Sweet blessed relief!

It took five hours, 262 miles of driving…

…to bring my cautionary tale of medical woe to an end.  (See previous posts from the beginning of this desert journey)

Monday morning and the plan was to drive to Beaver Urgent Care in Banning.  I thought it would be quicker and easier than driving all the way to Redlands to my regular office  

I was wrong.

Banning Urgent Care was just as crowded as the Emergency Room in Brawley had been, a minimum 2 hour wait.  We gave up and drove to my regular office in Redlands.  The doctor gave me a diagnosis of tonsillitis and we filled prescriptions and drove back to Ocotillo Wells.

After two days of rest and pill-popping I’m good to go.

A final warning to other travelers and explorers to the Anza Borrego Wilderness. Be aware, standard medical care may not be available without driving a long distance.

The End. 

Adventure awaits!

Today we drive to Fonts Point to overlook the Badlands.  This is a sight not to be missed, like looking into eternity.  

Is that the curvature of the Earth?

Could it be possible that there is a road down there or is it just a wash?

The other side.

A lot of the pictures I’ve seen of Anza Borrego, show soaring cliffs and slot canyons. Finding those places has been our goal but we don’t know exactly where they are. The only one we know of is “The Slot” which we’re told is a hiking trail. I’m not well enough to hike yet but we decided to do the next best thing, drive to the top and look down into it.

Unfortunately there isn’t much to see looking down, so we’ll explore instead.

Lots of fantastically beautiful places which I’m just not up to explore in-depth yet

Suddenly…

Lo and Behold there IS a way to drive into The Slot!

As far as we can go, the trail narrows from here.

Some of my slot canyon dreams fulfilled!

Time for lunch in the shade. One of the best things that Jeff added to our Jeep upgrades is this tailgate table from Rockslide Engineering.   It folds flat against the tailgate, but easily pulls out for sandwich making.  Between the table and our Coleman 40 Quart Plug-in Cooler and we’re ready for good eating any time, any place, even in a slot canyon in the middle of the desert!

While eating lunch, we took a look at our pathetic little map. It showed a spot called Rainbow Canyon which sounded like a good place to explore.

We packed up our things and set out to find it.

Doing a little exploring on the way.

These layers and tenacious roots are so amazing.

This looks promising.

Just a road through a wash.

Or is it?

Still going, climbing through the sandstone.

We thought it would stop around the corner, but it continues through the canyons.

A little minor rock climbing, but a clearly marked road, zig zagging in and out and around the formations. We’re pretty sure this is the road we saw from Fonts Point. It’s seriously the coolest road we’ve ever driven!

Just like the Indiana Jones Ride at Disneyland!

Driving through formations like this. How much better could it be?

Around and around until the end…a wonderland of canyons.

It gets dark quickly in here.  Time to go.

Driving out is just as much fun.

Every night, right at dusk, while sitting in our campsite, we’ve been hearing helicopters in the distance.  On the way home tonight, we found out why.

Apparently touch and go exercises are conducted on the dry lake.

They pause long enough to deliberately kick up a lot of dust..

…then take off again only to swing around and land back in the dust cloud.

Practicing for low visibility conditions perhaps.

Pretty cool to watch!