Just Another Desert Adventure
Sand Flying, Car Swerving and Gas Peddle to the Floor
By Steve Bowen
Yesterday my wife Chong Suk and I went to the desert to appraise some remote
land for the Park Service. I knew it would be 4-wheel drive so I got prepared
for any emergency including getting stuck. I figured it would take two hours to
get there from my home in San Diego (Little did I know). The road started out easy and I had high
hopes of an easy trip.
We were soon in a different mind set as we crawled over boulders at 1-2 miles
per hour. How far is this land?—it was far. I thought if it doesn't get worse,
we will be OK.
Elephants From Nowhere
...All of a sudden, we found ourselves surrounded by elephants. This was quite a
surprise, but on closer inspection we found that the elephants were made out of
metal, placed out there in the middle of the desert by some artist. Who it was,
we don’t know, because there was no plaque or anything. There is no road to them
and they can only be reached on foot. The elephants are full size and quite out
of place, but well done…something new out in the desert. I give credit to the
artist, whoever he is. They should be called the elephants from nowhere....
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Back to our search for the property in the middle of nowhere. Chong Suk is
looking at my lap top with topo program and GPS attached and saying we are going
in the right direction. I was told there was no way to get to the property. So I
only wanted to get as close as possible. Well, another road took off from this
rocky road and with Chong Suk's enthusiasm and single call to duty to continue,
we ventured onward. The road dropped into a large desert wash, the car tilted,
Chong Suk hung on for life and looked scared but I was committed at this point
since it was too steep to back up. Doing these trips solo adds a lot of fear to
tough spots like this. A back up team would be nice.
It was a beautiful desert wash with large trees and sandy bottom cut into this
dry ocotillo and cholla flat-land area. The wash came out of a large desert
mountain range and appears to be a death trap when it rains. We had clear
hot skies. We continued down the wash looking for the needle in the
proverbial desert hay stack...
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| ...The road got softer and sand got deeper and deeper. We were
moving forward and the 4 runner got slower even with more gas. At this point I
told Chong Suk that I am going to run for it as I could see a rocky area at the
end of the curve, a quarter mile away.
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Running for it
Stopping was not an option since I would surely get stuck. The car was swerving
even with me trying to maintain a straight line. Any turn would get us stuck. We
finally made it to the rocks just before it dropped off into impassable. Chong
Suk looked at the computer and announced, “This is it! We are right on the
property.” I was sweating and mostly thinking of how we are going to get out of
here. I could get stuck just trying to turn around.
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This was a pretty spot, very remote and I took my scenic pictures for the
report. It would be a great place to camp and then explore the canyon up the
wash that goes into the mountain range. This desert wash was huge.
"This is it!"
announced Chong Suk.
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We turned
around and I told Chong Suk to hold on as I was going to make a run for it. Gas
Peddle to the floor, sand flying, car almost out of control, swerving from side
to side, progress slowing as I think we are going to get stuck for sure. Just as
all
hope had faded and I could see myself digging for hours to get out of there, the
car hit a solid something that gave me the needed momentum to get to the steep
hill out of the wash. As adrenaline was pumping, almost tipping over to get up
that hill seemed like nothing. I was glad to be on rocks again. The things I do
for work!!
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