Leavis Flat Campground

Leavis Flat campground is a charming little side-of-the-road spot, with no pavement, no water (except the creek; see photos, below) and nobody else here, at least in January.  The ranger did come by (with a gun and a bullet-proof vest—I wonder what’s going on here usually?) to determine we were not bums, transients, bindlestiffs nor other kinds of ne’er-do-wells and that we had, in fact, paid to get in.  Leavis Flat is perhaps too close to Los Angeles for comfort.

Regardless, our little campsite had lovely views of the nearby creek, beautiful scrub oaks, chestnuts and mulberry trees  and, except for the very occasional car, just the sound of the creek to lull us to sleep. It’s a welcome change from having to spend several days in the SF bay area.

The creek is surrounded on all sides by the kinds of rocks you expect in the California foothills; bring your boots if you like to scamper up a creek bouldering.

Nice.  There are also lovely little bare areas with just leaves that look like floors

freshly strewn with flower petals:

Very relaxing, with nobody around at all. The real reason we camped here is (besides the low cost of entry) is proximity to California Hot Springs, which we intend to visit before departing for Joshua Trees.

EXCITING UPDATE:  California Hot Springs is closed for the nonce, so we charged up the hill to see the 100 Giants, a redwood grove here in Sequoia National Park.  A nice little ride (11 miles from Leavis Flat campground up to about 6700 feet) in the missus’ Vanagon, the snow and ice hardly mattered.

…or…

I have left out the devastation of certain pine species along the way; apparently beetles ran rampant (or drought killed just this one species among other trees such as sequoia and cedar), as most of the long-needled pines are dead, dead, dead. Very sad and kind of spooky, seeing so many dead trees among the live ones.