After a bit of scouting around with Florian Boyd a couple weeks ago, we found a better location for the Coyote Crossing meetup this weekend than the one adjacent to the Cottonwood Entrance to Joshua Tree National Park.

That location is here.

For those of you without access to Google Maps, or who prefer step-by-step directions, here’s how to get there.

1) Get to Exit 189 on Interstate 10, the Eagle Mountain Road exit, which is about 45 miles east of Indio. Note: if you’re coming from the north, you won’t be able to get there through Joshua Tree National Park as that road is closed. Detours to the west and east of Joshua Tree are available.

2) Take exit 189. Turn north on Eagle Mountain Road. If you’re coming from Indio, that’s a left turn. From Phoenix/Blythe, that’s a right turn.

3) Drive past the “Not A Through Street” sign.

4) In just about two miles an excellent dirt road will angle off to your left. Turn onto this road.

5) Ignore the “Right to pass revocable at any time” sign.

6) Look for the finely-crafted touring vehicle displayed in the photo below:

We will be camping not too far from the road, which is little-traveled. There are options for side trips including the Edmund Jaeger Nature Reserve (which is a nice place to camp but not completely accessible to standard vehicles), sites of solar projects both proposed and under construction in the Chuckwalla Valley, a cafe in Desert Center that is sometimes open, and other such delights.

Cut and pasted from this earlier post on the meetup, with only slight emendations, are some logistics:

There will be:

- A newly green post-flood ironwood and palo verde forest (note to people arriving from the Pacific Northwest: yes, it is too a forest.)
- probable coyotes singing us to sleep or awake from sleep
- a freeway two miles away with noise level set to “whisper”
- plenty of private little places to lay out a sleeping bag or two, or a tent if you swing that way
- dramatic evidence of recent flash flooding
- a few trees that cast some shade
- campfire, especially if you bring a little firewood to pitch in
- NO running water nor toilet facilities closer than the convenience store at Chiriaco Summit, which is 16 miles west on I-10, but plenty of dispersed and scenic spots for you to drag a shovel and some toilet paper to

You Should Bring:

- Something to sit on, and something extra to sit on for others if you can
- food for yourself for as long as you plan to stay, though we’ll see if we can’t do some sort of potlucky thing, and I’ll take care of Sunday breakfast
- water, and lots of it: assume a gallon per person per day
- broad-brimmed hat, sunglasses, long-sleeved shirt/pants, and sunblock
- layers for after the sun goes down
- the usual other assorted camping equipment if you’re camping

You can also bring:

treats, drinks, jokes, binoculars, stories, hiking boots, cameras, and other such jollities.

Also, a corkscrew would be useful, I am thinking.

1. 
   nina 2011 10 11 at 3:17:15 pm

   Hooray! Thanks so much for posting this; I will be looking for y’all on Saturday before noon.

2. 
   Tedra Osell 2011 10 12 at 10:04:53 am

   I heart you for the directions about ignoring signs :)

3. 
   ChasCPeterson 2011 10 13 at 7:50:06 am

   displayed in the photo below:

   Nipton!
   wish I could come. I would.

4. 
   Karen 2011 10 17 at 3:01:58 am

   So, I couldn’t get to SoCal… so how did it go???????