The next morning. We broke camp after feeding the dogs.
Once we were loaded up, off we went.
A view of the camp ground. Fire pretty well swept the place clean. The poor rabbits had no hiding places. They were all over the place. And equally - poor Leo was just beside himself wanting to chase them. The deer were no better off.
The morning was very nice - temperaturewise. We planned to make the most of the cool morning.
A view of the landscape as we left via Wild Horse Canyon Road.
Oh and never ever ever say "I wonder where that road goes" with Sean in the car. Cause you'll find out! We followed this one off shoot for a while. Got out to walk around a bit. Leo found lots of lizards.
Evidence of mining activity up on the walls of the canyon
Solo pretty well refused to get out of the Explorer for the rest of time in the canyons. The desert pavement rocks hurt his feet. Leo found that just a minor inconvienence. Especially with the prospect of finding more lizards.
We walked the last little bit of the trail that we were following. It led to a burned out mining camp. Here is a picture of a dead tree with a Paper Bag bush in recovery.
What was left of the cabin.
And a grave marker.
The mines are only allowed to stay active as long as the claimant maintains and improves it every year. You can see someone has been there and is actively mining. No, I didn't enter.
Leo found a natural spring there at the mine ruins. And after a bit we left to go back to the truck and to Sean and Solo.
We made our way back to the main road to continue on out. We were running low on gas so decided to make it to the closest gas station. More on THAT in a bit :mad:
Anyway, last looks at Wild Horse Canyons
Sean put the anti-sway bar back on the truck. Then aired up and we were on our way to the gas station about 35 miles away.
We did make one last stop. This time we went to Providence State Park. It is within Mojave National Preserve at an elevation of probably 5000 ft. It rises up out of the desert floor. The view is amazing. There's picnicking, camping and a cavern there. We just took piccys:
Finally we left the park and headed toward a gas station. It was in a town called Fenner. And basically that's all that's there. A gas station and store.
As we pulled in I noticed the price. Omg. Now I realize that yeah yeah yeah, ya'll in Europe are paying money outta yer ying yang for gas. But here it was like 80 years at 19 cents a gallon so the price of gas going up is a major PITA. We pay about $3.39 here in the mtns. Flat lands are more around $3.27. But there in Fenner?? In the middle of fricken NO WHERE - this station was charging $4.79!!
We paid 15$ - enough for three gallons and enough to limp over to the next town over to pay $3.20. I had seen that gas in Barstow was $3.19 so only put in enough to get us to Barstow. Once we got into Barstow we filled it up. Funny thing was at that very moment our bank was calling our house to see if the card had been stolen and disabled our card! :eek: Luckily we didn't use it any more and got it reinstated the next day. So for you travelers out there - apparently if you use your atm card on gas three times in one day they have a policy to disable the card if they don't talk to you. :mad:
And The End! We got home safely. Lived happily ever after. And are currently planning our next trip. I wanna go to Pismo Beach!!
