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Since I have the truck, camper and motorcycle triple threat, it is a great way to see the national parks.  This trip is to southern and central California and I am going in late April to beat the summer crush.  Some high altitude roads are still closed because of snow, but most park roads seem to be open now.  As I’ve done in the past I take the camper and trailer the Harley, then go find a spot somewhere near or in a national park. Then I throw out the anchor from the truck and use the bike to get around the parks and surrounding area for a couple of days at each stop.  For me not only is it a lot more fun going through the parks on two wheels, but it’s also a big gas saver.  Instead of getting around 10 or 12 miles to a gallon of gas with the whole caravan, I can ride around on the Harley at approximately 40 miles to the gallon.  Plus on the motorcycle I find experiencing the sights, sounds, smells and usually twisty mountain roads are amplified.

My first California park on this trip is Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.  Camping in Joshua Tree is first come, first serve and on my way in I noticed that there were some RV’s and tent campers outside the park parameters.  I found out on entering the park that the sites were all taken for the night and asked about the campers outside the gates.  The ranger told me that was Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land so you can camp there for free.  I went way out into the BLM land and wanted to experience really being alone.  Trying to find a good flat spot to park way out there in the rough and ended up getting stuck in some sand.  Luckily the truck bought has 4 wheel capabilities.  So I put the truck in 4 wheel, made some heroic moves, ran over some desert shrubbery and made it out okay.  In short order I found a nice space and got out to admire my work and take pictures of all this aloneness.  Photographing my achievement I heard a hiss.  My first though was “Oh no, a snake… there are snakes out here in the desert”.  After looking around by my truck in the direction of the hiss my second though was “Oh no, a punctured tire”.  Correct!  A piece of wood from one of the shrubs I ran over was sticking out of the side of the front left tire.  I got in the truck and high tailed it to the first town that was about 30 miles away, with a tire that was steadily losing air.  Made it to the tire shop in town just before closing, but the puncture was in the sidewall so it couldn’t be fixed.  I had to buy a new tire and so it turns out that the free camp site actually cost me $280.00.  Got back to the BLM site before dark, found a place to camp in a more populated and tire friendly area.  Ended up liking it so much that I spent three days there.   

Joshua Tree is a nice place to ride and has some good hiking spots in the park.  The roads were in great shape and the scenery was interesting with some of the park landscape and plant life reminding me of Who-ville from Dr Seus. While anchored at Joshua Tree I also rode to 29 Palms and the town of Joshua tree, saw where the Coachilla concert was being held that weekend, ventured into the more affluent areas of Palm Springs and Indio and also took a ride to the infamous Slab City.  If you are a fan of living free with no taxes, law or civilized structure… or water and electric, then Slab City is for you.  Want to move there?  No realtor, cash or formalities needed, just go find a spot and set up house.  I won’t go into the many details of Slab City, but if you go to YouTube and punch in Slab City you’ll easily get several hundred videos on the place and it’s inhabitants.

After leaving my BLM camp at Joshua Tree I headed north with no particular place I might want to stop for the night.  Passing Ridgecrest, CA. I was in need of a few supplies and saw there was a Walmart in this town.  Found a manager and found out that this Walmart allowed overnight stays so here were my next two nights of free camping.  Turns out that Ridgecrest is well situated to use as a home base for a couple of days.  Got up the next morning left the camper at Walmart and headed to Death Valley on the motorcycle.  The ride through the desert area was beautiful and at times stunningly so.  Got to experience my first encounter with a Dust Devil on this ride.  Dust Devils are like micro tornados or spiraling winds and I got got hit by one that was coming across the highway.  The little bugger picks up sand and pebbles and packs a stinging punch.  There is a windshield on the Harley to duck behind and was wearing a helmet and long sleeve shirt, but it still got my attention when it hit.  By time I got to the entrance of the Death Valley it was already about 11:00AM and the first stop about 25  miles inside the park, which was Stovepipe Wells, the temps were already around 100 degrees.  When I parked, the kickstand from the bike oozed into the blacktop and sank a bit.  The next Death Valley stop was about 35 more miles and at a lower altitude, which means more heat, so I opted out and turned around.  Found a different route back and was cruising along the Sierra Nevada mountains on Rt 395.  This highway is also a great ride for scenery.

Next port of call working my way north, Sequoia National Park.  Camped in the park that first night on the south end.  Rode the Harley around the park that same day and went to the Sequoia Giant Tree Forest.  Want to feel small, come here and frolic amongst the trees.  Even the pine cones were three times the size of my fist so you can probably imagine the size of the trees these came from.   (Please no comments about my having Trump like hands)  I wanted to see the other end of the park too so made my way north the next morning and found another campsite still inside the park.  The sites here are beautiful and roads get up to elevations of around 7,000+ feet with some excellent views.  Sequoia also sort of blends in with Kings Canyon park so you end up riding through both of them at points.

Now, just a thought here that the sounds of nature also includes we humans.  I needed to remind myself this at around 6:00PM when a pick up truck with a small camper containing two parents and four small children pulled into the site behind me.  The kids must have been in their car seats all day.  When they were let loose, there was a flurry of shouting in French from the parents and four small children running around for about an hour flailing their arms and screaming like they were being chased by bees in what sounded like a mix of French and Jibberish.  Smart parents though, they were using the “let them tire themselves out” method.  Worked well and they went to bed fairly early.  I actually enjoyed watching this ballet unfold and gave thanks to the heavens that I wasn’t riding around with them in that truck.  Next morning took another picturesque bike ride around the park for a few hours before loading up and leaving.  A mostly very peaceful place. 

Next stop was Yosemite National Park.  When arriving at the gate around 4:00PM it was again a first come first serve situation.  The ranger at the gate told me that there “could be” a couple of camping spots left about an hour away but he wasn’t sure, OR if I went back down the road 7/10’s of a mile there was a dispersed (free) campground where you can stay.  Bingo!  I drove up the correct nondescript, rugged looking road and in about a mile it opened up into a very nice parking lot with a good amount of camping areas.  For the next couple of days I rode into Yosemite on the Harley. It was a great ride with lots of nice turns and great scenery.  The sight of El Capitan and surrounding mountains and exquisite waterfalls is almost too much to wrap your head around.  I typically try not to retrace the same routes, but went back this same way the next day to again take in the sights.   It is an amazing place. 

Ended up staying here three nights. First night there there were only a couple of other campers.  The second night there were a few more with one couple having a similar camper to mine.  I went over and introduced myself and besides comparing info on the campers, these folks had a lot of information on places to go and see in CA.  Turns out they do this camper life full time now and the husband was also in the Forest Service in CA so they were a great find.  My last night there was a Friday and it was quite busy. Some RV campers, some folks in tents and a contingency of 8 Mexican gents on BMW motorcycles stopped to camp.  They were on a motorcycle trip going to national parks in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and then back to Mexico.  Chatted with them for a while, me in sloppy Spanish and them in broken English, but it somehow worked.  They were having a great time on their trip so far and were really funny and animated, especially one guy that was wearing a Davy Crockett coonskin cap.  And here I thought these guys wore sombreros.  While talking with them, a beat up Suburban SUV pulled up and out jumped a guy with a long beard who looked like he was holed up in the woods for a decade and he had a delivery.  Seems that somehow these hombres on the bike tour managed to have this local guy deliver cold beer and firewood to them.  Ole’ my friends!  On the walk back to my campsite another Harley pulled into the lot with a gentleman about my age.  I also stopped to speak with him for a bit.  He was just making a quick stop as he had a toy hauler camper in the next town and he was headed back to it.  He didn’t see me approaching and I scared the heck out of him when I said hello, so he was a little stiff and stand off-ish at first, but within a few minutes of conversation and sharing a couple of motorcycle stories, all was well. 

Tomorrow it’s time to go further north…

Campers:  If you’re going to this area, there is a good deal of dispersed camp sites and the rangers at the park entrances are great at helping with information.  Word of caution, elevations are high in these parks and there is still snow on the ground in a lot of places and it’s the end of April.  Come prepared to sleep in near freezing temps at night if you are coming early in the season to beat the summer rush.  I’ll guessing that everyone knows about the annual national parks pass for $80.00.  If not when you’re planing on doing several national parks, get one.  I’ve had this one since August and have already saved $100’s of dollars in park entrance fees and no doubt will save a lot more before it expires.

Bikers:  Roads at all these parks are worth riding and many of the surrounding areas as well.  The park roads have a lot of banked turns and are a lot of fun. Be aware that in some of the canyons and desert areas the winds are formidable.  Near Joshua Tree, if you’re not riding in the park itself, Rts. 62 and 177 are a great ride, as well as Rt 111 from Indio to Slab City.  Rt 395 that runs north and south is a beautiful ride too, but be sure to check the weather early in the season, elevations went over 8’000 feet at some parts of this ride and downright cold.

Personal Stretches:  My stretch for this segment of the trip is getting more acclimated to reaching out to strangers and invading their space with no invite to do so.  Campers seem to be more introverted then bikers in general, so I thought crashing in on a few would be a good skill to hone.  I also almost didn’t go and meet those 8 Mexican bikers because all I heard was Spanish from their camp and was wary of the possible language barrier.  Since I had Spanish flash cards in my back pack from a past trip into Mexico, I gave them a quick look and then went to meet these biker hombres.  Glad I did, it turned out to be great fun with lots of broken English and Spanish and some charades thrown in for punctuation.  Also introducing myself to the folks with a similar camper turned out to be a good move.  After a while it was fairly obvious that they weren’t coming to me, so I made the effort and once they got warmed up they gave me a load of great information.  There were several other instances including a young camper and his girlfriend that were towing a motorcycle and camped near me.  At first blush it seemed that these youngsters and I would be worlds apart, but after walking into their campsite, starting a conversation by asking a few questions about his motorcycle, it turned out we had a whole lot in common.

Heroes & MVP’s:  I met a lot of interesting people on this segment of travel so far, but none that I am aware of that would classify as an MVP by having done something that warrants a WOW.