Marcy’s Obsevations by Marcy Davidson
How to Enjoy a Treeless Thanksgiving
Campsite at the base of the Folded Cliffs in Red Rock State Park
A friend of mine who lives in Twain Harte and who has camped in Red Rock State Park, (20 miles north of Mojave on California Highway 14) told me, “There are no trees there.” “Yes there are,” I replied. “There are six of them. I know because I counted them.” And I had, why I don’t know, but probably because there were so few and because they were all in one place – next to the Visitor’s Center where they no doubt were regularly watered. I didn’t tell her that there were Joshua Trees scattered about since I knew she was talking about conventional trees.
The lack of trees never bothered my family or me. One just doesn’t expect trees in a desert unless, of course, you live or like to visit the Palm Springs area. A place that could fool the world into thinking it wasn’t a desert except that it is surrounded by desert. It is also difficult to ignore those summertime temperatures. Our family enjoys the desert particularly in the winter when the sun makes the day most pleasant and a simple jacket wards off the cold night air. We like the desert as it was meant to be with sparse vegetation, rocks of every hue and shade, and hillsides with interesting geology. Red Rock has all that and more. The campsites sit up against 200-foot tall sculptured sandstone that water and wind has carved over many years. As the literature notes: “The unique and colorful cliffs grace both the east and west sides of Highway 14. These fluted folds are the result of wind and rain eroding the softer materials beneath the dark caprocks which were formed by a harder lava flow layer.”
It was the thought of enjoying the warm days and unique scenery in a place he had enjoyed in his growing-up years that caused our son to think that Red Rock would be a nice place to spend the Thanksgiving Holiday. So he called us and asked if we’d join him for a desert Thanksgiving and we welcomed the idea. Then, of course, what is Thanksgiving without lots of family and good friends to share it with? And so the group grew to 24 adults and 11 kids.
My husband, Gary, and I along with our friends, Keith and Donna Bentjen (residents of Tehachapi) were the first to arrive. It was our responsibility to select campsites that would accommodate all the various size rigs. We did our best and settled in to await the others. All of who would be arriving throughout the day on Wednesday. The plan was to deep fry five turkeys, with everyone bringing traditional Thanksgiving side dishes to share.
Carving five turkey’s on Thanksgiving Day
As our son and family arrived, 5-year-old Scott decided he wanted to stay even though in the long ride from San Jose he had wanted to turn around and go home. But as he climbed out of their motor home he grinned with delight. “Look at all the rocks!” He said as he ran for the nearest formation. As other children arrived they too ran for the rocks. The adults greeted each other with hugs and handshakes and proceeded to catch up on each other’s lives.
Thanksgiving Day warmed to a perfect 72o with no wind as the camp buzzed with preparations for the Thanksgiving meal. We had 5 turkeys to cook in 2 deep fryers. The men were in charge of frying and carving the turkeys while the women busied themselves inside their RV’s preparing side dishes (including the pies). When the tables had been moved to form one long table, all came together to give thanks and enjoy the meal amongst the treeless but spectacular scenery.
We were lucky weather-wise on both Thanksgiving Day and the day after. On Friday we hiked and then drove to Randsberg hoping to enjoy root beer floats. But we weren’t the only ones. There were at least a thousand dirt bikers milling about town. I hadn’t been in such a congested place since the last time I attended the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in Murphy’s several years ago. We drove through the town, circled back around and returned to camp happy to be out of that mess.
We awoke Saturday to sunshine, but it quickly turned into a dark and cloudy day. Never-the-less, we did as we had planned to do – we launched rockets. Yep rockets. Our son, Mike, when he was a pre-teen built and launched rockets with his Dad. If you’ve never done this, it is a fun activity for the whole family and teaches kids something about rocketry. We led a caravan of five 4×4 vehicles down a dirt road (outside of park boundaries), found a place to accommodate us and proceeded to launch three rockets. Everyone cheered and clapped when we had a successful launch and the kids ran with delight hoping to catch the rocket as its parachute slowly brought it back to earth.
Sunday was departure day and we readied our rig for the trip home. We were happy campers and thoroughly enjoyed our treeless, outdoor Thanksgiving holiday. We said goodbye and drove the 313 miles back to Twain Harte and trees. While we love our three acres of cedars, pines and oaks, we found we managed just fine for a few days with very few trees. And although the State had raised the camping fee to $25 a day, we paid it – happy the park has remained open.
