Kamehameha! Any misadventure that starts with some stargazing is a good one.
Stars might as well be considered a poor man's diamonds. With so many light polluted cities, sighting them in their true magnitude has become rare, but its still free.
After stargazing we gather 'round the campfire exchanging jokes & tales of the past, another free enterprise that feels priceless.
At sunrise the Salton takes on an alien glow. With one of the two dogs we brought in tow, we set off for an early morning hike.
The uncontainable excitement & curiosity dogs display when outside is kind of inspiring. Reminds us how special it is to experience places like this.
Eventually we reach a creek feeding the Salton, but spot no obvious place to cross.
Upstream the creek narrows, allowing up to sketchily leap across.
The desert's aridity is evident even next to California's largest lake. In fact, without a spill from a Colorado River water pipe & agricultural run-off, there wouldn't even be a lake here.
Searching for pelicans & migratory birds wading in the water, we wander across pencil thin sandbars, the sea on one side, the lagoon on the other.
While it looks like sand from afar, the "beaches" around the Salton are actually composed of countless fish bones. Needless to say, the air is filled with an odd smell.
Leaving camp, we venture down to Bombay Beach to explore the abandoned remnants of what used to be a popular vacation hotspot. In the 60's, beach-going families lined the shores by the hundreds.
A lot has changed since then; now the only travelers passing thru are exotic campers & ghost town junkies.
A mirage? Unique art installations dot the landscape, adding color to the natural desolation & rusted remains.
Like voyagers on an abandoned planet, we explored the apocalyptic environment.
Perhaps future explorers will walk among the ruins of our own past one day. This RV was so far gone it was nearly unrecognizable.
After exploring the decayed remnants of Bombay Beach we bring out the big guns for some target practice.
There's something iconic about shooting guns in the desert. Almost like an homage to the gun-toting, lawless past of the wild west.
Like proper desert sultans, we wrap ourselves in garbs & make-shift headcloths.
We fire off our last few rounds with only a sliver of orange & gold light remaining from the setting sun.
Then we notice one of the dogs vanished, scared off unknowing to us. We walked for hours, finally finding it 2 miles away across a fenced canal. Typical misadventure mishaps.
Our lost dog mishap was compensated for by a kaleidoscope sunrise painting the sky.
The creeks filtering into the Salton each had their own distinct character, some with foliage & others completely baron.
At a whopping 35 miles long & 15 miles wide, one cannot see the entire body of the Salton from the ground level.
Our eyes were constantly scanning the horizon, almost as if we expected to finally see the other side.
The crew embraces the last moments at camp before half of us return home & the other half squeeze in one last hike.
Our hike begins along some railroad tracks, seemingly running into a dusty, distant nothingness.
In order to reach a large rock formation we spotted, numerous deep cuts from flash floods had to be traversed.
No one said we didn't have fun doing it.
Desert terrain often appears unvaried from afar, but microenvironments abound when taking a closer look. One area may be covered with striking rock features & another may be blooming with flowers.
Speaking of flowers. Living out their days in Spring, these flowers cling to life before the summer sun chokes them out.
Distinctly different from the rest of our hike, this section was carpeted in flowers & low lying greenery.
Alas we reach the rock we had spotted in the distance & there appears to be a cave!
The cave was small with little to no flat terrain. There were signs of past travelers , clearly drawn by the same curiosity all humans have, whether obvious or not.
Scouting the view from inside the cave, we enjoyed the escape from the afternoon heat.
More caves were hidden, one even containing bats.
Having sufficiently explored, we head back to the car as another misadventure comes to a close. We were admittedly wiped, ready for the comforts of home.