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| Vasquez Rocks State Park |
Section D
Soledad Canyon Road - KOA Camp to Vasquez Rocks State Park – Sobo
Miles: 10
Hiking with: Sam & the Giffins
Lodging: Best Western John Jay Inn, Palmdale, CA – This hotel is convenient to the end of section D and the first half of section E and I got a killer deal.
Shuttle: A Dual Sport Bike (Kawasaki 250) that I put on the back of my Excursion & shuttle myself!!!
Dining: We tried to go back to Bayou Barbecue but it was closed...instead we went to Baja Tacos in the same center -- pretty good.
Start: We started at 6am at Vasquez Rocks State Park. We wanted to finish the hike before the temperatures started rising by mid morning. The park was closed as they were redoing the parking lot so we parked along side the road.
End: We ended at KOA Camp on Soledad Canyon Road. The people we extremely friendly at the KOA and let us chain up the Motorcycle to their fence in their employee section. The trail goes right by this section of the KOA camp too.
People along the trail: We saw one hiker that was running the trail in preparation of an ultramarathon. He was doing an out & back from Vasquez Rocks -- it made me feel rather wimpy.
Description: The beginning of the hike goes through Vasquez State Park where they filmed a lot of movies/TV shows such as Werewolf of London, Outer Limits, Star Trek (original series), Bonanza, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The rocks are very interesting and the trail winds through them so you view the rocks from several different angles. The trail then goes down into a shallow drainage and then goes under Hwy 14. On the south side of 14 you start winding up and around some typical california hills and then it drops down to the Amtrak tracks right before the KOA camp. This was a very nice hike. This is a low section of trail and when we finished it was getting hot -- we were glad we started early. The KOA camp has a store that sells ice cream, sodas, etc -- a nice break from the trail.
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| Vasquez Rocks State Park |
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| Vasquez Rocks State Park looking north at Agua Dulce. |
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| Vasquez Rocks State Park -- the rock in the middle looks like a profile of Elvis!!! |
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| The trail under Hwy 14. |
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| A frog in the Hwy 14 underpass. |
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| On the south side of Hwy 14 (you can see Hwy 14 in the background). |
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| Me on the PCT. |
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This is the "Golden Spike" for the PCT where Bruce Babbitt (Sec. of Interior -- from AZ)
came to commemorate the completion of the PCT. This is alongside the PCT on the
north side of the railroad tracks next to the KOA. |
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| Railroad spikes used as a directional guide to cross the tracks. |
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| Sam on the other side of the tracks as Amtrak sped by at 60 mpg. |
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| The shuttle motorcycle parked at the KOA campground. |
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| Loading up at the KOA campground ready to return to PHX. |
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| KOA campground HQ & snack shop. They were extremely friendly. |
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