Calico Ghost Town (7)

We have now stayed in the jiving town of Barstow a combined total of twelve times. Between the KOA and Calico Ghost Town, we’ve pretty much covered the things to do and places to stay. Except for one.

We have noticed the Owl Canyon Campground on our various campground map services, but we’ve always ruled it out due to the 4+ miles of dirt road and non reservability. Every time we land in this location, it is because we have spent around five hours in the car, and we’re trying to get somewhere else the next day of an equally long drive. So not knowing the condition of the road makes us leery about putting that as our planned destination at the end of a long day. This time around, we got an early start and would be arriving no later than 2pm in Calico. We decided to do some reconnaissance after unhitching and drove the Passport out there to scope it out.

It’s seventeen miles from Calico, so it would not be the kind of place where we’d be getting Penny’s for dinner and driving back out. And we do like Penny’s for dinner. But maybe we could do a late lunch or something. Dunno. In any case, the road itself is not bad at all, as dirt roads go. It gets washboardy in places, so Dory would be in for a deep vibrating massage. And she’d be filthy dusty. But she’d be ok. If we had a flocked Christmas tree, like we do right now, it would probably be unflocked by the time we got there. Wouldn’t want to drive it after or during a big rain, but otherwise? I think it’s a strong contestant.

The campground itself is really beautiful. There are brightly colored rocky hills all around and a couple of nice trails nearby that go into the Rainbow Basin BLM area. There is no water and no dump. The vault toilets are clean, and there is just enough cell service to feel not totally cut off. There were no other campers when we were there, but I don’t know it there are times it fills up. I would definitely stay in this campground when the weather is not too hot. It’s really pretty.

Our other goal was to do a hike up the Owl Canyon, which starts right from the campground. I could tell from the description Richard read to me that there were going to be some tricky rock scrambling parts, but also a cool cave you can walk clear through. The canyon is filled with so many different colored rocks, from pinks to purples, to bright coppery red. We easily found the cave and had come prepared with headlamps. It’s not very long, but it definitely gets fully dark for a short section. On the other side, you can only go a little ways further before you dead end into a rock wall. Then you turn around, go back through the cave, and rejoin the main trail.

Before you get to the two mile mark, you come to a big bouldery rock fall that blocks the way forward. The only way past is to do some scrambling. As soon as I saw it, I got nervous about how I was going to get up and over the boulders. There was one way that was a kind of chute situation, where if you can push yourself up a narrow vertical trough for about nine feet, you could maybe grab at the top ledge and pull yourself up. That one was not something I could physically do. The other way around requires getting over a big boulder with a two foot section where there are no hand or foot holds at all. You would really have to trust that your feet are not going to slip out from under you, because the fall would be around eight feet to the ground. That one was not something I could do mentally. I regret not taking any pictures at all of this rocky conundrum, but I understand why it slipped my mind.

I was pretty much in a state of mild panic over attempting any of the routes. I clambered right up to the point where I would have to let go and get around the edge, but I could not make myself get past that last two feet. And if I had gotten past it, I knew I would have to somehow get down it. I was out. But Richard made it past. I flat out refused to let him bail because I know he is goal oriented and he would have had FOMO if he didn’t go another mile to the end point of the trail. He reluctantly agreed to let me wait for him and he went on.

While he was gone, I tried again a couple of times to see if I could find any safe way across and ended up with a hard nope. I contented myself by looking around at all the beautiful rocks. Richard came back before long and reported that there was another, less difficult, rock fall just past this one. The rest of the trail was fine though, and he was kind enough to let me know it wasn’t so spectacular that I needed to feel I had missed out. It’s really just more of the same rocky canyon and not worth risking a serious injury. As it was, I sustained minimal damage. I scratched my glasses and my Apple watch, banged my knee, bruised my ego, and depleted my confidence.

This brought up lots of questions in my mind about whether there would be any way to make situations like this easier for me to get past. There are three other trails I can think of where the fear of slipping has stopped me from proceeding, at least temporarily. We both, unbeknownst to each other, spent a good part of the rest of the night Googling things to try to answer that question. Funnily, we both ended up going down similar rabbit holes involving rock climbing gear or indoor bouldering training. We don’t understand any of the climbing lingo, but we now know about harnesses we could put on Richard, so he could essentially winch my ass up. Also, when you Google things like “how to help your partner get over rocks…” you find yourself getting advice on codependence and substance abuse.

Thing is, I really don’t want to become a rock climber, so the idea of investing in gear is not motivating. I could use some new shoes, and maybe if we just had a short length of rope Richard could hold so I had something for my hands to grip, that could do it. I really don’t know, but in the meantime, I started to kind of worry about the next destination, which would include the “Rings Trail,” one of the three that has proved challenging for me in the past.

But back in Barstow, all is well, and what to get at Penny’s for dinner was all I needed think about. Big fluffy pancakes, cinnamon dusted french toast, egg and sausage on the side. Always perfection. Thanks again Barstow, for being a dependable stopover on the way elsewhere. Now we have another option for the future!

Total miles from Harris Ranch: 239.5, 17.1 mpg, 4 hours 59 min. Site O48 full hookups. Good cell for both. Good dump in site. Reserving a full hookup site in person cost $55. Reserving the same site online costs $65. As long as we’re not trying to reserve around New Year’s, I think it’s safe to just show up.