I spent four days camping on the west side of the preserve(mostly desert) since it's at a lower elevation than the east side(kinda getting up in the mountains). One of the rangers mentioned that it was still close to freezing at night in the mountains so that pretty much made up my mind as where to stay. Each day was sunny and around 70 with the nights cool and breezy but so nice. Here are a few photos with a brief description of each...
Kelso Depot Visitor Center...It's a restored Union Pacific Railroad Depot
The Kelso Beanery was restored to it's original state as it looked back in the 50's. They serve a light menu such as salads and sandwiches and a few desserts.
I ran across this white SMB parked a few doors down from me in the parking lot. A guy came up to me that was driving one of the CJ7's and expressed an interest in moving up in class to a used SMB. I mentioned a certain forum that may be of particular interest to him.
Kelso Dunes in the background which rise 600ft and cover 45 square miles
Cornfield Spring Campground...This was my original destination but along the way there was a 200ft section of a very steep uphill grade that was washed out. Imagine one leg being about a foot and a half shorter than the other and trying to walk. That's about the angle that my SMB would have been leaning to and I could see myself getting in a bit of a jam coming back down...so I spread my wings and this chicken decided to just hike in and check it out.
Found an abandoned mine while hiking...
Open mine shaft...
Looking down into the shaft...
Entrance to a Lava Tube...
One of the campsites...
Just driving around...
and the last few are just some of the evening colors...
I plan on heading back to check out the Eastern half a bit later in the year.
Thanks,
Ric
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