Ken and I are finally in our element. We have been camping(boon docking) at Peggie Sues diner just east of Barstow, California.. And we are going hiking in the mountains just west of Mojave desert, the Afton Canyon each day. Afton Canyon is actually a few canyons opening into the Mojave river. The Mojave river is interesting in that it flows underground for the most part and this is one of the few areas it flows above ground.

Afton Canyon is ALSO interesting in that it(they) were formed when Manix lake drained 25000-13800 years ago.

“The lake formed about 500,000 years before present, when the Mojave River left the Victorville area and started to drain into Manix and Lake Harper. The lake did not immediately include the Afton basin; its integration occurred only about 190,000 years ago, most likely due to a catastrophic flood. Lake Manix lasted until 25,000–13,800 years ago, when Afton Canyon formed, either through slow downcutting or a large outburst flood.”

So the Afton Canyon is known as the Mojave…..grand canyon. We have not seen the Grand Canyon, but find this canyon so impressive. I only hope our pictures do it justice.

The lake was about 91 square miles and…” Yermo, together with Dunn and Newberry springs, are present-day towns whose locations would have been close to the shore of, or submerged beneath, Lake Manix.”

We went back hiking in this canyon for 3 days, took picnic and wandered all day up there.

Tucker just does not like these areas where there is no shade. The rocks are not hot, but his feet get sore on the rocks and he has very short hair, and gets hot easily… so we brought an umbrella for him. The temps were around 18 C….. not too hot.

I guess this is where I will just let a picture say a thousand words and just leave it at that.

Beautiful place, we always seem to find amazing spots where there are no other people… while we are looking for rocks. We did find rocks, but nothing like the views.

I am being a slow writer and we are now in Quartzsite, so more on that later

Much love

bye for now much love from Janet, Ken and Tucker the HOTDOG…..