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Desert X...ish on 06.11.17

Discussion in 'Southern California' started by LOLLY, Jun 12, 2017.

  1. Jun 12, 2017 at 11:43 AM
    #1
    LOLLY

    LOLLY [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2016
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    #199547
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    682
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    First Name:
    Alfredo
    Norwalk, CA
    Vehicle:
    '05 Tacoma DCLB TRD Sport (RIP) Now '21 TRD Off-Road
    I heard that the art pieces were still up so I decided to take the wife since she had not seen them yet. I only previously saw the mirror house and wanted to see a few others. We filled up the tanks, grabbed some food, and off to Palm Springs to see the Mirror House first.

    It did not disappoint and the weather was great
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    Fifteen minutes at the house and my wife says, "ok I'm good." I was like, "WHAT?!?!?!?! what do you mean you're good, we just got here." Turns out she's not as into it as I was LOL. She was still excited to go see the rest of the stuff though. We explored Palm Springs for a bit and made our way to the underground bunker...er... at least where the bunker USED TO BE. We got to the coordinates and couldn't find anything in site.

    I checked the coordinates again and I was parked right smack dab where the coordinates were...
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    The highlight of this stop was an albino lizard. I have never seen anything like it before.
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    Next stop was the vertical mirrors that are placed kind of like the stonehenge... at least where they USED TO BE!!! The best part of this spot was a small flower patch. It was the only flower patch for as far as I can see so that was pretty cool.
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    After that site we went to the zig zag curved wall one... Or where it used to be... by this time I'm starting to see a trend LOL. It was cool though because this wall lead us to a hiking park. I had never seen anything like it before. I looked like it had some sweet trails. The wife didn't feel like doing any crazy hiking so we decided to call it a day and start making our way back home. After going to all these sites we stumbled onto some cool scenery so I was pretty content with the trip and considered it a win.

    Little did I know, on our way home is when the trip would REALLY start. We were driving down the 10 freeway and my wife says that she saw some whitewater off to the side. I glanced over to see the water and had enough time to make the exit. I drive over to where we saw the water and happen to see a sign that is labeled whitewater preserve and points away from the freeway and in a different direction from where I saw the water. We continue on to where we saw the water but I keep that sign in the back of my head so we can check it out on the way back.

    I find the water and drive over the bridge since my wife wanted to get some pictures of the water while on the bridge. At this point I was going to make a u-turn to find the sign again but the road ahead was calling my name for some reason. We continue forward and come to a fork in the road. To the right was pavement, LAME. To the left was an uphill dirt road which I assume was a service road of some sort, WINNER. We go uphill and it turns out it is the service road for the windmills! It is amazing how big they are when you are at the base of them! I would duck every time the shadow of the blade covered us.

    06.jpg

    I kept driving and we came up to an opening with a pull out area on the left hand side. I make a u-turn and park in the pull out area which had a beautiful cliff drop off so you can see the land below. Next thing you know that cabin of the truck gets really loud and the truck starts shaking back and forth. It felt and sounded like if I was doing a burn out but I wasn't. At one point I thought my accelerator was stuck so I look down and the truck is idling like normal. At this point I realized it was the wind! It was blowing so hard I actually thought it was going to start pushing the truck. I panic, put the truck in drive, and go forward about 50 feet and BAM everything is back to normal. Baffled... we sit there and try to understand what just happened. I that point is when I realized it was the wind. We were at a clearing in the hill the lead directly to the wind mills on the opposite side of the hill. At this point, the only thing I can think of is that the clearing we were in was a wind tunnel to the wind mills on the other side. I tried reversing into it to try and snap a shot but I quickly became uncomfortable with how much the truck was shaking so we called it a quits and went back down to the bottom of the hill.

    I found the sign again and we headed off in the direction that it pointed. It was a nice drive that took us about 4.5 miles into the mountains. We get to the end of the road and the gate is closed with a ranger standing there. We talk with him for a bit and he informs us that the parking lot is full but there was a car on it's way out. The ranger lets us in and we park the truck.

    This place is called Whitewater Preserve and it is the most beautiful place I have seen in quite some time! It is amazing how we stumbled onto all of this just by spotting some water off the freeway.

    This is the ranger station with a small pond right next to it. From inside the ranger station you can see some monster trout swimming around in there.
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  2. Jun 12, 2017 at 12:30 PM
    #2
    dirtnsmores

    dirtnsmores A camping truck

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    Mike
    Southern California
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    06 DCLB Prerunner
    OME885/5100, DAKAR MED-DUTY, SOFTOPPER
    Great report. Looks like a heck of a day
     
    LOLLY[OP] likes this.
  3. Jun 12, 2017 at 4:23 PM
    #3
    LOLLY

    LOLLY [OP] Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2016
    Member:
    #199547
    Messages:
    682
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    Male
    First Name:
    Alfredo
    Norwalk, CA
    Vehicle:
    '05 Tacoma DCLB TRD Sport (RIP) Now '21 TRD Off-Road
    For those of you that like to hike, here are the coordinates to where the curved zig zag wall was.

    33°42'23.9"N 116°23'55.5"W

    It's a park called Adams Park and looks like a great place to go hiking/exploring. I didn't get off of the truck at this location but I'll definitely be going back to do some exploring.
     
    surfnmoto2 and dtaco06 like this.
  4. Jun 12, 2017 at 4:30 PM
    #4
    ODNAREM

    ODNAREM MEMBER Of The Church Of @ODNAREM

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2015
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    #149762
    Messages:
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    Gender:
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    First Name:
    Ron
    Huntington Beach,CA.
    Vehicle:
    2012 TRD Sport Prerunner
    TRD catback exhaust,FJ Cruiser trail team wheels,BFG All Terrain K02 tires,Grillcraft front grill,Pelfreybilt IFS/Mid skids,sliders,standard rear bumper,Total Chaos bed stiffeners.TRD Pro Bilstein front/rear suspension.
    Awesome share Alfredo!And What Danny @dtaco06 said above^!
     
    itaro, LOLLY[OP] and dtaco06 like this.
  5. Jun 17, 2017 at 6:59 PM
    #5
    surfnmoto2

    surfnmoto2 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
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    First Name:
    Lee
    SoCal
    Vehicle:
    2013 DCLB 4x4 + 2016 TRD OR 4x4
    Snugtop caps for the dogs Camburg 2.5 Coilovers, Camburg Uni on 2013. King 2.5 Resis on 2016 Deaver custom expedition leaf pacs , BAMF sliders and other stuff.....
    Nice photos of the art!
     
    LOLLY[OP] likes this.

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