Painted Canyon, Meca and Indio

I read about a boondocking spot called Painted Canyon, about twenty miles from where we were camped at Joshua Tree Park and so we decided to take the car and go check it out and then make the pilgrimage to Mecca, the small town just past the Painted Canyon.  The drive was mostly through rocky canyons on paved road.  However, when we reach Painted Canyon it was dirt for four miles and washboard a lot of the time.  Already we are thinking, “This won’t be good for the rig”.  We really didn’t see any sites appropriate for us, so we continued to the end of the road to hike the Painted Canyon.

The first part of the hike (about ¼ mile) was down a gravel, sandy wash and then a giant, rock arrow pointed the way to a path (and I use that term loosely) straight up the rocks!  Ralph went further than I.  There were several ladders to climb up the sides of the rocks and it was a four hour loop.  So we did not tackle it.

Back to the car and off in search of Mecca.  We did find it: a very small town with about three restaurants (none where we would want to eat), a gas station and a second hand store with a few other buildings.  We decided to move on to the next town of Indio.  I looked on Yelp to find somewhere to eat and the highest rated place in town was a deli.  We searched it out and found the parking lot empty so we parked right up front.  Lucky…we thought.  The sign on the door said open 9am to 10 pm, Mon-Fri.  We looked at each other and asked, “What day is it”?? We both guessed, but had to consult our cell phones to be sure.  Dang!  It was Sunday.  Not knowing the day of the week is just another hardship we face as we travel!  So it was off to an Italian restaurant to pizza.

Tomorrow we head over to Borrego Springs, CA to another boondocking spot recommended by a blog I follow.

Until next time…