As Americans we own three million acres of Southern California land. It is called the Mojave Desert and we depend on the Bureau of Land Management to watch over this vast domain for us..
In an earlier issue of Vittles we told of our visit to the Mojave National Preserve. Our latest exploration of this picturesque and often lonely part of California was to the Rainbow Basin National Natural Landmark.
This designation "national natural landmark' was new to us. As it turns out there are two in the desert, the second entitled 'Pinnacles National Natural Landmark" further north from Trona.
Our visit to Rainbow Basin was on a cloudless winter day, warm in the sun, cool in the shade and about a two and one-half hour drive from Los Angeles. The Basin is a completely uninhabited area of canyons, ravines, mud hills and rocks in all shapes, sizes and colors. For people interested in geology or anthropology it is a dream area for it includes mudstone formations that have yielded fossil bones from mammals of a much earlier eon.
Winding through these interesting formations is a narrow, well graveled road. One way traffic only it follows a dry wash then climbs over a ridge and then back to your starting place. Take all the time you want on this drive since some of the rock and mud formations are in fantastic shapes and it is fun to let your imagination loose to give identity to some of them, your boss or mother-in-law or that monster that lived under your bed as a child. On our weekday drive we did not see a single other vehicle. Cameras are a must.
We checked out the Owl Canyon campground which offers both camping and picnicking. It is well maintained surrounded by interesting desert scenery and giving one the feeling of being thousands of miles from anywhere. We enjoyed our picnic lunch there with views that extended all the way to snow capped Bear Mountain in the San Bernardino Range far to the west.
While the feeling is being far from civilization this is not so. Actually the Basin is reached from Barstow on the Irwin Road which leads to the Ft. Irwin Military Reservation. After six miles there is a turnoff with sign named "Fossil Bed Road". Another three miles on this well maintained gravel road and you are there. For more information check the web at www.americansouthwest.net.
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