I’ve been through the desert… Grandma-EV, August 11, 2026August 11, 2026 Vasquez Rocks - Closed! We left Santa Clarita around 8:20 AM with the hopes of stopping at Vasquez Rocks, LA County Park. You may not know the name, but you have surely seen this rock formation as it has been in numerous TV shows and movies. Star Trek, Big Bang Theory, The Flintstones, and many more. Alas, we are geeks and wanted to see it for its Star Trek / Gorn fame. We may even have brought a Star Trek uniform with us… but my research failed to tell me that the park is not open on Mondays. So, all you get is second-hand pictures… Capt. Kirk & The Gorn Big Bang Theory cast at Vasquez Rocks We’ll try again another day! The nerdy data - Charged at Barstow at the Rivian Adventure Network. We saw an interesting vehicle charging here. It is a GM BrightDrop van camper conversion!We dropped the Pebble at the Pull-Through charger and charged both the truck and Pebble at the same time. The truck charge faulted after only getting 10% SOC (state of charge) added. We had to restart. Temps were around 109° with no shade, and the whole station was full. Needless to say, we were getting a throttled charge.We wanted to charge again in Las Vegas. We had 2 Electrify America stations on our route, but checking the EA app, they were both full. All chargers in the Vegas area were full or only had one available. Which probably means a queue of cars waiting to charge and the next one just not started yet. So, we pivoted and stretched our trip to Tesla SuperCharger in Moapa. No electrons for the Pebble at Tesla. The Pebble got down to 18% SOC and we didn’t want to lose the fridge cooling so we dragged in on regen the rest of the way. Heat, Rain, & Rocks! Our Journey - 8/10/2026 This is a fun road name:Zzyzx RoadI was excited to see Joshua trees. So many of them. I looked them up online and learned that they are a type of yucca and related to asparagus. Wild!Going through the Mojave Desert, we hit temps up to 112°. Off in the distance, we could see fingers of dark lines reaching for the ground. Was it virga evaporating before it hit the ground, or was it rain? Joshua Trees with stormy streaks in the background.We fell for the tempting billboards advertising World Famous Date Shakes. We made a quick stop at the Bird House, the last stop in California before the Nevada border. We got an original date shake to share. It was good. Chunks of dates in it. Then we continued on toward the darkening sky.It was almost inconceivable that it could rain in this dry place, but as we climbed to the summit on I-15, at 4,730 ft., it was pouring!Rain and collision backup on I-15There was also a backup due to an accident. The temperature plummeted with the rain to 67° on the truck’s thermometer. That was a nice break from the heat. We also saw several flashes of lightning and one really nice bolt that hit the ground. Always a novelty for a native Californian. We think lightning is as entertaining as fireworks. Valley of Fire We rolled into Valley of Fire, Nevada State Park kind of late, close to 6 PM. This place is jaw dropping. It rivials some of the big National Parks for scenery and rock formations. Smooth, layered red rocks that look like swiss cheese. The landscape reminds me of the Flintstones neighborhood meets Mars. If you saw this stuff in a cartoon, you’d never believe it existed in real life!Our campsite is right up against the rocks. We have a covered table, 50-amp power, water, and a nearby dump station. I think I’d like to come back here in the winter when the temperatures are more survivable. I want to post so many pictures, but I’ll try to resist and keep this post shorter. Share this: Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on X (Opens in new window) X Discover more from Grandma-EV Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email. Type your email… Subscribe Electric!