Thursday, March 10, 2016 (Travel to Trona Pinnacles, Trona, CA)

Well, after 3 nights at the Salton Sea, it's time to move on...besides, last night a distinctly unpleasant smell became prevalent. It didn't really last long but we definitely smelled "that" smell that we had heard others speak of.

We were up at 5:00 (6:00 Arizona time) and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous sunrise...

We were aiming to be on the road by 8:00...we pulled out of Salt Creek at 8:30...well, that's not too bad. After stopping at the sani-dump at Headquarters Campground, we were on our way north of CA 111...

...driving by fields full of fruit trees and palm trees (date palms, I believe)...

The mountains to the east are beautiful...

We finally reached I-10 after skirting around Indio (Hi Dennis and Suzanne! Sorry we're not stopping for a visit, but wind and rain are forecast for our destination tomorrow, so we are just blasting through your area). There are tons of wind mills farms on this stretch of the interstate as we head west...

There's snow up on that mountain!

A great shot of the snow covered mountain from a rest stop we pulled into...

We drove past Cabazon and these dinosaurs in a truck stop...

...and a casino. There is also a huge complex of outlet stores in Cabazon that I did a little shopping at with Suzanne a few years back. As we drove by, it looked even bigger than I remember!

At Loma Linda, CA, we took the exit to I-215, heading north through San Bernadino. See the water pipes coming down the mountainside?

Look at all that green stuff on the ground!!

Buster had a bit of climb...

Great views of the valley!

We got off the interstate at Hesperia, taking highway 395. Beautiful snow covered mountains (even if they are marred by lightposts, wires, etc...

We're now up high enough to be seeing Joshua Trees...

We stopped at the intersection of highways 395 and 58 to fuel up at a Pilot station...$2.25/gallon (with our rewards card discount).  After fueling up, we pulled over on 395, just past the junction and ate our lunch. This cool car was parked just up the street...

At Red Mountain, we turned onto Trona Road, heading northeast towards the Pinnacles...

Red Mountain...

A very cool area with tons of OHV trails...And it was right around here going down this hill that the old familiar sounding squeal when the exhaust brake engages returned after only 2,139 km/1,337 miles since being fixed for the 8th time!!!!!!!!! Steve will be busy sending out emails to all involved tomorrow.

Wagon Wheel OHV staging area looked like a great place to boondock...

We turned onto highway 178...

...just a few more miles and we came to the turnoff to Trona Pinnacles...

As you turn onto Pinnacles Road, there is a big pull off/information area, so we stopped to take a look.
However it may appear to you, a visit to the Trona Pinnacles will be a journey into one of the most unusual geologic wonders in the California Desert. This unique landscape consists of more than 500 tufa (calcium carbonate) pinnacles rising from the bed of the Searles Dry Lake basin. These tufa spires, some as high as 140 feet, were formed underwater 10,000 to 100,000 years ago when Searles Lake formed a link in an interconnected chain of Pleistocene lakes stretching from Mono Lake to Death Valley.

The Trona Pinnacles were designated by the Department of the Interior as a National Natural Landmark in 1968 to protect one of the nation's best examples of tufa formation. 

We would loved to have driven all of the way to the Pinnacles but its 5 miles of rough road and not something we wanted to take the fifth-wheel on, so we took Ray and Deb's advice and pulled over about a half mile in. A gravel road which goes into a fairly flat open area and that is where we decided to set up camp.

After getting all set up, it was picture time. You can see the Pinnacles from where we are (unfortunately there is a line of empty rail cars on the railroad tracks that mar the view a bit)...

It was warm and windy out this afternoon but the forecast is for even stronger winds, some rain and a bit of a cooling down trend tomorrow. There is even a wind warning...."southwest 25 to 35 mph....gusts to 45 mph...gusts up to 55 mph may occur along the east slopes of the Spring Mountains"...so with a forecast like that, I think we are just going to hunker down tomorrow and visit the Pinnacles the day after...we'll see if there is a change in the forecast tomorrow...