It’s still raining off and on. We had enough time to snap a few photos of a rainbow across the desert but not enough time to make coffee and breakfast. We decided not to hike out to an old homestead from the 1930’s.
We took a four wheel drive road out and drove around to the other side of the park where it wasn’t raining. The wind is blowing fiercely, and there’s nothing in the terrain to get shelter from it. We did a hike through a slot canyon. The whole area is badlands, an area that is barren and eroded into bizarre formations. We couldn’t find a clear trail but we did find our way down and into the canyon. It was really cool, but it did creep me out with sand and small rocks dropping down on me from the windy ridge above.
We drove out to do another short 1 mile hike to see a rare Elephant Tree. It’s a Sonoran desert tree that’s at the edge of it’s habitat. There were more at one time, but we saw the last one surviving here (they typically grow much further south). We drove out to do another hike to wind caves. We drove up a wash (a dry creek bed that is the road here) through a badlands canyon. We got out to take this hike and the wind kicked up and threw sand and rocks at us hard enough to hurt! We decided that this is a sign and we bailed out on this hike. We drove out to Font’s point for an incredibly surreal view of he whole badlands area. The wind was blowing hard and cold as the sun was setting. I went back to the truck and Andrew check it out and took move photos.
There were no campsites at Font’s Point, so we went up the road a little to a primitive campground called Arroyo Salado. The wind has been howling all day and is still 50 mph or more, making dinner a challenge. Andrew braved the wind to make spaghetti while I made salads inside the cab of the truck.