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Old 04-07-2017, 05:47 PM   #1
scratchpaddy
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Drives: '09 3-door 5-speed
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Phoenix
Posts: 272
Mojave detour



I finally delivered the new-to-them Yaris to my parents last week. The thread where I bought it and stuff is here.

Google says to just take I-10 over and I-5 up, but I would die of boredom if I tried that. Every trip is an opportunity to see new things, so I stay away from the interstates whenever possible.



Way away from the interstates.



Hopefully I went to a few places justanotherdrunk hasn't been to yet, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if he has.

I had to take I-10 out of town, but I went over to SR-72 as soon as I could, which goes through Parker and turns into California SR-62 at the border. Then, north on US-95 and left just past I-40. I beat the trains to Goffs (second picture), and turned north again on a 50-mile long road which cuts through the Mojave National Preserve. The first few miles are deteriorating pavement, overflowing with sand and with weeds growing in the potholes. The rest is dirt. I just have to say, fender gap is great.



Rough pavement starts again just before it reaches the road that goes through Nipton in a great big valley. The bright spots across the valley are the Ivanpah solar station, the largest in the world. Anyone who's played the game Fallout: New Vegas should be a little familiar with this area. It's the southwest region of the game's map. The real version isn't much more hospitable.



As I joined I-15, the wind picked up, and so did the dust.



About 30 miles down the interstate, I came to a place I've been wanting to visit for years. What's left of it, at least.



Lake Dolores started as a private resort in the 1950's. It was opened to the public a few years later, and attractions were gradually added until popularity fell. The park closed in the 1980's.



A new company picked it up in 1990, and re-branded it with a 1950's kitsch theme, calling it the "Rock-a-Hoola Waterpark".



They went bankrupt ten years later.



It's an eerie place to walk around in, in spite of the relentless sun. The wind kept banging the remaining doors open and shut.



All the buildings were in tatters on the inside, ripped apart by copper thieves.





Back on the interstate, the wind picked up some more.



...or borrow your parent's, right? I got off in Barstow and had lunch in Kramer Junction, which is just the intersection of 395 and 58. I ate my burger and shared my fries with the dogs in the car, listening to the sand hiss against the windows, and watching the RV parked next to me sway like a boat at anchor.

I took 395 north from there. The wind got so bad that the CHP shut the roads down to high-proflie vehicles. Anything taller than a pickup truck had to park and wait it out.



As the highway climbed into the mountains, the blowing sand turned to snow.



It was nearly a blizzard at Conway Summit, the highest point on the highway at 8,138 feet. It's hard to believe this was all the same day. I still had some tumbleweed stuck in the bumper.

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