Saturday, April 1, 2017 (Barstow/Calico KOA, Yermo, CA)

It was a beautiful day today...sunny, 80F/27C, still a bit breezy but nothing like the wind we have had. We thought we would explore an area just northwest of here...Rainbow Basin Natural Area. Before heading out that way, though, we drove into Barstow to fuel up the rental car. It seems to go through gas quickly, but we think it's just because the gas tank is small.

On our way to Rainbow Basin Natural Area....

Onto a washboardy gravel road...about 5 miles to Owl Canyon Campground. No, we would not take our rig on this road...

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Campground coming into view...

There were very few RV's most campers were in tents...

Tenters in the wash...

We parked the car at the Owl Canyon Trail head...and were off on a hike!

I just wish I had my hiking pole with me, but it's in the truck...

Steve spotted this Horned Lizard....I didn't see it at first, he blended in so well...

We came across a cave...

It went in about 50 feet...

At times we felt we should be wearing hard hats...

Well it's time to turn around. We met some young guys awhile back and they said the trail goes on forever...

That's the hillside with the cave...

We saw daylight in the shade and figured...

...there must be an arch, cool!

Almost back...

And we made it back to our rental car! It was SO nice getting out for a hike! I had my knee brace on and it was fine for the most part, but towards the end of the hike, my right foot really started to hurt. Oh well, it made it for most of the hike! I can hardly wait to see my doctor back in Canada to get it looked after!

There is a one way scenic loop drive through Rainbow Basin, so after our hike, we started on it...just gorgeous!

However the road narrowed and became very windy. With our rental car very low riding, the last thing we needed was to have car repairs on top of what we were already going through. So before we got too far in we did a big no no and turned around on the one way. Besides we were only going one way...right!

I had packed a lunch but we hadn't eaten it yet...so on the way back to the campground, Steve suggested we save our packed lunch until tomorrow and go to Peggy Sue's Diner. So, we had a very late lunch...at a very cool spot!

The food wasn't anything special but the atmosphere was interesting!

Every inch of every wall had memorabilia on it...

The waitresses are dressed in period uniforms...

After lunch, we went into the gift shop for our free bubble gum or tootsie roll...a good way of getting people in there! It was full of all sorts of nostalgia items for sale...along with ice cream and candy! No ice cream today...we were stuffed!

This really is a cool spot. Even though it was mid afternoon the place was packed and there was always a steady stream of people coming and going...

People have carved their initials in this huge prickly pear cactus...but it is still growing with lots of new buds...

It was after 3:00 when we got home...time to sit and relax in the shade!