Saturday, January 21, 2017, Move to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

While we were in Hemet, we visited a large city park, Simpson Park. It was quite an uphill drive, but the views from the park were worth it. Reviews suggested visiting Sampson Park during school hours to avoid any problems with rowdy groups of teenagers.  Even though it was Saturday, we had no problems.

Hemet is spread out in the distance.

We spent some time in the Western Science Center that highlighted fossils found in the area. The fossils were uncovered as they were working on Diamond Valley Lake. They were mostly sloths and mammoths and saber-tooth tigers.

The nearby lake was interesting because of its construction. It required almost two miles of dam construction at each end of a valley between two ridges. It must have been about the most expensive option for creating the reservoir.

Maybe the most memorable souvenir we have of Hemet is the huge dent in our Honda. As Joani likes to remind me - we were "T-boned" and she only got a bruise on her arm. Considering how much worse it could have been, we are thankful no one was hurt. Our poor Fit is not looking so good and we can no longer open the rear passenger door, but it is still driveable.

Today we moved to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park on the west side of Borrego Springs, CA. It was only about 60-70 miles "as the crow flies," but the roads through the mountains were not fit for a 40-foot motorhome, so we took the long way around via Palm Springs and Indio.  It was still only 128.2 miles (81,338.5 miles total), but it included a lot of different kinds of driving.  Heading north from Hemet we did a lot of steep climbing to reach I-10.  Along the Interstate we passed thousands of wind turbines in the valley below Mt San Jacinto.

Our drive ended with a not so pleasant stretch along highway S-22. The road was narrow and severely heaved. It might have been entertaining in a car, but it was a little too exciting in the motorhome without slowing to about 20 mph. Then the road surface deteriorated until it was more potholes than pavement. The jarring popped two of our basement doors open, but with no shoulder other than sand I had to stop right on the road to close them (thankfully, we were alone on the highway). Fortunately, only about 25 miles of S-22 was really bad and the last 10 miles into Borrego Springs was repaved.

The lousy road conditions do not show up in pictures.  I usually look on "Google Street View" to see what we have in store on moving day.  I didn't see this one coming.  Next time I would take Hwy 78 instead only adding 20 miles.

Borrego Springs State Park certainly provided beautiful desert views. It was nice enough to help me relax and forget the excitement of the day's drive.

We hiked the trail from the campground to the visitors center.  This was taken on our way back.  You can see the campground tucked into the foothills.