We did a hike to the top of Ryan’s Mountain before we left. It’s about a 3 mile hike roundtrip with about 1000 feet in elevation gained. We saw some rock climbers on some huge rocks next to Ryan’s Mountain. They looked really tiny on that big rock. We stopped at a place called the Hall of Horrors to take another hike, but found out that it’s a climber’s area, not really a hiking trail. We briefly talked with a couple of climbers there and found out Joshua Tree NP has something like 8,000 named climbing routes in the park.
We left Joshua Tree and headed out to Anza-Borrego State Park near San Diego. Along the way we passed one of the famous Wind Farms. It was amazing! Lots of wind towers, all different heights and designs, some with two blades and some with three. Andrew called Anza-Borrego State Park to find out about free camping and got directions. It was getting dark by the time we got to a large barren area with several picnic areas with fire rings and a few campers near. We found a spot away from the others and set up camp for the night. While we were making dinner, a couple of dirt bikes ran around in the barren badlands. This was obviously an off-road vehicle area where bikes and ATV’s were welcome. Another vehicle pulled in across the street, but still several hundred yards away and started a campfire. We also started shooting at targets (I assume) at the hill behind him. What is it about people shooting up campsites out here! He shot off and on until 1am!