The Saturday Morning Post - December

Well, here it is December already, and I just realized two things: I never finished the update of my last post, and I didn't post anything in November. That's just another indication of how busy I am, and what little free time I have. So, belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I spent my Thanksgiving weekend as I have for over 10 years now - in the desert with our off road club, the D.O.M. We had planned to go as a family, but our plans changed when the weather forecast took a turn toward cooler temperatures. Originally, all of us (all of us meaning everyone except Brady - so that's me, Laura, Nina and Jordan) were going to leave for the desert right after Laura got home from work on Wednesday evening, the day before Thanksgiving. Yes, that's right, the heaviest travel day ever! It would have been such a fun drive pulling a trailer in stop-and-go traffic heading the same direction as several hundred-thousand commuters. But we changed plans due to anticipated cold weather, and Laura stayed home with Nina and Jordan. I opted to leave Thanksgiving morning when I knew there would be significantly less traffic - and I was right! But I wasn't alone - I took our dog Jordy with me.

I arrived at Charlie's Place, a popular open riding area for off road vehicles (officially named by the BLM as Wagon Wheel Staging Area) around noon. The club was in the usual spot, and I had an opportunity to get the last front row spot in the circle around the center of camp. The very center of the circle is where we have the nightly campfire. I didn't like that open spot because it was not level, which is probably no one else parked there. I took a 2nd row spot instead. here it the view looking out my front door:
I promise this is the least scenic picture of this post. I have more scenic pictures to share below, that illustrate my adventures over the next three days of our club ride. On the afternoon of Thanksgiving Day, the club had a potluck and we all ate together (in the center area of camp). I was impressed that one of the people coordinating the potluck had everyone wait until all the club members arrived at their tables, and then said some words of thanks. In effect, saying grace.

On Friday, there was a huge club ride to the pinnacles. I've been there before (twice) and it's a very long ride. The other issue for me is that a large group of riders means a very slow ride. Riders of lessor ability and people driving full size 4 wheel drive vehicles (and even some of the sand buggy type vehicles) are not able to traverse the trails as fast as quads or motorcycles. There's also the possibility of someone breaking down, and the whole convoy has to stop. I went the opposite direction - alone - to Randsburg. (In previous years, large group rides to Randsburg are just as slow, but at least the destination has more options for fun and activities vs. the pinnacles). Once at Randsburg, I ate lunch and drank a beer (or two) at the White House Saloon:
Then, it off to The Joint. The Joint is a bar across and down the street from the White House Saloon. I've never been in to The Joint, but I have seen it from the outside. After reading a post from blog friend Sage, I had to check it out to see if Olga was still alive. I am happy to report that Olga is alive, but I didn't get a chance to personally meet her. According to her daughter, who was tending bar during my visit, Olga is doing fine for a 99-year-old. She said Olga no longer tends bar, but does visit often, and planned to come down later in the day. I drank a couple of beers at The Joint while chatting with Olga's daughter, who was trying to eat her lunch before the rush came in. The Joint doesn't serve food, but she got take out from the General Store (a few doors down). A few patrons at the bar ordered take out as well. Just as I was finishing up my 2nd beer, a large group of patrons entered the bar, and it was clearly the beginning of the rush. Outside, I could hear more and more motorcycles driving by, and I knew it was time for me to leave. Here's a poor quality picture of the exterior of The Joint:

Note to readers: all of the pictures in this post are taken from a disposable camera that still uses that 4-letter F word (film). The quality of the prints were very poor (in my opinion). When I had the film developed, the store clerk also put the images digitally on a disc, which is how I was able to upload them on to this post. What I found is that when the camera was pointed toward the sun, as in the picture above, the image is poor. There is also a faint line that appears in center of nearly every print, which you might be able to see in several of the pictures below. Next time I'll bring the digital camera from home.

On my way back to camp, I took a few scenic pictures. This first one was taken just outside of Randsburg, looking west towards a dry lake. This is also in the direction of Garlock and Goler Gulch, where I would be visiting the following day looking for Ralph's homestead and Sam's homestead, as described in Sage's Travel Tip Thursday post of June, 2010.

Along the trail back to camp, I came across this old structure:

About half-way back to our camp, I passed through a popular camping area that our club is familiar with, and where we have camped many times before. There is no official BLM name for this site, but it is easy to get to - there's a turn-off from U.S. 395. Our club calls it Schiller Gulch, and it was named by a former club king and queen (that's what the club calls their leaders). My picture was taken from a vantage point showing the entire camping area, and depicts hundreds of RV's. To me it looks like a bunch of white Legos thrown in a grassy sandbox:
I returned to the D.O.M. camp at Charlie's Place safely, and found out that the large group ride took equally as long (nearly 4 hours), moved at a glacial pace, and had one vehicle break down. Sounds like fun to me (sarcasm intended).

Friday night I went out to the campfire for a while. It was pretty cold, and my dog Jordy cried in the trailer. When the people in the campsite next to us began shooting off fireworks (big 4th of July type) I had to go in to keep Jordy calm. He shook for over an hour as I held him in my arms while relaxing in the warmth of my trailer.

On Saturday, the club had a poker run. This is an event where participants ride from one spot to another, and perform a silly stunt which allows them to pick a poker card. The participant with the best poker hand wins. This is actually a fundraiser for the club; members buy an entry card for $5, and the proceeds are divided up between winners and the club. Participants all pick one card (from a regular poker deck) in camp before leaving on the ride. The card picked is noted on the entry card. The group rides to the 1st spot. The silly stunt this time was to take a small plastic ring and toss it several feet to "ring" an orange safety cone. This did not take a lot of skill. The participant then picks a poker card, updates their entry card, and moves on. At the 2nd stop we had to blow up a small balloon until it popped in our face. Things were taking too long, so at the 3rd stop we just drew cards. The 4th stop was back at camp, where we picked our 5th card. As in year's past, I didn't win. Below it a picture taken from our 1st stop. You can't tell, but just beyond the front-most vehicles, the trail drops steeply to the bottom of the hill that we were on. Most of the riders would not have been able to traverse this, so we all turned around and went a back the way we came. In the background is the city of Ridgecrest, and way in the back are the southern most mountains of the Sierra Nevada range:

After the poker lunch on Saturday, I went into Ridgecrest to fuel up my truck. I don't like stopping on the way home to get fuel, and it is much easier pulling in to a gas station without a trailer than with one. Besides, everyone and their brother stops along the way home, and with all the Thanksgiving travelers crowing the stations; I don't want any part of it. After getting fuel, I drove over to the Garlock area to try and find the areas described by Sage in his post. I had re-read his posts regarding the area, and even printed pictures he posted to help me locate Ralph's and Sam's homesteads. I'm not sure if I was successful, but below are several pictures I took of the area that I thought was the right spot.

From what I can tell from the maps I had, these pictures were all taken in the small town of Garlock. My map also showed an area called Goler Heights, but I chose not to try and access it because I would have had to drive off road. Except for my dog Jordy, I was alone, and I was not going to go into unknown areas without someone else with me. These first few pictures are all of one large property with several buildings, and was clearly inhabited by someone. The pictures are in sequence moving counter-clockwise around from the west side of the property to the south (front) of the property along the paved road. There was a well-maintained area fenced in and guarded by a dog. Adjacent to this was a building that looked abandoned, but had a mannequin standing in front dressed as a cowboy, and a large sign on the top of the building that read "Garlock". Adjacent to that was a dirt road leading to other buildings further up the hill. I did not go up the dirt road. The large "Garlock" sign was clearly visible from the road for hundreds of feet away:

I like how the owner wrote "USA" in the chain-link fence:

It's hard to see, but the dog is in this picture below. It's at the fence towards the right (above and to the left of my mirror)

Down the road (west of the above property) about a quarter mile, was another group of structures. These all looked abandoned and run down. In my mind, I could picture a once vibrant desert ranch. These are also in sequence, left-to-right, the first one had a large sign against the building that read "We The People Say Impeach All Of Them":

This structure was further back between the other two:

This structure was on the right, and there was a water tank in back:

Between the two properties I visited, there were a couple of stand alone structures - one on each side of the road. The one on the north side had what appeared to be an outhouse in the back:

The one on the south side of the road was a concrete structure:
I had seen all I was brave enough to explore and decided to go back to camp. We had another potluck scheduled that late afternoon, and I needed to prepare my food. I also wanted to start packing things up, because I intended on leaving early Sunday morning to beat the traffic.

Saturday's potluck was delicious, and I capped the evening off with a few beers standing with friends around the fire. The wind had been picking up since the day before, but now a storm blew in. It actually rained on us, so we all went in to our own trailers and called it a night. I got up the next morning and continued my packing up. I left just after 8:00 a.m. behind some others, and before most of the club. I had no traffic on the way home, and only stopped a couple of times to relieve Jordy. My last picture is taken about half way home, from where U.S. 395 meets I-15. The mountains are the range are the back side (desert side) of the San Gabriel mountains, which I can also see from the basin side of L.A. and Orange Counties:

See you next month on a Saturday morning . . .

The Sat. Morn. Post, Vol. 21 - Ride to Randsburg

We begin our journey on the Friday morning after Thanksgiving Day. At about 10:30 a.m., I set off for what I know will be about a 1-hour ride on my quad, heading southwest from Charlies Place, to the town of Randsburg. I've been told it's 17 miles from members of our club who have odometers on their motorcycles/quads, but it seems much further. I know that if you drove the roads/highways from our camp to Randsburg; it's just under 20 miles. The roads, however, do not follow the same direction as the trails; the trails are more direct, and the roads wind around.

I've never posted so many pictures at one time, so I'm going to write less and get to the pictures. This first one shows a valley that I had just crossed. The dirt road in the center is quite wide, and follows a pipeline for many miles. It is heavily traveled, and boring in terms of scenery. You can see the many trailers/RV's to the west of the road. Our camp is beyond the ridge where the road seems to disappear.


Along the way I drove through an area known as the punchbowl, which was named for the colorful pink rocks. It looks much better in person than in this picture. Some people like camping here, as you can see.


I found this sign as I was leaving the punchbowl area. It reminded me of the sign in the TV show M*A*S*H. According to the sign, I have less than 7 miles to my destination.


Train tracks and even old train cars can be found throughout the area. Here is a tunnel, and you can barely see the light from the other side. We have camped on the other side at a spot known as Searless Station.


I had to pass by a valley that our club named Schiller Gulch. We have camped in this same spot. I noticed that this group was having some type of race event.


This is taken from the same spot, and is just another group next to the one above. This is how our club, and many other groups of people camp out in the desert. They "circle the wagons" around the campfire, and ride their desert toys on the trails around their camp.


Along the way, I stopped at this old shelter. I assume it was a home that someone carved into the side of this hill, and was probably from the mining days around the turn of the century. The stones at the top that are squared up is a chimney of sorts. You can look straight down from there into an area below. You can get to that area by entering the hole in the hillside in the center of the picture. It's obvious that people had fires burning in there.


This is the same structure, but from a different side of the hill. You can actually get from one side of the structure to the other because it tunnels under the hill.


The car in this picture is traveling north on US395, and is about to cross the train tracks. You can barely see a power line in the distance (in the center of the picture). I have to reach that power line to catch a trail that takes me in to Randsburg.


This is taken nearby to the picture above, but looking back from where I just came. The trail hugs the tracks for a couple of miles here. Note to Sage: this is very near to the mining area that you might have been referring to in you comment in my last post. A bunch of people were mining in a designated area just to the left (north) of those tracks on a gentle hillside. Sorry, I didn't take a picture - I guess I'll have to come back:)


This is also looking back from where I just came. You can see US395 in the center of the picture. I began my ride way off to the right (northeast) beyond the ridgeline. I am now standing at a road that leads in to Randsbugh, but that I can't legally take.


Here is the road that I can legally take. A rocky, dusty mining road that goes up over a steep hill and descends into Randsburg.


And there it is, only a few hundred yards away. In the background, you can see Red Mountain; one of the highest peaks for miles around.


This is the only stretch of paved road that I am allowed to be on. The last few hundred feet from where the rocky, dusty mining road ends and dumps into town. As you can see there is a presence of law enforcement. It seems that over the years some of the residents have complained about the noisy dirt bikers that come into town. I don't know why they complain, the dirt bikers SPEND THEIR MONEY in the town's shops and restaurants. We use to be able to ride in on the main road, but that is illegal now and you will likely get a ticket. I will not chance this, and ride on the dirt road around to the back of town.


From here, you can clearly see the White House Saloon, where a cold beer (or two) awaits me. Oh, I'll have a cheeseburger and fries too.


Well, thanks for coming along, and I hope you enjoyed the ride - well the pictures at least. See you next Saturday morning . . .

The Sat. Morn. Post - Vol. 18 - Turkey Weekend

Hi friends! Thanks to the magic of Blogger, I'm publishing this post today even though I'm far away from my home and my computer. I wrote this before leaving home on Thanksgiving morning, and scheduled it to publish on Sat. 11-28-09 at 7:00 a.m.

My Thanksgiving tradition is to meet up with my off road club out in the Mojave Desert and celebrate with friends out there. We have a pot luck dinner on Thanksgiving day complete with a turkey, and we ride all weekend long in the open riding areas about 150 miles north of Los Angeles. Around the time this post is published, I will be taking a Saturday morning ride on my quad with a couple of other dedicated morning riders.

I'll be sure and post pictures in the weeks to come. I also have to post an update on Brady's cheer competition from last weekend. I will tell you this much now - his squad won 1st place in their division.

See you next Saturday morning . . .

Thanskgiving '08 - Charlie's Place - part two

Continuing from my last post - our family spent Thanksgiving out in the desert with our off road club, the D.O.M. This is the way my family (just my wife and kids, that is) traditionally spends Thanksgiving.

On Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, the club had a poker run. A poker run is a game where you draw five cards and the person with the highest hand wins. And so there just isn't one winner, the pot is split with the person with the lowest hand. Since this is a fundraiser for the club, the "split" is divided up 3-ways with the high hand getting the biggest cut, the low hand getting the second biggest cut, and the club getting the smallest cut.

Also, since we're an ATV-riding club, the poker run requires participants to ride from one location to another on a marked trail. When you get to a location you draw a card from a deck. However, just to make it interesting, you have to perform a feat in order to earn your card. You do this a total of four times. The fifth card comes at the end of the run, and you get to draw your last card for completing the whole series.

With the exception of the first location, which we forgot to photograph, here are some pictures of us doing the various feats. At the second location, we had to suck the juice from a lemon wedge. Laura didn't like this at all, as you can tell by the sour face:

At the third location, we had to paddle a Superball back and forth 5 times. It took Nina and Laura about 5 tries before they could reach 5 cycles of back and forth. Here they are with their success smile:

At the fourth location, we had to spin a Hula Hoop around our body 5 times. Nina did this with ease:

Laura couldn't spin the hoop around twice. I learned from last year that the easiest way for me to do this is by spinning it around my neck:

Just in case you were wondering, none of us won. Also, just in case you were wondering, at the first station, participants had to blow a bubble with bubble bum until it popped in their face. And finally, just in case you were wondering, Brady is not in any of the pictures because he was in a group with his friends. He's too cool to hang with his parents and sister.

Later on Saturday afternoon, a few of us went on a ride to one of the mines in the area. On the way back, we stopped at some rock formations that look really weird. I'm sure Geologists or Earth Scientists know how these rocks are formed, and probably know the name of the formations. I just think they look cool. Here's Nina sitting on one:

That's all for this post. Bye for now - Dan

Thanksgiving '08 - Charlie's Place - part one

Our family spent Thanksgiving the same way we've done for the past few years: out in the desert with our off road club, the Dirty Old Men. The D.O.M. goes out to a location known as Charlie's Place. This is my personal favorite place our club goes to because of the variety of riding and the sights to be seen.

Our family was originally planning to leave on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving day, but that turned out to be too busy. Not only is it one of the worst days to try and drive out of the Los Angeles area in any direction, but my wife Laura had unfinished "cheer" business that had to get done. I can write an entire post just on Laura's involvement in La Habra Pop Warner and Cheer, but I'll bore you with that on some other occasion. This post is about our Thanksgiving weekend. So, we left for the desert on Thursday morning at about 7:30 a.m.

We arrived just about 3 hours later, which is pretty good time in my opinion. Our destination was only about 160 miles away, but we had to take the Cajon Pass out of San Bernardino. This is a steep climb along Interstate 15, and gets slow for those of us pulling a trailer. I'm sure many of the people speeding by us were hurrying off to Las Vegas. Once in our camp area, we quickly leveled our trailer and unloaded our quads, and we otherwise transformed the cargo area of our travel trailer into our living space. We spent the rest of the day visiting with friends and getting ready for the Thanksgiving potluck that the club traditionally has. The club provides the turkey, and all the members bring side dishes and desserts.

The members who want to eat together near the potluck table bring their own tables to the area. Nina put this place-holder on our table. It says: "Reserved for Danny Nina Laura Brady or whom we let"

Here's Laura and Nina eating their Thanksgiving dinner. Laura has a Margarita, Nina has pink lemonade in the Margarita glass. You can also see the people standing at the potluck table in the background. (the dog with no legs did not get to eat off of the potluck table)

And here's me and Nina eating. It was such a beautiful sunny day with no wind, and warm enough to keep our jackets off until nightfall. This picture was taken at about 4:30 p.m.

Since Nina finished all of her turkey, we let her have a big piece of chocolate cake for dessert. Laura and I had pumpkin pie. Brady ate with his friends in their motorhome, that's why he is not in these pictures.

That evening, we stayed in our trailer and watched a movie. We had not quite adjusted to the cold temperatures at night. Besides, we still had two more chances to go to the campfire over the next two nights.

On Friday, I took a lone ride to Randsburg. Randsburg, an old mining town that is now a tourist attraction, is about 17 miles away. I missed out on going there last year, which you can read about here if you want. This year I was going no matter what, and selfishly I didn't want to have to take a group of other riders. It took me just about an hour to get there on my quad, and I grabbed a seat at the bar and watched some college football. I ate a cheeseburger and an order of fries, and I had a couple of beers to wash it down. Then I returned for our camp via a different route. It was very enjoyable, but I don't have pictures to share. The camera stayed with Laura.

While I was gone, Brady joined the big group ride to the pinnacles, and Nina stayed back at camp and played in the sand. Here's she is along with a birthday cake she made:

Also, just like during our first ride of the year, the Ice Cream Man came out to the desert again! So even though Nina and Laura didn't go on a long ride on their quad, they did get cake and ice cream.

Part two to follow in a week or so. Bye for now.

D.O.M. Ride to Lucerne Valley - Sept. '08 (part 1)

The 2008-2009 D.O.M. season began last weekend, and we were there to kick it off. I actually wasn't planning on attending due to a couple of things. First of all, Nina is only about 1/2 way through her cheerleading season. In the past two years since Nina's been a cheerleader for Pop Warner football we haven't missed any of her games. We just didn't go riding until the football season was over. But since Laura is not the team coach this year, neither her nor Nina's absence is critical. The other reason I wasn't planning on going is financial. Laura is not working, and it doesn't look like she will return soon. More on this in some future post.

I didn't take vacation on Friday before the weekend, and Monday after the weekend like I would normally do for a club ride. This makes it all the more difficult to deal with. Hooking up our truck to our trailer and all of the last minute packing had to start after I came home from work on Friday. This takes hours to do. It did help that Laura was home. She did some early packing and cleaning up in the trailer in the days before Friday. She also did all the grocery shopping for the trip. These are some of the things I would do on the Friday before we leave - if I was on vacation.

By the time everything was hooked up, tied down, packed up and ready to go, it was about 9:30 p.m. I knew we would have about a 3 hour drive before we were in camp, and I knew once we got there I would have to find a place to park. I know this location - Lucerne Valley - is notoriously not easy to level; the place where the club camps is on the side of a hill, so there's a slope. It would be 1:30 a.m., pitch black, I would be exhausted, and I would still have to unload the quads from the cargo area just so we could make beds to sleep. That sounded like too much work for me, so we decided to leave for the desert on Saturday morning.

After a good night's sleep in our own beds, we were up early and off to the desert. We were in camp by 9:00 a.m. The fun began as soon as we unloaded the quads. Laura, Nina and I missed the "group / club" ride. I was barely able to get Brady's quad gassed up and ready to go in time for him to join the group. I didn't want to hold them up by having them wait for the rest of us. Besides, Nina is slow and gets tired easily. I didn't want to hold them up during their ride either. Brady went with the group, and Laura, Nina and I went on our own ride. Everyone had fun.

Later in the afternoon, it starting getting hot. Too hot to ride for a while. keep in mind that we wear riding gear including helmets. All of that clothing and equipment makes it uncomfortable to ride in when the temperatures start climbing. So we hung out in front of our trailer under our awning eating chips and salsa and drinking beverages. I drank beer. Lots of beer.

Enough words for you to read. How about some pictures? While we were sitting out trying to cope with the heat we heard a somewhat familiar sound. The happy tunes of an ice cream truck. Now we've heard these tunes many times at home as the ice cream man comes rolling down our block, but we've never heard this out in the desert. Well someone from the nearby town of Lucerne Valley must have known that if they came out to the off-road areas with an ice cream truck, people like us would buy lots of sweet frozen goodies. See for yourself:


While sitting outside of the trailer there's always something to look at. Sometimes it's off in the distance. Here, I borrow my binoculars back from Nina for a minute to take a look at something.

Here's the happy couple posing for a picture:

And here's Nina with her game face:

And here's a picture Laura snapped of me after I succumbed to many beers. What's not fair is that I fell asleep after Laura did; I just quietly sat there enjoying my beer and the afternoon while she slept. I didn't take her picture. Okay, next time Laura, next time.

After my nap it was cool enough to ride again, and luckily there was still daylight. So Laura, Nina and I went on another ride, but I'll save that story for my next post. Happy trails . . .

Time For An Update

Summer is nearly over, and there's been some changes around the household. Laura is no longer employed, but continues to seek a new job. This causes a financial challenge, as we were already on a tight budget. Laura has a little more time for her volunteer position as cheer coordinator for La Habra Pop Warner Football and Cheer leading.

Both Brady and Nina have celebrated birthdays recently, and have also started school. Brady, now 15 is in 10th grade, and Nina, now 8 is in 3rd grade. Both attend a tumbling class once a week, and both will soon begin religious education classes. Brady is less than a year away from receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation.

In other birthday news, we recently celebrated numerous family birthdays at my moms house with a good ol' BBQ & pool party. Those celebrating birthdays included my mom, both my kids, a niece and a nephew (who are also brother and sister), and another nephew. Absent, but not forgotten, were another niece who lives out of state, and an uncle who took ill and couldn't attend.

Nina is also cheer leading for La Habra Pop Warner. I enjoy going to the games to watch her cheer, but also enjoy watching the games themselves. Today, the boys beat their opponent 39-6. Before the cheer and football season began, the city held it's annual Corn Festival and parade. The cheer leaders and football players marched in the parade again. In order for me to get the prime front row spot on the parade route I got there at 4:30 a.m. I was surprised to see people already holding their own spots along the route.

The Corn Festival was fun as always, and this year we brought home more goldfish. Two actually, that Nina won, and one other that her friend Frankie won. Nina's fish died by the next morning, and Frankie's died a few days later. They were buried in our back yard.

The D.O.M. ride season begins next week. We will be attending, but the days of going out on Friday morning are long over. We don't want to take the kids out of school, and I'm too busy at work to take a vacation day right now.

I'm still taking the bus once a week to do my part to help the environment and save fuel. I'm pleased that gas prices are not as high as they were when I started riding. I have changed my route to 3 different bus lines compared to what I used to take. This way it's slightly less expensive, and I get to leave work 1/2 hour earlier. I have yet to see knitters on the bus, but I still keep looking for them just to be able to report that to LA and Diane.

As far as sports go, I played golf for the first time in one year. In August I played in a golf tournament along with my mom, uncle and cousin. This is an annual event named in memory of my dad. And for my spectator sports (the ones I watch, not participate in) the Angels are doing great by winning their division; the Bruins started off better than I expected by beating Tennessee, but got SPANKED today by BYU; and the Chargers lost their first one, but will hopefully win tomorrow against Denver.

Finally, my prayers go out to the families of the commuters who lost their lives yesterday in that horrible train wreck in the San Fernando Valley.

Update On My Last Two Posts

Greetings to you, my blogging friends. I finally updated my last two posts. I promised that I would post pictures of the family outing we took - a weekend trip with our off road club. If you want to read the long-winded stories that go with the pictures, click on the links below.

Here are some pictures that can be found on Part One:

Here is a picture that can be found on part two:


The location is Dumont Dunes, which is in the California desert south of Death Valley. Anyone who has ever driven from the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas, Nevada, is probably familiar with the desert city of Baker, where the world's tallest thermometer is located. Dumont Dunes is about 40 miles north of Baker off Interstate 15, and on a clear night (which we didn't have on our trip) you can see the illumination in the sky to the northeast of Dumont Dunes. That illumination is caused by the casinos at the California-Nevada state line.