they are still working on parts of it.

When Margery made reservations, she thought she was reserving in the new section; but when we got there we found out our site was in the old section. Since we arrived on Sunday, the campground was pretty empty so they were able to switch us to a site in the new section. The price is a little higher, but the sites are much nicer. There are some pull-throughs, but most of the sites are back-ins. The sites are nicely spaced and extra, extra long.

Margery's parents had friends from back in Pittsburgh who moved to Riverside years ago. Margery's parents kept in touch, and so has Margery even though her folks have both passed away. We visited Birdy and Bob when we were in Riverside back in 2007, and we made plans to stop again since we were so close when we were in Simi Valley.

Margery's mom was Swiss, and so is Birdy. We had a nice visit and a delicious lunch of a traditional Swiss dish called raclette. Raclette is both the name of a cheese as well as the dish that is made with the cheese. The cheese is served melted over small, boiled potatoes. Originally, the round of cheese was placed in front of the campfire or the fireplace. As the cheese on the surface facing the fire melted it was scraped onto the diners' places and eaten with the potatoes.

Margery has also been in contact with an old high school friend who lives in the area. On another evening we met with Herb and his wife Gloria at a nearby restaurant called Polly's Pies where they treated us to dinner. In addition to being famous for delicious pies, Polly's has great sandwiches and dinners. We both had chicken pot pie, which is one of their specialties.

Riverside is a nice town. It isn't too big, and it's away from the congestion of LA. The downtown has a lot of picturesque Spanish-style architecture. It also has a quirky restaurant we noticed one day driving through town called Tio's Tacos. We didn't eat there, but we did stop for some photos. They have whimsical sculptures and fountains all over the grounds. The next photo shows the one that first caught our eye. It is a wire cage in the shape of a man sitting on their balcony. The cage is filled with beer cans.

 

At the entrance to their parking lot was a similar figure, except this one was a two-headed chef filled with oyster shells. The buttons on his smock are hard to see, but they are smashed beer cans.

 

Behind the restaurant is a very large patio that has sculptures everywhere. Some of them are 20 or 25 feet high. Among the sculptures there are numerous areas for outdoor dining. The entire patio is a mosaic made up from pieces of marble and ceramic tile of various colors. One of the more unusual features was a beer bottle chapel that was similar to the glass houses that we saw recently in Rhyolite and Calico Ghost Towns.

When we left Riverside we only had about a 75-mile drive to our next destination at Yucca Valley, CA, where we wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park. On our way to Yucca Valley we would pass near Redlands, CA, which is the home of Redlands Truck and RV. Redlands Truck is a contributor and sponsor of iRV2.com, which is an online RV forum in which Paul participates. We needed to have the oil changed and the radiator flushed in the motor home. Redlands Truck has a reputation for doing good work, so we decided to support one of the forum sponsors, and we scheduled an appointment to stop on our way by.

When we dropped the motor home off, they said it would take most of the day so we headed off to Walmart and to run a few other errands. We also stopped for lunch at Qdoba Mexican Grill, which is one of our favorite chain restaurants. It wasn't too hot, so we ate outside.

We took our time getting back to Redlands Truck. When we got there, they told us the serpentine belt was pretty badly cracked, and they recommended replacing it. The serpentine belt runs the power steering and the water pump, so if it goes you're not going to get too far. We didn't get out of there until their closing time at 5:00 PM, so we were glad we only had another hour and a half or so to drive.

By the time we stopped to gas up, we didn't get to Yucca Valley until almost 7:00, which is way later than we normally arrive at our destination. We had reservations at Yucca Valley RV Park, so we called ahead to tell them we would be arriving late.

Yucca Valley RV is a small campground with only about 15 sites. The sites have full hookups with 30/50 amp electric and cable. The road is paved, but the sites are all gravel, and they are all back-ins. The sites are a little narrow, but most of them are fairly long. Backing into our site was a little tricky because of the close spacing of the trees and the permanently fixed picnic table and charcoal grill, but we made it with no scrapes.

 

The campground is right on a 4-lane road that is a major route for north-south traffic between the Palm Springs area and Barstow, and it is also the east-west route from Twenty-nine Palms with its big Marine base to the LA area. Therefore, there is a fair amount of road noise in the campground.

There is also a ready-mix concrete plant behind the campground, and you can hear the piercing backup beepers of the trucks and front-end loaders in the morning. The beepers start at 5:30 AM.

The main purpose for our stop in Yucca Valley was to visit Joshua Tree National Park, and we headed there the following morning. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Reagan Presidential Library

After having recently visited the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock and the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, we found out we really enjoy visiting presidential libraries. We were disappointed that we didn't take the time last year to visit the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. In May when we were finalizing our summer travel plans for this year, we decided to go the extra 500 miles from the Grand Canyon to visit it.

It was about a three hour drive from the county park at Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, CA, to Simi Valley where we stayed at Tapo Canyon Regional Park, which is another county park (Ventura County). Tapo Canyon is located a little north of the city of Simi Valley. The park only has about 20 sites, but they all have full hookups with 30/50 amp electric. The road around the campground and the pads are paved, but the rest of the campground is all dirt. Even with a 10% senior discount, the nightly rate was a bit high at almost $40 when the reservation fee was added in. However, the sites are generously spaced, the surrounding hills are attractive, and the campground is nice and quiet.

When we arrived, only a few sites were occupied, but we saw most of the rest of the sites had "Reserved" tags on them, so we waited for the place to full up and get zooy on the weekend. When only one other RV showed up Friday night, we checked the reserved tags and found they were all left over from the previous weekend which was Memorial Day. We ended up sharing the campground with only 6 other RVs, including the campground hosts.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, located in the hills above Simi Valley, and was only about 20 minutes from the campground. The library was opened in 1991 and is designed in a Spanish colonial style. The intimate appearance of the entrance belies the fact this is the largest of all the presidential libraries.

We decided to go to the library on Friday hoping there would be fewer people there than on the weekend. However, we forgot about school field trips, and there were at least 5 school buses in the parking lot when we arrived. As it turned out, the library is plenty big enough we hardly noticed the kids. Plus, when we did cross paths with them, we found them to be among the best behaved school groups we have ever seen.

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was born in Illinois, and, after spending a few years in radio in the mid-west, he moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s where he became an actor. He appeared in numerous TV programs and 52 movies, one of the most famous of which is Knute Rockne, All American. Ronald Reagan played the role of George "the Gipper" Gip (win one for the Gipper). Reagan was known by the nickname "the Gipper" for the rest of his life.

In his younger days, Ronald Reagan was a liberal Democrat who admired Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. In the early 1950s, however, he began supporting Republican political candidates, and he served as Republican Governor of California from 1967 to 1975.

In 1976, Reagan narrowly lost the Republican Presidential nomination to incumbent Gerald Ford, who ultimately lost the election to Jimmy Carter. Reagan won the Republican nomination in 1980 and defeated Carter in November of that year.

Parts of the library were closed for renovations when we were there in preparation for Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday in 2011. However, most of the exhibits were open including the full-size replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during President Reagan's terms in office.

The Air Force One Pavilion was opened in 2001 after the retirement of the Boeing 707 that was used as Air Force One by President Reagan. The 747 that is currently in use was ordered during the Reagan Administration, but was not put into service until Reagan's successor, President George H. W. Bush, took office.

We were able to tour the aircraft, but photographs were not permitted on board. We did, however, stop for a photo at the exit by the tail.

The Air Force One Pavilion also has a Marine One helicopter on display. President Eisenhower was the first U. S. President to use a helicopter for transportation. "White Tops," as they are called because of the familiar green and white paint scheme started by President Kennedy, are used for on shorter journeys and to shuttle the President back and forth from the White House to Andrews Air Base in Maryland to board Air Force One.

 

As we explained when we visited the retired Air Force One plane at the LBJ Library, these aircraft are commonly called Air Force One and Marine One, but they do not receive that official designation until the President is actually on board. 

President Reagan's limousine is also on display in the pavilion. This 1984 Cadillac was state-of-the-art when it was first built. Incidentally, President Clinton's limo in Little Rock will be the last one put on display. All limos after that will undergo destructive testing when they are decommissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of the armor in order to make improvements in the future.

There are beautiful views down into the valley from several locations at the library, including from the terrace outside the pavilion. They even say you can see the Pacific Ocean, but it was pretty hazy the day we were there. The haze in Simi Valley was gray because it was caused mostly by the marine layer (fog off the ocean), but the haze looking toward LA (out of the photo to the left) was brownish because it was a combination of marine layer and smog.

From the outside stairway to the upper level of the pavilion we could see a whimsical topiary in the shape of an Republican elephant.

President Reagan visited 26 foreign countries during his two terms in office. These countries are represented by their flags displayed on the upper floor of the Air Force One Pavilion. There is an accompanying display of a number of photos showing some of those visits.

 

President Reagan is credited by many as being instrumental in bringing about the end to the Cold War. The upper floor of the pavilion also has a display symbolizing Checkpoint Charlie, which was the best-known crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

There was also an excellent video detailing Reagan's role in ending the Cold War. He took a tough stance against the USSR by strengthening the U. S. Military, by reviving the B-1 bomber program canceled by Carter, by strengthening ties with our allies, and by proposing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). SDI was a land and space-based nuclear missile defense system. Opponents of dubbed it "Star Wars" and said it wouldn't work. But it did work to help end the Cold War, and we didn't even have to build it. Just the prospect of a comprehensive defense system was enough.

In a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin, Ronald Reagan challenged Michail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, by saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The wall came down a little over two years later in 1989, and the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.

Outside on the lawn of the Reagan Library is a section of the Berlin Wall. The East Berlin (communist) side of the wall is stark, gray concrete. The West Berlin side was decorated with artwork and graffiti.

From the pavilion the tour went to the National Treasures Gallery where there were some of gifts given to President Reagan by visiting heads of state.

Also on display is the suit President Reagan was wearing when he was shot during an assassination attempt by John Hinkley, Jr. on March 30, 1981. Although Reagan recovered, the bullet narrowly missed his heart and pierced his left lung.

 

One of ours favorites at the museum was a temporary display of a miniature of the White House. With a scale of one inch equals one foot, the model is 50 feet long and 18 feet wide. The model, which was created by the Zweiffel family, took over 600,000 hours to build. First exhibited in 1979, this model has been seen by 42 million people.

You can peer through the windows and see hand-carved tables and chairs, crystal chandeliers and working televisions. The wall on the back side is open revealing even more of the amazing detail.

There are also displays of individual rooms from various periods in history including this one with President Lincoln. Lincoln appears to be looking into the fireplace in deep thought.

We left the library by way of Reagan Memorial site. After struggling with Alzheimer's Disease in his later years, Ronald Reagan Died on June 5, 2004. After a state funeral in Washington, D. C., his body was flown to the library in Simi Valley for burial.

President Reagan once said, "There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." This presidential library exemplifies his belief. There were bronze plaques and pictures recognizing many, many of the people who served with him. Although we've only visited three presidential libraries so far, this was the first time we have seen such a magnanimous gesture in such a setting.

We enjoyed our visit to the Reagan Presidential Library and learning more about this period in history. After our visit we had a day to chill out around the motor home, then we headed for a new location. Stay tuned.

Calico Ghost Town

Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, CA, turned up in Margery's online research, and it sounded interesting. Calico Ghost Town is part of a county park, and it also has a campground. Yermo, which is right next to Barstow, CA, is about four hours from Beatty, NV, so it made a good place for our next stop.

We scheduled two nights at Calico since we also needed to stop at a grocery store, and we wanted time to visit the ghost town.

The rate at the campground is a little high at $30 a night, even for full hookups, but it also includes admission to the ghost town. There are no hookup sites, partial hookup sites, and full hookup sites. We're not sure about the partial hookup sites, but it looked like all the full hookup sites had 30/50 amp electric.

The road into the campground is paved, but the entire rest of the campground is dirt. It's probably the only time we were glad we didn't have Molly! We can only imagine how gray her fur would have gotten. The sites are very narrow, and most of them are pretty short. Some of the sites aren't very level. The photo below shows our site at Calico Ghost Town Park.

 

The next photo shows several of the neighboring sites.

There is no traffic noise and there are no trains. The campground was very quiet, at least it was when we were there during the week. Although off-highway vehicles (OHVs - dirt bikes, dune buggies, quads, etc.) are not permitted in the campground, riding is allowed in the surrounding mountains, so it could get noisy on the weekends.

After we got set up, we headed into Barstow to run our errands. The next morning Margery went into town for a haircut while Paul made a small repair to one of the slide toppers on the motor home. When Margery got back, we walked up the dirt road to the ghost town.

As we said, Calico Ghost Town is operated as a county park. The town was founded in 1881 as a silver mining town. Calico hit its peak population of about 1,200 people in 1887. Shortly after that, the price of silver fell, and the mines in Calico were no longer economically viable. The town was essentially abandoned by 1907.

In 1951, Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farms bought the town and began restoring it. Only five of the original buildings exist today, but Knott rebuilt the rest of the buildings on the original foundations using old photographs for reference. Some of these old photographs, sometimes even showing former residents, were posted with a written history on some of the buildings. Margery found the photos to be especially interesting.

Most of the buildings house gift shops, a restaurant and snack shops. Walter Knott donated the town to San Bernadino County in 1966. The next photo shows the main street of Calico.

The building in the photo below is one of the original buildings. It used to be a residence, and now it is used as the park office.

Another of the original buildings is the Lane House.

John and Lucy Bell Lane lived in this house until they left Calico in 1899. They returned in 1916 and moved into what was their former store. John died in 1954, and Mrs. Lane continued to live in Calico until 1965. She died in 1967.

The Lane House is now a museum with artifacts from the town and items that belonged to the Lanes.

Calico gets its name from the bright colors in the rocks in the hills surrounding the town. They used to say, "They're as purdy as a gal's calico skirt." The building in the next photo is the schoolhouse, which is reconstructed on its original site, with one of the colorful hills in the background.

You can climb partway up the hill behind the town where some of the mines used to be. There were as many as 500 mines around Calico, and there are tunnel entrances everywhere in the hillsides. There are also "Do Not Enter" warning signs everywhere. There is, however, a tour of the Maggie Mine that is open to the public.

On the hill you can also see how some of the miners built huts under rock overhangs using stones and adobe mud.

The hill is pretty steep, but you can get all the way up to most of the huts.

 

There are other things in Calico to do like mock gunfights and panning for gold, although those things didn't seem to be going on the day we were there. Maybe they only have them on weekends. The train that you can ride to the other side of the hill and back was operating.

 

The Hyena House was a hotel of sorts that was originally constructed of sugar barrel staves under a rock overhang. When the stage came to town, the owner of the hotel would grab a wheelbarrow, run to the depot and yell, "Free bus to the Hyena House."

The next photo shows one of the rooms. If you think the room is grim, wait till you hear what was on the menu for breakfast - beans and whiskey.

Calico has a bottle house similar to the one we saw at Rhyolite, although this one isn't original to the town. This one was built in 1951 by Walter Knott.

Unlike the bottle house at Rhyolite, this one isn't plastered over on the inside. The exposed bottles, although hard to keep clean, allow in an amazing amount of light. It would be almost impossible to oversleep.

On our way out of the ghost town, we stopped by the sheriff's office.

The building isn't open, but inside they had a very unusually-styled safe that we had never seen before.  Known as a cannonball safe, the heavy weight and rounded corners made them hard to pick up to steal.

Back at the motor home, we chilled out for the rest of the day. The next morning, we were off to our next destination.