Rainbow
Basin Trip, March 2000
a rather extensive trip report by Adele
My father and I had a magnificent 3-day trip from Los Angeles to Rainbow Basin, north of Barstow. This is my first go at a trip report of that weekend. You can click on the images to see a larger version, but be patient, they'll take time to load. Note that I have not spent any time optimizing these images to load quickly on the web, in either size!
Friday was spent going the long way over the San Gabriel mountains, driving up Osborne Street from the 210, past the wildlife waystation and the roadside info board about the San Gabriel fault, then taking the 14 and across the back side of the range and then up to Barstow. The second day we spent exploring the campground and doing the Rainbow Basin Scenic Drive, and then driving east to see the Calico Early Man Site and the Pisgah Cinder Cone. Sunday, we hiked up into Owl Canyon above the campground though rain moved in, and then we drove back to LA over the 15 through Cajon Pass in sleet and snow of the early evening, stopping at REI to shop for a new tent!
On to Owl Canyon Campground and Wildflowers
PreTrip Planning:
I did quite a bit of research ahead of time for this trip, since getting Dad out here from Indianapolis happens fairly rarely. Not knowing ahead of time what Dad would be in the mood to see, I hunted down information about all sorts of things to do and see in the area. I'm the geologist of the family, Dad's the botanist, and we both needed to get away from civilzation for the weekend to center ourselves. I brought along a pretty big binder of notes, maps, webpage printouts, and photocopies from books so that we could get information about whatever stuff in the area happened to interest us.
Please, please, please, if you are considering a visit to this area, do a bit of homework ahead of time and follow the rules. Take only photographs, leave only footprints... respect these areas so that others can appreciate their solitude and natural state, without trash, noise or damage to mar the view.
References:
- Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley, by Robert P. Sharp and Allen F. Glazner
- AAA Guidebook: California Desert Areas
- AAA Camping and Regional California Maps
- A Sierra Club Naturalist's Guide to the Deserts of the Southwest by Peggy Larson
- BLM Barstow Field Office
- Barstow California - California Online Highways
- Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley and BLM Lands North of the Mojave National Preserve Through the Eyes of Desert Dave's East Mojave Page
- Digital Desert Photo Archives
- Over The Rainbow: Area outside Barstow a faulted and fossilized dream for scientists, 2, 3 - from HighDesert.Com's travel archive
- Early Man Site: Artifacts retrieved frm Calico Early Man Site force archaeologists to re-evaluate their beliefs about early man in North America, 2, 3 - from HighDesert.Com's travel archive
- Early dates of human occupation in the Western Hemisphere using the Calico archaeological site in southern California as an example - graduate seminar online bibliography by Kristine Bryan
- (Simpson, Ruth D.; "Updating the Early Man Calico Site, California," Anthropological Journal of Canada, 20:8, no. 2, 1982.)
- Calico Early Man Archaeological Site - California Online Highways
- Friends of the Calico Early Man Site
- ASA Online - Dating Early Man in the Americas
- SAA/BLM partnership - Calico Hills Archeaological District
- Barstow Chamber of Commerce - Attractions and Historical sections
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