The Land of Desolation

For the first time ever I got President's Day off of work. We decided to go on a hike with the kids. Rather than driving clear to the beach we hit Hanson Dam thinking it would be nice...

Wrong!

That is the genuine article. Sadly had to tell my kids about horse poop and decided they would work on farms as teenagers. Anyway, the place was desolate, the only people we came across were dirty old homeless men that may or may not have been convicted pedophiles.

I call this one "Burnt Hopes and Forlorn Dreams"

(the picture is small but all those trees are burnt out husks)

These mountains are only a couple of miles away, but the smog was so bad that you can barely see them. It only added to the effect.

We could see the dam with people walking on it but we couldn't get to it because they had blocked off the way to the dam. Signs that read "Danger Human Waste" were everywhere. OK I made that part up, but we were forced back by generic "Trail Closed" signs and had to return via the desert route.

There was a 'stream' running through it, the water has the same look and feel as gutter runoff, oh wait, it is!
It wasn't all bad, we did find signs of ancient civilizations. The concrete river with embedded rocks ...
and the Native American Petroglyphs were an exciting discovery.
Now in all fairness later we did find the other part of Hanson Dam that seemed clean and nice. Boring.

At the end of the day though, it is all about family, so I declare the day was a success!