Dearly Departed Desert Dogs

Two of them weren't desert dogs at all, and the others only spent a couple years there, but when trying to find a good spot for playing in the afterlife, I decided the wide open space of Joshua Tree, CA, was a pretty sweet spot.

We took a day trip to the high desert north of Palm Springs yesterday to mark another item off our pre-launch list. We needed to spread the ashes of four sweet and wonderful doggies who passed over the last few years. Don't ask why I waited so long on a couple of them. When it's not the right time, it's not the right time. Definitely don't ask about my mom.......

My boys and I lived in Joshua Tree for a couple years with our two dogs, Squeakie and Nokomis. We'd had Squeakie for years and Nokomis was only a year old. Although we had three fenced acres of desert at the house, the exact same desert on the other side was much better and the two of them were always digging out. They would spend a few hours doing dog stuff, and always return. Our property was at the end of a dirt road with lots and lots of room to run in all directions.

When we moved to the city I rescued two older German Shepherds, Max and Murphy, who lived their last happy and spoiled years with us. We never took them to play in the desert but I'm sure they would have loved it.

We lost Nokomis in November of 2012, just before I retired.

I have kept their ashes and dog collars with me, but downsizing moved the decision of where to "leave" them to the list of must-dos. One day it dawned on me that Squeakie and Nokomis would love the miles of open desert, and those old boys would have a ball chasing them around.

My old house is still there, and it's still the last one at the end of the dirt road. Nothing but desert for miles, with views of snow on San Gorgonio and the ruggedness of the mountains bordering Joshua Tree National Park. We drove the Jeep off the road a bit to find a spot.

After spreading them in the wind and burying a little of each of them together with their collars by a bush so they would always be able to find one another, I knew this was the perfect place. Never felt sad, just remembered all their silly faces and said good-bye.

So much room to play

Meet back here

With our mission accomplished we headed over to check out the Joshua Tree Lake RV Park. Lake? I definitely didn't remember that. Sure enough, there's a cute little park out Sunfair Road with FHUs and a pond (lake is truly an exaggeration). Very clean, large spaces, great views - it would be a great place to spend a week for those whose rig won't fit in the national park campgrounds (like us).  We just may be back to share the area with the pups!

We also checked out the boondocking location on the big dry lake. Pretty rough access road, but definitely lots of hard, flat desert to camp on for free.

After a yummy lunch in Yucca Valley we headed for home. In the morning we had noticed lots of RVs headed West, like dozens and dozens of motorhomes and 5ers fighting the high winds. There was actually "traffic" with one or two lanes going very slow. Bill thought maybe the music event, Stagecoach, had been last weekend. On our return trip they were all gone, but we passed a van with "Stagecoach carpool caravan" on the window and Bill's guess was confirmed. We were lucky to miss the earlier jam and made it home without any delays.

So the doggies have their forever place now, and I can already close my eyes and see the four of them chasing around the greasewood and scaring up a lizard or two, having a grand ol' time.