Soledad Canyon

From Vegas we headed south on I-15 and finally crossed back into California after seven months on the road. I have never seen so much greenery on this stretch of desert. We took CA-18 west out of Victorville which becomes CA-138 (Pearblossom Hwy). This route skirts just to the north of the San Gabriel mountains, which separate the Mojave Desert from the LA basin.

Once near Palmdale, we veered south toward the town of Acton and our destination, Thousand Trails Soledad Canyon. The campground is so named for the canyon in which it is located, which follows the Santa Clara River through the Angeles National Forest to Santa Clarita.

I wasn’t sure what to expect of a Thousand Trails in Southern California, and I was unfamiliar with this particular area of California. Upon arrival, the campground seemed a little beat-up. There is a dry river wash that you cross and some steep hills to get to certain sections. The sites and facilities looked a little run down, and I was getting a similar impression from many of the guests.

We found a spot that backed up to a bit of a ledge that overlooked a lower section of the campground. That’s when our huge rear window had its moment to shine. It perfectly framed Mendenhall Ridge and Magic Mountain, while blocking out the campground below.

(Yeah, I thought Magic Mountain was just a rollercoaster park in Santa Clarita.)

We spent hours staring out the back window while we were here, watching the clouds and the sun move across the mountain. Early in the mornings, the clouds would sock in the peaks and give shadowy texture to the mountain as the sun burned them off throughout the day.

The south-facing hills on other side of the canyon were golden with blooming poppies and the edge of the slope we were perched on was covered in wildflowers.

Ben watched the birds and the squirrels and we identified the dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis).

As California’s harsh winter continued into April, we even got a fresh dusting of snow to look at on the mountains.