The town was founded in a frenzy of mining. Tons of small claims, with miners digging shafts partway or deeply into the hills in search of silver, and then when the market went bust, everything was abandoned. There were several small tunnels just along the roadway.

(#7 on the map.) My chosen goal for our first night's sleep was the campground at Calico Ghost Town, just outside Barstow, so that, in the morning, we could tour the town. It has been considerably restored and touristized, but still an interesting place to browse around.

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elf1 > Arrived at Calico after 9 p.m., found a spot, spread our tarp and our down sleeping gear on the ground, and went to bed. The stars were nice but drowned by a full moon, and we feared that our down bags would be too, too much in the hot night. But we survived. I slept very well.

elf1 > The campground is pretty bare bones. Only a few sites had picnic tables (I guess if you're in an RV you don't need a table) and only a few had fire pits--not necessarily the same ones. We knew we were out in the desert. Morning came verrrrrry early out in the open desert. You can see how low the morning sun is by my shadow, which is waving a cheery good morning.

elf1 > More of the campground. They had at least 100 spaces, I believe.

elf1 > The town of Calico, it said, was named for the patchwork of colors in the hills around the town. As Linda said, they were being a little generous about the colors.

elf1 > We never did figure out what OHV is; we're obviously not the OHV type. Off-something vehicles?

elf1 > The town was founded in a frenzy of mining. Tons of small claims, with miners digging shafts partway or deeply into the hills in search of silver, and then when the market went bust, everything was abandoned. There were several small tunnels just along the roadway.

elf1 > On the hill next to the town is the cemetery. It's picturesque but not so touristized as Boot Hill in Tombstone, Arizona. This one is still an active cemetery for the few people who still live here or, I gather, work here, or lived or worked here while it was still something of a town.

The town was founded in a frenzy of mining. Tons of small claims, with miners digging shafts partway or deeply into the hills in search of silver, and then when the market went bust, everything was abandoned. There were several small tunnels just along the roadway.