Pyramid Lake, California - May 20th to 22nd, 2024
Pyramid Lake was not a main destination for us, but it was conveniently located between Joshua Tree National Park and Sequoia National Park. The two national parks are just a little too far apart for how much (or little) we like to drive in one day. We would not recommend Pyramid Lake as a destination, but it served its purpose of breaking up the drive for us.
Before we left Joshua Tree National Park on Monday, we chatted a little bit with Alan and Grace from Australia. We met them Sunday evening, as they arrived at a site near us. They walked over to check out our site because they were switching to it on Monday. They are touring the States for a couple of months in a rented RV. We love having conversations with fellow travelers.
The drive from Joshua Tree to Pyramid Lake was pretty uneventful. We skirted around Los Angeles by taking a zig-zag pattern of backroads across the desert, passing by Edwards Air Force Base. We stopped in the town of Apple Valley to do our laundry and fill up on gas.
When we arrived at the Los Alamos Campground at Pyramid Lake, we discovered the site we reserved is about the most unlevel site in the campground. We were 14 inches from level. We can live with being off level an inch or two, but our GoTreads (unpaid link) only lift us four inches. Being ten inches off level is not something we wanted to live with. It looked like there were plenty of other open sites, so we went down to the camp host to see if we could switch sites.
We were no longer able to see the open sites on Recreation.gov for the current week, but the camp host had a way to look it up. The alternative site we gave him was reserved for the last night we planned on being there, so that wouldn’t work. We drove around and picked out some more alternatives and went back to the camp host to see if they would work. The campground was pretty empty on Monday, but the coming weekend was Memorial Day, so it was starting to fill up as the week progressed. Fortunately, we found a site that would work. Yay! Thank you, camp host, for letting us switch sites.
We dumped our tanks, but the campground does not have a fresh water fill, only faucets for filling up containers. We still had some water left in our fresh tank, so we’ll deal with the water situation later.
Since we hadn’t dumped our gray tank for five days, it was starting to take on an odor. So we flushed some chlorine down the bathroom drains. Then the “gulper” pump wouldn’t stop running. Since our shower drain sits lower than our gray tank, the gulper pumps it uphill to the tank. Keith disconnected the quick connect of the pump to get it to stop. We checked the shower drain, but it looked clean. Then we poured some water down the drain and tried again. This time when we reconnected the pump, it stopped running after the normal amount of time. Whew! Dodged that bullet. We’re not sure what caused the issue, but we hope it doesn’t come back.
Ann wanted to close her exercise ring (goal) for the day, so she walked the campground loops for about an hour. Keith preferred to relax after a day of driving and remained at the camp site. There were tons of bunny rabbits around. Ann also saw some quail. Since her goal was to get exercise, she didn’t bring her camera with her on her walk. There will be more days to do that.
Tuesday was a pretty chill day. There wasn’t much to do in the area. We didn’t see any hiking trails, so we just walked the campground loops in the morning. In the afternoon, we hopped on our bikes to go check out the lake. However, when we got to the entrance gate, they wouldn’t let us in. No cyclists or pedestrians allowed, even for a price. You have to be in or on a motorized vehicle to get in and the entrance fee was dependent on the type of vehicle you had. An e-bike did not count as a motorized vehicle. So we would have to go back and drive our RV in.
On our way back, we passed the campground and headed up Hard Luck Road in the other direction. After passing the group campground, we didn’t get very far. The road split. The left fork went to the national forest station, authorized vehicles only. There was a closed gate on the other fork. The road was closed to allow for wildlife activity. So we turned around and went back to camp. Our bike ride was over. There were no other roads to explore. The only other option was to hop on Interstate 5. The ride was only six miles in 45 minutes. That is hardly worth getting the bikes out.
After dinner, we added some water to our fresh tank. There was a fresh water faucet at the restroom building which had threads. We probably could have driven Red Tail over to the building and run a hose over to fill the tank like we normally do, but we wanted to test out how to fill when we are in a hand carry situation. There were also other water spigots around the campground, but they didn’t have threads. The threads allowed us to attach our water filter (paid link) while filling up our 2.6 gallon collapsible water bags (paid link).
At our last grocery stop, we picked up a funnel. This helped us pour the water into the gravity fill inlet for our fresh tank. However, the angle of the intake didn’t quite work with the funnel, so we rigged together something to improve the angle. We attached the hose bandit to the end of the funnel, which was connected to the short connector hose (which we normally attach to our water filter), which was then connected to our filler tube (paid link - which we normally connect to our long fresh water hose). We were thankful that we had 2.6 gallon bags instead of 5 or 6 gallon containers, because we had to lift the bag almost over our heads to pour it in. A step stool helped us see so we could pour slowly enough to not overflow the funnel. It was a good test to know we can fill in a hand carry situation, but not something we would want to do often. As an experiment, we tried connecting the hose bandit (paid link) to the non-threaded water spigots, but the water pressure was too great and the bandit kept coming off. If those type of faucets were our only option, we would probably skip the filter and perhaps attach the filter in our series of connections as we pour it into the tank.
Wednesday we checked out Pyramid Lake. Before we drove over, we pulled our paddle board (paid link) down off the roof. If we wanted to take it out on the lake, we knew we needed to have it inspected. We just had it on the floor inside the door, ready to pull out.
The boat inspection station was back up the road towards the interstate. They had us pull the board out of the bag and unroll it, making sure it was all clean and dry, including around the valve. Then they handed us a piece of paper claiming we passed the inspection.
At the entrance booth, we not only had to pay to drive the RV in, we also had to pay for the paddle board. In total, it was about $25. We drove to the far end, near the swim beach and parked in a shady spot.
There was a boat ramp, lots of sheltered picnic tables, and a store with gift items, snacks, gear, and bait. We bought a couple of drinks to go with our picnic lunch.
Outside the store, there was a bat roosting up under one of the table umbrellas. A deer was hanging out around the corner of the store before it was spooked away up the hill. Ground squirrels were scurrying among the rocks along the shore.
As we ate our lunch, we had a nice view out over the lake. It is nestled among steep mountain slopes. The lake continued around the next bend, so we couldn’t see how large it actually was.
After lunch, Ann got ready to go for a paddle. She decided to carry the board down the hill to the beach area and launch from there. After she was most of the way down the hill, she realized she forgot the skeg. Luckily she had her cell phone on her and called Keith. He rounded up the missing parts along with the leg leash that Ann had also forgotten. We guess she’s a little out of practice with the paddle board.
The wind was blowing pretty strong across the lake. It was so strong that Ann couldn’t make any progress. Thank goodness she was starting out against the wind instead of with it, because she would have never made it back against the wind. After about ten minutes, she gave up and headed back into shore. Then she carried the board back up the hill. We spent the next couple of hours waiting for the board to dry after rinsing it off. That was a lot of work for just ten minutes of paddling.
It was not a total loss, as Ann got a chance to try out a new method of carrying her cell phone on the paddle board. She was not happy with the waterproof floating case she had before. The case would cause glare in the photos and she had troubles reading the phone screen through the case. This season, she has her phone in a Peak Design case (paid link) so she can mount it on the Peak Design bike mount (paid link).
What someone at a Broomfield Photo Club meeting had brought to her attention, was that the case has a place to attach things to. One of those things is a secure wrist strap (paid link). Ann wasn’t comfortable with just the strap, because, if the strap failed for some reason, her phone would end up at the bottom of the lake. As a backup, she also attached two camera floats (paid link). This season, Ann bought two more camera floats, just like the ones she attaches to the GoPro when she is on the paddle board. The weight of her iPhone is just on the border of what one camera float will support, so she went with two just to be on the safe side. The set up may not look the prettiest and be a little bulky, but it works pretty well. The phone dangles from her wrist and pretty much stays out of the way. It does hit the paddle every now and then, but Ann thinks she will get used to that.
While we were waiting for everything to dry, we went back to the little store and bought a frozen treat, a mangonada. It looked like it might be a frozen version of what Ann had in San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas - July 22nd to 23rd, 2023), fresh fruit with chili powder. Although this frozen treat had chunks of mango on top, it turned out to be mostly whipped. There was a popsicle stick in the center of it, so you could eat it like a popsicle. Luckily, it came in a cup, because the concoction fell apart as we neared the end of it, as it started to warm up. It was tasty, but we preferred the fresh fruit in Texas better. After everything was dry and packed away, we headed back to the campground.
We were a little disappointed by the lack of things for us to do in the area, but at least the campground had excellent cell service. We hadn’t had good cell service for quite some time, so we didn’t mind too much that we had time to catch up on things.
Check out our related video: Pyramid Lake, California
(Ann)