In The Boondocks

Road Trip Day Twenty Five

Unsure whether to stay at Barstow/Calico RV Park a second night or not. After a relaxed morning playing at the RV Park we left for an afternoon visit to Calico Ghost Town just a few miles away. If the place was good and we stayed till late then we would have a second night back at the RV Park, if it was not we would make some miles towards Las Vegas. We did a hundred and twenty miles towards the big city!

I had hoped for a sympathetic reconstruction of an old western mining/cowboy town. I didn't expect it all to be authentic but I was really disappointed by the mixed up presentation - some old (not much) and some rebuilt - all laid out around a tarmac high street and most of the buildings given over to retail use. I don't think they had much use for pot pourri and scented oils in the old west but I could be wrong! Still, we had a train ride a quarter of a mile in a loop around a hill for eight minutes which GC really liked.

Prison breakout. Barstow/Calico RV play area.

All aboard the Calico Express!

There were not many RV parks on the road to Las Vegas. I had fancied 'Boondocking' for a while, which means just pulling off the road somewhere in the 'boondocks' (back of beyond) and using the van utilities only. Wifey was OK to try and GC was really excited by the prospect. I identified an almost boondock site at a 'primitive' campground at Afton Canyon - 3.5 miles along unpaved roads to a very secluded canyon with just tables and pit toilets for utilities.

We got there with the RV along some pretty steep, rocky tracks but decided, beautiful though it was, it was just too remote if something went wrong. There was no one else around and no phone. Wifey (who has not driven the van at all) did not fancy trying to get us out should I have a sudden injury or illness and we were both worried it might be a rowdy spot for youths/yobs/bikers late at night. 

We tried for another site forty miles further on but while it was not as remote as the first it offered nothing special as a place to stay. We resigned ourselves to drive eighty odd miles to Pahrump and the promise of an RV spot. However, about sixty miles before Pahrump in the Mojave Desert we came across an off road layby with a great view of the setting Sun over the mountains. We made camp, lit a fire and toasted marshmallows. I told GC not to play in the road but who could help it?

Nice heating.

Great view.

Be safe playing on the road!