#86 / 2009 Tour 4 Winter: Desert Oasis

OASIS

#86

Out of Salton City where we urban camped in a restaurant parking lot across from the presently being constructed truck stop, we followed S-22 west and encountered a series of small oases. The largest one I am told was once a stop for the mule trains back in the old days. From a distance we saw the enormous palm trees and foilage about the length of two football fields within the rocks and sand.

The oasis was deeply shaded by the towering palms and great fanned ferns and cooled by little pools of water almost obliterated by the dense foilage. I can only imagine what a relief and comfort this would have afforded the people and animals that passed through here so long ago.

There was a magnificent cabin about half a mile off that we could walk too. It was obviously open to the public at one time along with the abandoned camping sites left over from the 1960s most likely. It was marked off limits with signs that said "Property of the US Govt." We ignored the signs and snooped around, stuck our noses against the dusty window panes and peered into the once elegant rooms.

Exquisite brocade curtains lay in tatters, even the fine old lodge furniture was still there gathering the increasing dust, so quietly, only the sound of a gentle breeze. We see this all over, the sorry state of affairs for so many state parks. Money channeled into war has guttted out any operating capital to maintain so many of our national treasures. It's all about maintaining the borders today.

And you can hardly blame the government because US citizens are no longer taking advantage of the parks. In our destination of Yacqui Well there are ten campsites. They charge $20 a night to tent camp. Once when we passed the bathrooms weren't even open. There was one tent there, inhabited by a German man camping alone. I wish I had asked him what he thought of the empty facility. Are the Europeans abandoning there outdoor treasures as well?

The expensive RV parks are teeming with Canadian "snow birds" and retired seniors who stay inside their bulging rigs watching enormous satellite-fed televisions. One of my and Joe's greatest fears is that we will lose our national parks. We want to become voluntyeers at a park ourselves at some point.

It appears to me it is the large influx of seniors currently volunteering at state and national parks that keep these wonderful places open and just barely hanging on for the next generation.