Joshua Tree South, Hotel California

Monday: (03/28) Peanut granola with yogurt and bananas for breakfast. I caught up on the blog and bills. We packed a lunch and took another Jeep run, this time across the valley. We headed up a dirt jeep road across from us in the Orocopia Mountains.


We happened upon one of our destinations with ease, the Hotel California , a nice rock cabin built into the side of a rock ledge. The path Lou is starting up goes to the Hotel California just up the wash an on the side against a rock cliff.


There is a log book inside and it looks like some people actually stay in the Hotel occasionally. The large flat area on the right is one of the bedrooms, one on either side.


View of California Hotel from above.

The road ended just up the hill a short way so we returned back down the hill taking all the off shut roads on the way down. We then took the powerline road along East to another road that went out into another valley and ended a couple miles out at the wilderness boundary. We stopped for lunch of Lou's potato salad overlooking the valley below. We returned to the old highway and followed it to the Chiriaco Summit, the next exit East on I10 from our campsites exit. We got gas there. We then  wanted to try to take a dirt road home without getting on the freeway. The road said "Dead End" but who pays attention to that. A dirt road continued on after the pavement ended. It wasn't well used but clear We went a few miles out as the road got more and more difficult to find. Finally we gave up and headed back. On the way we found a treasure. Evidently there had been an accident on the freeway. A vehicle had gone through the fence, evidently at high speed. While the vehicle was gone. there were tools all over on our road for couple of hundred feet. They were nice socket and other tools in excellent shape. We collected them and returned home with our treasure. Dinner was chile rellenos with strawberries and cottage cheese.


Tuesday: (03/29) Chorizo eggs and potato hash for breakfast. We were preparing to depart when a neighbor came by and told us they had seen a desert tortoise nearby. We went down to take a look. It was a big one, about the size we saw a couple of days ago on Pinkham Road. While there the neighbor also mentioned seeing a nice sacred datura plant in full bloom as well. We had seen it last year but not this year so we went over to see it as well. It had a half dozen or so violet fringed white blossoms. Quite nice. We stopped to service the tanks at cottonwood then headed North across the park to Jumbo Rocks Campground.