California
with a little Nevada and Arizona


Winter 2000/2001


From Dec. 23 to Jan. 6, my friend Katharine and myself cycled from San Diego to Las Vegas, through several desert parks including Death Valley.  These pages provide a general overview of the trip with some accompanying pictures.

A Googlemap showing individual legs is available here


In order to minimise the size of individual pages, photos of our journey has been broken into two sections:

1. San Diego to Joshua Tree

2.  Blythe to Death Valley

 Dec.23 to 30

Dec. 31 to Jan.6




Trip Overview:          (highlighted words link to pictures)

Date From /To Distance
cycled		  notes
Dec. 23 Toronto/ San Diego - sleep in terminal
Dec. 24 Campo 90 km - through Spring Valley
- Mountain Empire Campground
 (only a couple miles from Mexican border)
Dec. 25 Tamarisk Grove 108 km - Pine Valley, Julian
Dec. 26 Borego Springs 39 km - Anzo-Borrego Desert State Park
- hike to Palm Canyon Springs
Dec. 27 Cottonwood Springs 130 km - cactus bloom
- Salton City, Box Canyon
- break spokes on back tire
- Joshua Tree National Park
Dec. 28 Cottonwood Springs 50 km - cycle to Indio, cab to Palm Springs
  buy new tire, cab back to Cottonwood Springs
- Katharine hikes
Dec. 29 29 Palms 66 km - Ocotillo Grove, Arch Rock
Dec. 30 Cottonwood Springs 105 km - Jumbo Rocks, Skull Rock, Cap Rock
Dec. 31 Blythe 132 km - Charico Summit
Jan. 1 La Paz 112 km - Parker
Jan. 2 Lake Havasu 58 km - Katharine leaves wallet at Parker Dam
(doesn't realise it until Lake Havasu)
- local man ("Randy") drives us back to get it
- buy new back tire in Lake Havasu
(home of the London Bridge)
Jan. 3 Kingman 98 km - pass "alien" home outside of Yucca
- warned against safety of road into Las Vegas
Jan. 4 Furnace Creek 63 km - rent U-Haul
- drive through Las Vegas
- Red Rock Canyon
Jan. 5 Furnace Creek 74 km - Mushroom Rock, Badwater, Artist's Palette
Jan. 6 Las Vegas 42 km - Mosaic Canyon, Dante's View
Jan. 7 Toronto