From Southern California to Home

It had been out intention to spend two nights in Palm Springs but we really weren’t that taken with the city so decided to drop our stay to one night and move on.

We had already decided that RV’ing wasn’t really our thing so we chose to stay a night heading back towards Bakersfield so that we could drop off the RV one day early and start heading home.

With a little research we found what sounded like a nice campsite a few miles outside Santa Clarita on the opposite side of the San Bernadine Mountains and only an hour and a half from Bakersfield.

Heading out of Palm Springs, views.

We passed the entrance to the Palm Spring Aerial Tramway.  We had hoped that we would do this during our stay but now felt that we didn’t really want to leave Mojo in the RV unattended for a longer period.  This attraction will have to wait until we are back in the Coachella Valley.

A massive windfarm is situated to the North East of Palm Springs.

We could tell we weren’t in Vancouver any more…….instead of huge trucks carrying trees we passed huge trucks carrying oranges and in this case….lemons.

Looking towards the San Bernadino Mountains from I10.

That night we found the campsite called 1000 Trails near Santa Clarita.  It was certainly a lovely setting except for the railway tracks running along one side – with commuter trains during the day which was fine, and good trains every hour on the hour during the night.  Which was not so fine.

Mojo was happy enough with the site though, he had more room to run around.

We noticed too that it was significantly colder up here in the mountains than down in the Coachella Valley and while it was busy season for Palm Springs it was definitely out of season for this park.

Duck pond, with the railway line behind.

Enjoying the last of the sunshine and a walk before our couple of days ahead in the car.

The next day we head to Bakersfield and return the RV exchange it for our Murano and head back North on Interstate 5.

The highway varies a lot from one area to another.  Many parts of the route I5 is just two lanes in each direction and often very quiet.  In parts though it’s big and busy, 6 lanes in our direction in this section.

We stay the night in a town North of Sacramento called Willows.

The following morning we see the early morning sun over the Northern California landscape.

Snow covered mountains near Redding.

Up and over the passes near Mt Shasta that had been snowy on the way down, today were clear.  Passing views of Lake Shasta and the distinctive red soil that is throughout this part of California and southern Oregon.

Finally another snowy hill on the California/Oregon border.

The weather gradually deteriorated after this and became cloudy and the following day rainy, so no more photos.  We did have successful stops in Northern Washington at the outlet malls and the last bit of pre-Christmas shopping.