Life is an adventure, it’s not a package tour. / Echart Tolle

I consider myself generally as a calculating risk-taker.  More calculations as I get older.  My wanderlust list included a free-camping basecamp in the Painted Canyons east of Indio, California, a reconn tour of the Salton Sea area and ultimately to do a photojournalism bit at Slab City.

Since I live in desert of Las Vegas and I was planning to travel to the Imperial Valley deserts of Southern California, and noting a generous rainstorm on Thursday, December 22nd, this had heightened my weather awareness. Planning for the forecast was consistently showing very slight showers for Friday and Saturday dominated by moderate temperatures and mostly sunshine.

Leaving Las Vegas by 6:30am left me hopefull to arrive at the Painted Canyons by noonish.  Due to the abnormal weather pattern, there was dense fog leaving Las Vegas all the way down I-15 to the I-210 through Palm Springs.  I was only slightly concerned that the skies were not clearing as forecasted.

I was betting all my chips that this blast of low pressure would disappear in a timely fashion by sundown opening the skies to the galaxy of stars I had hoped to shoot in the light-pollution-free area of the Painted Canyons.

Some people might question my decision to car-camp here in late December.  All my research had shown that this was a popular 5th-wheel spot to camp since it was free and well-managed by the BLM.  But, the caveat was that due to the geological construction of the numerous slot canyons, the area was prone to flash flooding and the foundation was a compressed sandy soil.

I drove to the turn-about for day hikers and took a small hike into the canyons.  The geological expression of tectonic plates  was impressive and you could easily see in  three  seasons of the calendar year this is a very popular hiking area.  Even with the day temperatures of around 50 degrees on December 23rd, there were 15 cars parked with potential hikers.

Still assuming that the mild weather and free camping would bring the weekend crowd of campers, I terminated my reconn hike to secure a strategic campsite.  The original plan is that this would be my basecamp for 3 nights so I needed to find a place that was slightly elevated from flooding and visually hidden from curious people.

My chosen place looked perfectly strategic and I setup camp.  It was already 5pm and there were no other campers which was slightly concerning.  Especially since there were at least 15 areas for 5th wheels that would be considered prime real estate for weeks.

The skies were still overcast but I was still hopeful for a clearing night.  After dinner I listened to some music, read some of a book on my phone and went to bed early around 7pm.  I awoke around 8pm to take a leak and noticed the stars were out.  Yay!  I had researched many tutorials on how to best capture various types of stars and astrophotography and I was ready to experiment.  By the time I had setup my tripods and cameras, there was a cloud cover moving through which led to dark skies in minutes.  BUMMER.

Now, it is 2:00am and the slight pitter-pat of rain has become more steady.  I was probably 50 miles from the nearest human and I was more concerned that if my Subaru could not escape the lower flatland area of a sandy road during a flash flood, things could get critical.  So, by 2:30am I opted to pull up my tent and head out.  The rain had become pretty intense and even though there was no evidence of flooding, I did feel like I better not look back.  I have probably watched too many CGI-disaster movies.  LOL

The true onus for this trip was to get to Slab City.  Plan B then became driving south in the wee hours of the morning during the steady downpour and find Slab City.  I know I take for granted driving in areas that I have at least some sort of logistical awareness; now I had none.  I had never driven around the Salton Sea and I had no idea what it looked like or how big it was.  The night was BLACK with solid rain and as you drove you had to be aware of dips in the road that might be flooded out.

Google Maps was my guide and I trusted my smartphone implicitly.  Two hours of driving now I was being guided to take a quick left, a quick right, go 2 miles and merge right.  This is out in the middle of nowhere. Now it is 4:12am and I end up at a Circle K in the town of Westmorland, CA.  Little did I realize but Google Maps led me approximately 50 miles in the wrong direction from Slab City.  I buy a cup of coffee and jump back in the Subie hoping to renegotiate with Google Maps and also consult my Garmin auto GPS unit.  Both of these devices were trying to send me in crazy directions and after going back and forth for another 45 minutes, expressing myself with a barrage of obscenities at these global positioning devices, I surrendered and opted to head back to Las Vegas.  Christmas at home never sounded so good.