Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park

Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park   This is part of the Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District. If you're looking for outdoor recreation activities in southern California this is a good place to start. (Cahuilla is pronounced "ka-WEE-a")

This picturesque park is older than most we stay in, but well maintained. The sites with utilities are spacious, and there is a range of price, so check the website for particulars. 

There is a spacious boon-docking area surrounded by a variety of desert trees, including palms. It offers a good view of the lake, so that may be of interest in addition to the sites with utilities. It's a nice little lake for fishing, perfect for young children, though anyone would enjoy it. The park offers other amenities too. 

There is a wading/swimming pool at the far end of the campground, with a playground nearby.  There are also game courts of various types, and beyond that area is a "Equestrian and group camping" area. That area is off in the distance behind the palm trees in the lower photo. 

The lake is alive with birds of various types at different times of the year. Right now pelicans and other shore birds are the primary population. There is no swimming currently due to an invasive mussel infestation problem, and fishing gear is inspected for that same reason.

The campground restrooms are clean, and adequate in size as most campers are self-contained. They have 2 coin operated showers. The structures are clean, though it needs a bit of paint and a few repairs here and there. The camp site spaces are large and each has a tree - eucalyptus in most cases, and they are kept pruned up so they don't interfere with the roofs of RV's.        
Depending on your needs, one of the best features is that this park is close in to many of the entertainment related activities that are held in the Coachella valley. We are here to visit family that lives nearby, as it seems many of our neighbors in the campground are here for the same reason. 
According to Wikipedia this lake is prehistoric in origin, and there's quite a geologic record of it's existence, including the changes over time. It was once large enough to extend southward into Mexico. 


 The hills surrounding the are beautiful to watch as the light changes. The deep erosion from thousands of years past create ever changing shadows, and the colors in the slopes change from lavender to deep blues, grays and browns as the sun and clouds shift throughout the day.

The park is named for the Cahuilla tribe. The Cahuilla language is of the Takic division of the Uto-Aztecan family of languages, the most well-established linguistic family of the Americas. The Cahuilla people were the first known residents of the Coachella Valley. In the 1700's the population is thought to have been about 15,000.
Though once considered the smallest Native American tribe in the entire (the tribe was once down to just eight people), the Augustine Band's population is still tiny, with only about 2,000 enrolled members in the various bands linked to at the bottom of the home page under "Tribal Links".           

We enjoyed out stay here very much. It's a quiet, relaxing place to enjoy walking, photography, fishing, or just cloud watching! Our next stop is the Anza Borrego desert! Here's an early morning view of the lake just as we are leaving.

White Tank Mountain park and the "Say Hi! Before You Die" Reunion

Feb. 3 - So, we were in space #28 for one night, then we pack up and move "all the way across the road" and up one space to #25. It sounds like a "piece of cake", but in reality it's almost as much work as moving all the way across the park! 

All settled in to space #25 now, it's our home for the remainder of our stay in this area. We've a beautiful view out across the desert toward Glendale and Phoenix, where the city lights sparkle like diamonds at night. 

Last year's posts on the campground and the petroglyphs provide more information about the park itself so I won't repeat all of that. You can find them here. . . . 

White Tank Mountain Regional Park  and, Petroglyphs 

Once settled into the new site we headed back into Glendale for the remainder of the reunion activities. We left the pups to guard the trailer again. We don't usually leave them alone for very long, but this will be a few hours, so we want to know how they're doing. We have a Ring camera set up to keep track of them (and to be sure they aren't barking) when we are gone, so no worries about annoying the neighbors. It seems they both enjoyed a healthy nap all the time we were in town. Other than their dinner being a little late a couple of the days we were out I don't think they cared too much about our absence. 

The reunion was a huge success. 

It was a slightly larger group than last year, and our host and hostess had arranged everything to perfection, right down to the cookies sent home with us as souvenirs of the gathering. (Not only beautifully made, they tasted good too!)

These folks all worked together in California, for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, starting back in the late 1960's. 

It's great to see them connect each year and swap remembrances of the work they did, and everyone enjoys the clearly embellished versions of stories re-told each year when they get together!

Once the reunion activities had concluded we scheduled the necessary errands and some time to enjoy the park. 

The wildlife in the park is plentiful. We caught the motion of a couple of chipmunks scuttling beneath the shrubs, and during the early morning and evening walks with the dogs we hear coyotes celebrating their breakfast catch. One evening and again early in the morning we heard them singing in celebration of an early morning catch. It sounded like there were several in the group, including young ones. 

The birds are plentiful too. So far my Merlin app has identified the songs of Cactus wren, Curve-bill thrasher, Gambel's quail and House finch. 

Before the previous occupants of our site moved out I noticed that they had put up a black seed feeder, so I wasn't surprised when the Gambel's quail showed up every morning to continue searching in the fine gravel for those tasty seeds. I also noticed that one plump hen spent time up on the picnic table while the others searched for the seeds. Do they post a look-out?

In our walks around the park we noticed that the recent rains had brought forth a flush of seedlings foretelling of a good wildflower year. Not much was blooming yet, save for the ever durable creosote bush and one really ambitious mallow bush. Even without flowers, there is color everywhere, especially after the brief rain we had. The barrel cactus's pink thorns are almost as bright as flowers, and the variety of forms the saguaro take are always amusing. They almost look human!. 

Stepping out the door after the overnight rain we were met with the wonderful fragrance that can only be described as desert perfume. The moisture on the desert sage, mesquite and other shrubs activates their sweet scents and they blend beautifully. After enjoying this most of my life, I just learned there is a name for it. It' called petrichor  (pronounced peh-truh-kor)

Most of the landscape in this park is composed of granite of one type or another. 

Some is largely quarts, some contains more feldspar, each type is a different color so there is a variety of tones, especially after a rain when the moisture brings out the color. 

From black to white, and red to green, and then there are those stones filled with so much mica that under the bright sun they sparkle like gold. It's no wonder several Spanish explores went back to the king and told him there was "gold everywhere, just laying on the ground".  You may have to click on the photo to open it up in a larger size to really see the sparkle. The white sample lower right is what the "white tanks" in the mountains were created out of, through erosion, over time. 

There is no official "visitor center" as such here. There is a gift shop/nature center attached to a branch of the county library right at the entrance to the park. 

They have some information on the surrounding area, a few displays of snakes and other interesting desert dwellers and are able to answer questions. One unique display was the juvenile "speckled rattlesnake", this one was white, though they come in other colors.  

The Library welcomes visitors who would like to browse their collection, sit awhile and read a magazine while enjoying the view out their windows to the mountains, and they can also point toward useful resources for answer questions. 

Errands completed, sight-seeing and chores done, we packed up and prepared for departure. Next stop, La Quinta, CA, to visit family for a couple of days. 

Skyline Regional Park - Buckeye, AZ

The current popularity of RV camping has really put a crunch on the ability to schedule a multi-night say anywhere these days. We often have to piece it all together to make a lengthy stay in a single area. Such is the case when planning for our reunion event. We needed 5 nights in a row in the White Tank Mountain Regional Park. It seems that wasn't possible, so the patchworking began. 

Feb. 2 - First night in the area, Buckeye's Skyline Regional Park.

This is a fairly new park and isn't on a lot of lists for the area. It's an 8,700 acre mountain preserve located in the southern White Tank Mountains. It's situated just outside of Buckeye. 

When we arrived we were delightfully surprised to find one of the most spacious campgrounds we've ever seen. Each site is easily 4 times wider than sites are in many other places. There are only a few sites, but most are adequately deep to accommodate even the largest rigs, and the access road is wide enough to make backing in easy. 

In the photo at the right you can see our rig way at the back, in the center of the photo.

There are multiple hiking trails, all well marked, and lovely desert scenery too. The park is open for campers, hikers, bikers and horseback riders. Clear signs list special trail instructions for each group in the few areas where it's necessary ( i.e. no horses on the bridge).

In the afternoon we head into Glendale for the "Say Hi before you die" reunion activities (a little dark cop humor there), a 30 minute drive away, leaving the pups to guard the trailer. 

This first evening was casual with a delicious spaghetti dinner, time spent getting reacquainted with people we hadn't seen for a year, or more, and an early "to bed" for everyone who had traveled to the event.

One little, very important, detail.... this is a "boondocking" RV parking situation - that is, no power and no water, you'll need to be prepared for that. We're used to coping with cold weather and all the other "opportunities" when we travel, so it's not a problem, but it might be for others. This park has very nice restrooms, but no showers. 

No electricity meant no heat all night while we were asleep. We were very comfortable though, having used our propane heater before going to bed. 

The dogs however, had a different opinion. "What do you mean we have to go outside? It's cold!"

If you are interested in using the hiking trails be advised, a lot of other people are too! We noticed the parking lot filled to near overflowing very early in the day on Saturday, and mostly cleared out by dusk. 

Park entrance is free for day use, and you can rent a campsite via their website. Currently (2024) the price is $20 per night. 

Time to move on to another nearby location. 

Feb. 3 - So, one night taken care of in Skyline, now we need 4 more. We move to White Tank Mountain Regional Park, space #28 for one night.