Topic: Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

[Soylent Yellow]

A few of my pictures from today.

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

[Oz]

Beautiful Mitch

[FrankB]

Here are a few of my shots from today.

It was raining as we crossed over the mountains from San Diego, but once we started down the hill the weather became nice. It was pretty windy on the Montezuma Grade.





After we left the Visitor Center we made a brief stop to check out some of the sculptures along Borrego Springs Road.



From there we caravanned out to the trail head at the end of Split Mountain Road.



The weather in Fish Creek was great when we stopped to air down.





Ready to roll, next stop - the Anticline at Split Mountain.



We made another stop or two in Fish Creek to check out the scenery before heading for the lunch spot in Sandstone Canyon.

[FrankB]

Fresh apple pies from the Julian Pie Company to go with lunch. We stopped at the same spot we've used the previous 2 years. The only difference this time was that there was almost no one else in Sandstone Canyon this year. Quite a change from the last couple of years, when it was always crowded.





After lunch we drove the rest of the way up Sandstone, which is now only about a bit under a mile from where we stopped for lunch. We split into 2 groups for this, as there is not a lot of room to turn around at the end.







Once we were all back together it was time to head out the way we came, with a detour through Loop Wash for part of the way.

[FrankB]

The sky was pretty dramatic as we finished airing up at the end of Fish Creek where it meets Split Mountain Road.



After everyone had left I decided to pull out my tripod and try a few shots of the moon rising over Ocotillo Wells. These first 2 were taken by the ranger station at the OHV area.





This next one was taken on Buttes Pass Road.



While I was traveling on S-2 from Scissors Crossing towards Hwy 79 I looked over to my left and saw what appeared to be a rainbow in the darkness (it was after 6:00PM, cloudy and raining). It was pretty much a pale white almost grey, and you could see the entire arch. It was, of course, coming from the moon. I took a couple of shots, from 2 places, and lightened the exposure some in this one in order to bring it out. Once I lightened it up you can see the colors. The sensor on my camera has some hot pixels, and there is glare from my taillights on the right. You can just make out the roadway in the foreground. I've never even heard of rainbows at night, let alone ever seen one.



I've put more pictures on my gallery web page here.

I saw lots of other people in our group shooting pictures today - looking forward to seeing them.

[Soylent Yellow]

Awesome pictures Frank.

[Goldfish]

Looks like a great time. Sorry i missed it. Awesome pictures guys.

[XterracerX]

Beautiful pictures! The clouds really made things more dramatic! Interesting night time rainbow Frank--looks almost surreal! Thanks for sharing!

[Brian (#2)]

I ended up getting stuck at work Saturday morning so I couldn't make it out there in time.  I saw reports of 3-4 in of rain and 50 mph winds for inland...glad the weather turned out good for you guys.

[zachbiz]

Sorry for the false posts. Here are my photos from yesterday.

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

Heading out across the desert through some washes to try and connect with s22 to hit calcite mine.

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

It got dark super fast.

Sandstone Canyon 11-20-10

[FrankB]

Zach and Mitch, nice shots.  How was the drive up to S-22?  What route did you take?

[zachbiz]

Zach and Mitch, nice shots.  How was the drive up to S-22?  What route did you take?

It was a little nerve racking Because i almost tipped once but it was a hell of a lot of fun. nothing like flying through palo verde, short and thimble wash at 40 mph in almost pitch black (besides the full moon) desert. We then hit s22 and found calcite mine which was also a ton of fun. jake and andy and someone else i think went off to eat dinner and hit coyote canyon (at least they said they would) and mitch mark and i all aired up and went home.

which brings up another interesting story. the west side of the mountains were sure getting hit hard. It was raining buckets i swear and half the time, i could barely see past the hood of the X because of the fog.

[FrankB]

. . . .
which brings up another interesting story. the west side of the mountains were sure getting hit hard. It was raining buckets i swear and half the time, i could barely see past the hood of the X because of the fog.

I know what you mean about the drive back to San Diego. I took 78 to Scissors Crossing, then S-2 to 79 and back to 78 at Santa Ysabel. 11 miles longer than just staying on 78, but avoids the Banner Grade. The rain started about halfway between Yaqui Pass Road and Scissors, and then hit heavy fog right after Santa Ysabel. The worst was coming out of Ramona down the hill on 67, almost no visibility.

Zach - if you can send me your email address I'll forward full-size versions of those shots of you and Coli (hope I spelled her name right) sitting on you truck. The other shot turned out nice too.

Jake - same for you, I got a good shot of you and your friend (and apologize because I'm not sure of her name).

[strikedistance]

Great day!!!! Glad i was able to find everyone even though i missed pie!!!! The run through the desert headed too the S22 was a lot of fun and Calcite Mine Road has gotten a lot easier but still a ton of fun. Dinner was great with live music and Coyote Canyon at night through the giant tree tunnel river crossing was great. All in all a perfect day in the desert.

Alex-I still have your Walky. Let me know how you want to arrange getting it. I should be out in Borrego next weekend and i know your pretty close. But we will figure it out.

[FrankB]

Great day!!!! Glad i was able to find everyone even though i missed pie!!!!  . . . .  I should be out in Borrego next weekend . . .

Bruce, it was great to see you, sorry we didn't have more time to talk.  I may be out there on Sunday, unless I'm delayed traveling back from Seattle on Saturday (or just too tired after dealing with the TSA).  If you know where you're going to be let me know.

As for the pies: (a) they were good, sorry you missed lunch, and (b) there were at least 1 1/2 pies in the trucks you went with in the evening, none of them mentioned anything?  I guess you guys were too busy trying to get across to S-22 quickly.  There's always next time.