Devore - Cajon Pass

If you want to know what it's like to "Eat at Sky like at Heaven", you've got to try a Sky Burger. They're pretty darn good. The fries and onion rings, they could use a little work. We picked up lunch at this place after we left Oxnard and worked our way around LA to the north of the mountains.

We didn't want to drive the entire distance to Joshua Tree in one day from Oxnard. The Jumbo Rock campground we were headed to is first come-first served so we wanted to pull in early. We stopped at a little campground in Devore, thinking we'd stay for a day or two. Well, the Santa Ana winds caught us there and the fires began. The winds were blowing hard, 70 mph gusts and high profile vehicles (like our trailer!) were advised against travel, so we hunkered down and spent a few days in the wind tunnel they call Cajon Pass. Luckily, the people in the campground were friendly, it was warm, and they had good hot tub, steam room and heated pool. Joanie and I got a chance to brush up on our pool (eight ball) game, teaming up on the night before my birthday to break even against two fellows in the club house.


Strong winds knocked down huge cones from 50 foot tall Coulter Pines. I would not want to get hit by one of these - they measure almost 12 inches long, weigh several pounds and have very sharp tips that'd rip ya right up. We burned one at Joshua Tree later on, hoping it wouldn't explode like a grenade. It didn't. Burned quite well, too.

During a less windy time at the pool, we watched these impossibly tall and thin Junipers sway in the wind. When the wind calms down, they do stand upright. Really.









The view from our camp across the railroad tracks and the freeway towards the mountains was pleasant. I could ignore the hum of the traffic, but I never got used to the large trains heading up the pass at 3am. Cajon Pass is steep enough that they'd hook four diesel locomotives together at the front, then add two more pushers at the end. By the time we left, we were looking forward to the peace and quiet we hoped to find in Joshua Tree.