Thursday, February 5, 2009

Camping at Fisher Towers

sign You can camp at Fisher Towers, and I have camped there, although maybe not in winter. They have a campground up near the cliffs, just below the trailhead parking lot. I've camped there, a long time ago, not alone, maybe just once.
hill+cliff I've camped at Fisher Towers since that long ago time, at least once, maybe more than once, alone or with one dog. When camping, I don't always like to camp in set-up campgrounds where other people are nearby, almost hovering. It depends on the campground; it depends on my frame of mind.

The main time I remember camping outside the campground, that time with one dog [link not accessible on 11Feb2012], I camped on the small hill you see in the photo above and below. I camped inside the back of my truck, a different truck than the one I have now, a light green Ford with a nice Caravan camper and good setup in the back for sleeping and storing things. The dog liked to sleep on the floor of the truck bed; I slept above in a raised plywood bed.
hill Here's the little two-track road to the top of the hill upon which I once, at least once, camped. The view from the top of the hill was 360, with cliffs and sky all around, the towers behind.
closed The road to said former campsite is now closed. That is the way of the west at present. I can see closing this road to vehicular travel, but don't really get closing it to camping. No tents, the sign says! Probably one can just walk off around the hill to another hill and find another site, if one does not want to camp in the company of strangers. I, myself, will probably drive up some other side road the next time I come here, but will also consider camping in the maintained campsite if it is not too crowded and not too noisy.
road The road in and out of Fisher Towers is made of red dirt, which can get mucky or slippery in the snow and mud of winter. Here, it crosses a red sand wash on the way out from the towers.
wash closed As you can see, the sand wash to the right is also closed, this time specifically to motor vehicles of all kinds. I recommend paying attention to this sign. Walk, if You want to Go Down There! [It reminds me of Little Big Man: "You go down there," he says to Custer.]
wash1 The sand wash to the left, more or less back towards the towers, does not have the same sign, and shows at least one set of tracks. Someone probably removed the warning sign, or maybe this is supposed to be a travelway. Again, I recommend walking, unless you happen to have an actual road map.
wash2 What I find more interesting than the truck tracks, however, is the patterns made by the red sediment - clay, silt, sand, and gravel - when it was deposited by snowmelt water, a rainshower, or a tiny flash flood: mini-alluvial fan-type deposits, little eroded stream channels, and an overall braided to rippled texture.

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