After devouring a delicious breakfast prepared by the cooking crew…
We headed back to the Camino.
Today, we passed Camp Grip, another Border Patrol Station. As I look at the facility, I wonder how badly does a Border Patrol officer have to screw up to get stationed out here.
We soon come to the grave of prospector Dave O’Neill who died around 1916. He was buried here by two friends. Two weeks later, when the friends ran out of tobacco, they remembered that O’Neill still had his tobacco with him when they laid him to rest. Of course, they returned, dug up the grave and retrieved O’Neill’s stash.
The custom is to place a token on the grave to honor the deceased. I brought along some Colorado pins for that purpose.
We continued onward, passing paloverde trees in bloom…
…gazing south at the Trump Wall climbing over mountains…
…and keeping an eye out for traffic cops enforcing the speed limit.
Portions of the Camino route traverse wash bottoms and stretches of deep sand. In these areas, the Border Patrol will drag tires down the road to smooth the sand.
Anyone out here illegally crossing the road will leave footprints in the sand. (These, however, are ours.)
Driving through some of these areas required engaging four-wheel-drive and motoring through nonstop. Stop and you’re stuck!
El Camino soon merged with another road, which was prominently labeled “Do Not Enter, Not a Public Road.” It was a construction road for building Trump’s border wall. We legally continued forward on the merged roads.
We soon reached Tule Well, complete with a windmill-filled water tank…
…an abandoned building…
…and a Boy Scout memorial atop a nearby hill.
While there was camping available here, we chose to head seven miles up to a campsite on Christmas Pass.
The road started out nicely…
…and then got a bit more interesting as we neared the pass.
The campsite was lovely and came complete with picnic tables…
…and ocotillo in bloom.
While there was plenty of mistletoe hanging off a paloverde tree, there was no Santa on Christmas Pass.
