Red Roads State Pages

Southern California (as delineated by AAA Tour Book)                See more places on the Northern California page.

Calipatria
        Flagpole

Jacumba
        Desert View Tower

La Jolla
        Birch Aquarium at Scipps

Niland
        Slab City

Palomar Mountain, North San Diego County

1. Mt. Palomar Observatory

2. Palomar Mountain State Park

San Diego

1. Silver Strand State Beach (Coronado)

2. Cabrillo National Monument

3. San Diego Maritime Museum

Calipatria

    Flagpole

    The first time we went through the town of Calipatria, we didn't notice anything unusual. When we came through again from the other direction, however, I noticed a very tall flagpole a couple of blocks west of Route 111. I've often seen car dealerships displaying huge U.S. flags from rather tall poles, but this was different. The U.S. flag was a "normal" size but the pole was really tall. We didn't stop to solve the mystery at that time.

    As we prepared to return to Calipatria at a later date, I decided to check the AAA Tourbook and see if it had any information about Calipatria and its tall flagpole. Lo(w) and behold, I learned that Calipatria residents lay proud claim to being "the Lowest Down City in the Western Hemisphere." This title is based on the town's elevation of 184 feet below sea level, a fact which is proclaimed on the town's welcome sign. We made a special stop to photograph what was labeled as the the world's tallest flagpole. The U.S. flag at the top flies at sea level!

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Jacumba

    Desert View Tower

    While preparing for our trip from Yuma, Arizona, to San Diego, California, in February 2003, I read about the Desert View Tower in Jamie Jensen's book Road Trip USA. This resource has been a wonderful help to me as we travel red roads. Some of the information is available at the Road Trip USA website, where you can also order the book. The book calls the Desert View Tower "one of the great road trip stops in southern California."

 

    A California registered state historical landmark, the tower was built in 1922 by Burt Vaughn to commemorate the many heroic pioneers and railroad builders who opened this territory between San Diego and Yuma. Underground springs and cool breezes had long made this location a welcome resting place on the journey through the Anza-Borrego desert. The tower is four stories tall and offers views across 100 miles of desert landscape. We could see Interstate 8, our travel route. Inside the cut-stone tower is a small museum and gift shop.

 

    Across the parking lot from the tower is a hillside whose granite boulders have been transformed into Boulder Park. In the 1930's, W. T. Ratcliffe spent two years with a mallet and chisel creating the mysterious creatures, mostly snakes and lizards, that nestle camouflaged among the rocks. It was a great climbing place to explore! Another family wrote about their experience here.

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La Jolla

    Birch Aquarium at Scripps

    One rainy day in February 2003, we decided to visit the Stephen Birch Aquarium/Museum, the interpretive center for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  The Hall of Fishes contained tanks representing the varied ecosystems found along the Pacific coastline from Puget Sound in the north to tropical reefs in the south. The largest tank in the aquarium was a 70,000-gallon kelp forest tank, portraying the underwater world off the La Jolla coastline, directly below the aquarium. 

    The Hall of Oceanography recorded the history of oceanography, including both historic and contemporary tools of the trade. There were interactive exhibits about waves, the composition of seawater, and other topics related to the ocean's physical and life sciences. One of my favorite displays was a mock grocery store called Ocean Supermarket. Actual grocery store items (empty containers) were displayed on shelves and in "refrigerator" cases. Special bar-coded information was displayed on monitors as we wielded hand-held scanners. We learned that many of the items we use every day are created using ingredients from the sea.

    The finally gallery we visited was used to display temporary, changing exhibits. We saw "Secrets of the Seahorse," scheduled for display May 2002 through 2004. I had never seen such an extensive display devoted to these amazing fish!  (Yes, they really are fish.) A fascinating part of the exhibit was "Neptune's Nursery," a breeding laboratory where baby seahorses were fed brine shrimp and nurtured for about a month. They were then shipped to aquariums and zoos around the world, therefore reducing the collection of seahorses in the wild. You can learn many of the things we did by visiting the Secrets of the Seahorse learning center on-line.

    On the outdoor plaza between the aquarium and the ocean was an artificial tidal pool, used for interactive educational programs. Nothing was going on the day we were there, though.

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Niland

    Slab City

    Camp Dunlap served as a Marine base from October 15, 1942, until March 5, 1946. Then the buildings were sold and the abandoned base was left empty; only the building foundation slabs were left in the desert near Niland. Since the late 1950's, RVers have been parking at "the Slabs" for free. A county road cuts through the 640-acre site, bordered on the north by the Coachella Canal, at the foot of the Chocolate Mountains. There are no services on site, no assigned parking spots, no rules about where or how long someone can park there. According to this map's legend, it was drawn in 1982 but it's still pretty accurate.

    Somebody else has put a lot of Slab City information and pictures on his website, so I won't try to duplicate that here. A Google search on "Slab City" will show you many more websites and media articles.

    We first visited Slab City, in January 2003, when "Solar Mike" and Murray, of The Sun Works, installed our solar panels, inverter, batteries, and monitors at the Sun Works  installation facility. When Murray learned that J was interested in astronomy, he invited us all to his campsite where he and his wife Loraine hosted a nightly campfire with stargazing through their ten-inch telescope. We saw Saturn and several other sky objects. 

    Slab City is a place to meet interesting people. One of the great learning opportunities of travel is meeting people who live, talk, and think differently from the way we do and looking for common ground. I like to call this "comparative cultures" learning. (This learning can be related to both past and present cultures.)

    One of Slab City's permanent residents is Leonard Knight, creator and curator of  Salvation Mountain. Rather than tell his story myself, I'll refer you to an interesting on-line interview with Mr. Knight. As we parked near the mountain and stood gawking at it, Mr. Knight approached us and offered to give us a tour. He took us inside several of the rooms, pointed out certain external features, and explained his construction process. It was quite fascinating! Until our visit, I had thought he was painting a natural mountain. On the tour, however, I learned that he has created a great deal of the mountain by mixing adobe and spreading it over stacked bales of straw. He uses car windows, tree branches, and other interesting building materials. The straw, paint, and other materials have been donated through the years. Mr. Knight showed us books in which he and his mountain are featured and told us about various TV shows which have documented his work. He even has a copy of a short speech made on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Mrs. Boxer, Senator from California, praising him and his work. He gave us a bunch of postcards of the site, encouraging us to spread them around. I asked him to sign and date one of the cards and I plan to keep it.

    While we were parked at Sun Works, we met Paul and Mildred (not their real names). Eighty-five-year-old Paul owned a house, but liked to spend time in his travel trailer in the Slabs. Eighty-three-year-old Mildred lived fulltime in her motorhome and enjoyed parking near Paul's rig so the two friends could visit. As we sat in the lawn chairs they offered us, we learned a little about Paul's life and a little less about not-so-talkative Mildred. Bud showed his rock collection to Paul. When he learned that Bud also collected state quarters, Paul gave him a jar of quarters to sort through. Sure enough, Bud found four quarters to buy for his collection. 

    Paul showed us a souvenir license plate he had found in February, 1957, at the military base where he worked. He said various people had attempted to help him determine a value for it, but had been unsuccessful. What Paul had been able to learn was that during the 1957 inaugural celebration for President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice-President Richard Nixon, 1000 of these plates had been given to the attendees of a thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner in Washington, D.C. The plates had an expiration date of 1-31-57. Apparently, someone at the base had casually discarded his souvenir soon after that and Paul had found it. 

    Another person we met at the Slabs was Dale, who lives alone in a small travel trailer loaded with amateur radio equipment. Since Bud and David are also "hams," they went to Dale's place to check out his set-up. Dale was heading to Quartzfest, an annual gathering of amateur radio enthusiasts at the BLM Road Runner 14-day area, six miles south of Quartzsite, Arizona. We went there, too, for our first "long" boondocking experience. We found Dale again at the 2004 event and got to know him better. He even took us to Blythe one night for dinner! 

    For logistical information about dry camping in the Slabs, check out this page from the Boondocking Guide.  This panorama gives a view of one area of Slab City. Our experience at Slab City was pleasant; it was a nice place to be at the end of a day.

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 Palomar Mountain, North San Diego County

    Mt. Palomar Observatory

    Since J is a stargazer, we had to visit Palomar Observatory while we were staying in southern California. From State Route 76, we drove the convoluted County Road S-6 to the summit of Palomar Mountain. The observatory is open to the public for a self-guided visit to the famous 200-inch Hale Telescope. We climbed the inside stairs to reach a gallery overlooking the telescope. The galley also displayed some photos and narration to tell about the history of the observatory. Construction of the building, which has a 1000-ton rotating dome, was begun in the mid-1930's and was nearly complete by 1941 when the United States entered WWII. The war delayed polishing of the mirror, a 20-ton Pyrex glass disk, and it wasn't until November 18, 1947, that the finished mirror, weighing only 14.5 tons after the grinding and polishing process, was installed in the telescope. The moving parts of the telescope structure weigh about 530 tons. At the website, there is a detailed timeline, with photos, of the history of the observatory. It's quite interesting!

    In a separate building between the parking lot and the observatory, there is a museum about the research that has been conducted on-site. This included static displays, still photos, and some video. Mt. Palomar is really a research facility, not a tourist spot. Don't expect a lot of entertainment here. However, the historical significance of the facility should not be overlooked.

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Palomar Mountain State Park

    On the way down Palomar Mountain, after visiting the observatory, we stopped briefly at the state park. (If that link to the PDF park brochure doesn't work for you, try selecting the brochure from this page.) It was late in the afternoon, so we didn't have long to explore. Near the park entrance, we walked around the picnic area. Here we found an absolutely huge old incense cedar tree. The sign indicated an estimated age of 400 years. There were also trails in the area and we started to take one. Almost right away we realized we wouldn't have time to go far (and get back!) before dark, so we returned to our truck. I'll bet this is a well-used park during the summer season. 

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San Diego

    Silver Strand State Beach (Coronado)

    We spent a week in the San Diego area in February 2003. Someone at the Slabs had recommended Silver Strand State Beach as a great place to park, so that's where we went. Our city exploring was slightly hampered by the fact that we had to be home before the gate was closed at 7:00 p.m. each night. We also had some repair issues to deal with and that took time. Nevertheless, this turned out to be one of my favorite parking spots! 

    Silver Strand State Beach is about five miles south of Coronado on Highway 75. (Nearby is the Navy SEALS training area.) It includes both an ocean side and a San Diego Bay side, with several under-the-highway pedestrian tunnels connecting the two areas. Day-use parking lots are on the ocean side only, since cars are not allowed on the bay side of the strand. The RV boondocking spaces are in a parking lot similar to the others, except parking spaces are RV-sized and numbered. Restrooms, pay showers, and fresh water are available; two dump stations are nearby, in town. Although we used a self-registration process for fees, helpful camp hosts were on site. We attended their campfire several evenings and one host shared her Alaska information with me, since I was preparing for our summer trip there.

    The RV parking section was well-populated while we were there; on the week-end it was just about full. In fact, the Escapees Shanty Shakers (Chapter 25) had a weekend rally at the beach and we enjoyed meeting some of them. We had fun with typical beach activities: shelling, flying kites, and building. Bud and J even venturing into the cold surf! After all, this was their first time at the Pacific Ocean. We observed more adventurous souls participating in a kiteboarding class. The bay side of the strand is a popular swimming and sailing area because the water is warmer and smoother than the ocean. There is also a signed interpretive nature trail (boardwalk) where we saw black-tailed jackrabbits. 

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    Cabrillo National Monument

    Cabrillo National Monument is an awesome place to visit! From regional history to harbor views; from tide pools to lighthouses; from whales to coastal sage scrub; there's so much to experience and learn about here!

    Our first stop was the visitor center, where we watched a film about gray whale migration. Although February is a good month to see whales off the coast, our brief vigil at Cabrillo's whale overlook proved fruitless. Because I am a lighthouse fan, I enjoyed exploring the Old Point Loma Lighthouse. First lit in 1855, the lighthouse was is service for 36 years. Unfortunately, what had seemed like such a good location for a beacon turned out to have an insurmountable flaw: at 422 feet above sea level, the warning light was often obscured by fog and low clouds. In 1891, the light was extinguished and the keeper moved to a new lighthouse located closer to the water at the tip of Point Loma. The old lighthouse has been refurbished to its historic 1880's appearance and we toured the inside.

    All the lighthouses I had previously visited were on the Great Lakes or the east coast (Maine and North Carolina). When I first viewed the New Point Loma Lighthouse, I was struck by the sight of palm trees. What a difference! Although we couldn't tour this working lighthouse or its grounds, I enjoyed seeing it. We drove by it on our way to the rocky inter-tidal zone on the western side of Point Loma. We had timed our visit just right with the tide and got to see many creatures, including sea anemones and tiny hermit crabs.

    While scanning across the water to the east of Cabrillo, near the old lighthouse, looking for Silver Strand State Beach, we were treated to the sight of a submarine heading into the harbor. With binoculars (and the zoom on the camera!), we could even make out crew members.

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    San Diego Maritime Museum

    Based on my research, we had decided to visit the San Diego Maritime Museum. However, our first stop there was unplanned. As we were making our way home from Cabrillo, we realized that we would be traveling in rush hour traffic on I-5. To avoid this, we detoured from our route and ended up on Harbor Drive right in front of the museum. We got out to investigate and learned that the museum would be open until 8:00. We thought touring the three historic ships would be a great way to wait out the traffic and still make it home by the gate-closing curfew of 7:00. Boy, were we wrong! Not because the museum wasn't interesting but because it was too interesting for such a cursory tour! We barely got to explore the 1863 bark Star of India before we had to leave. Fortunately, when we asked about a return visit, the ticket seller stamped our receipt and said we could finish our tour any time within a year. What a great deal for us!

    Two days later we came back to the museum and spent several hours there, mostly on the 1898 ferryboat Berkeley. This vessel is the center of the museum, housing the office, a major maritime research library, a workshop, a model shop, and the gift shop. The main and lower decks contain many exhibits dedicated to the U.S. Navy, coastal and oceanic trade, fishing and other marine resources, yachting, and voyages of discovery. Others may tell you that the engine room, with its restored triple expansion steam engine, is the most interesting area of the ferry. Personally, I most enjoyed the beautiful benches and stained-glass windows of the former passenger area on the upper deck. What a wonderful dance floor! (This venue, with room for 800 guests, is available for special events such as weddings.)

    The Berkeley is a steam ferryboat that operated for sixty years on San Francisco Bay. According to the museum's website, 

(d)uring the 1906 San Francisco earthquake Berkeley carried thousands of survivors to safety. Her captain and crew, not knowing the fate of their own families, worked night and day to help victims escape the burning shores of San Francisco Their unwavering and unselfish efforts saved many, many lives.

In San Diego since 1973, the Berkeley is a National Historic Landmark, helping visitors learn about California's maritime history. 

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