Beach or mountains? Those always seem to come to the forefront when deciding on a weekend adventure. We always forget about the east side of the Sierras- an expansive landscape, peppered with salt flats, fields of solar panels, and the odd cluster of homes and RV trailers.
Today we decided to do something different- to go somewhere new. We set out for Red Rock Canyon State Park, about 25 miles north of Mojave, along State Route 14.
We had been to the desert a couple of times before- to visit my brother and his family in Victorville, but we had never just gone to explore and spoiler alert: we will definitely be partaking on more desert adventures.
We entered the State Park and Lainey looked up and actually said “wow- it’s pretty!” After a quick picnic lunch, we drove over to the camping area, parked the truck and set off on foot. Side note - we have a Freeloader child carrier that really works for Lucy. She gets tired easily and instead of having to carry her or have her ride on shoulders, she rides in the backpack. She seems pretty comfy in it and it will hold her until she's about 80lbs - so we have plenty of time left with it!
The rock formations in the area are amazing- they just beg to be explored. We went in and out of caves and canyons and talked about imaginary worlds that could be just beyond the corner (we may have just watched How To Train Your Dragon - Hidden World). Lucy found a giant Darkling beetle in one of the crevices and got so offended when she touched it and it stuck it's rump up at her. She talked about that beetle for hours...
We walked around the beginning portion of the Hagen Canyon Nature Walk and saw wildflowers and giant shelves made of red rocks. We scrambled to the tops of buttes with Maui leading the way and worked on zig-zagging on the way down when it got too steep. We got good and tired and decided that we would definitely be back for some more desert adventures.
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