Oregon trail/what about south trail?

[gunoil]

Oregon trail, what about a south trail accross texas, N.M., Az. into California during the fall or spring??????

Ive trucked accross their (el paso to l.a. or san diego) so many winters and the weather dry and great for wagon trains!!!!!!

Always wondered how one got from yuma to San Diego back then! Interstate-8 nowdays. Ton of indians up on campo mtns up from el cajon.

Now i know Phoenix to L.A. was doable back then. Man what they felt when they came down into the green valleys of socal. There was a lil life their anyway.
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velosRus.com

[runfiverun]

it was a desert back then.
LA didn't get green until they stole their water from the Colorado river and Nevada's farmers.
look at the van-nuy's aqueduct.

[quilbilly]

There was (is) water between the Colorado River and the San Gabriel Mountains if you know where to look. Look at a map and find the Providence and New York Mountain Ranges among others. Those mountains had springs then and still do. There are some springs in the mountains just west of Laughlin that I make a point of visiting when staying in Laughlin just to see the interesting bird life and check out the petroglyphs.

[gunoil]

Way before the civil war there was freight from tucson to yuma and people were going over to California.

there was water in California, floods an droughts too.

http://factcards.califa.org/mli/cropsandgardens.html

[popper]

annual mass migration of SW Natives to Mexico and Ca., usually followed the mountain ridges, not valleys. Several settler 'trails' between KC area & west coast. Big trick was finding one that wagons could traverse.

[Geezer in NH]

Easy to Yuma they got on the 3:10. :bigsmyl2::kidding:

[trebor44]

If you want to 'talk' water in the West and So. Cal. read the "Cadillac Desert". It has some interesting insights to water issues and rights. It does have some bias but is based on a lot of historical evidence.

[jonp]

There was (is) water between the Colorado River and the San Gabriel Mountains if you know where to look. Look at a map and find the Providence and New York Mountain Ranges among others. Those mountains had springs then and still do. There are some springs in the mountains just west of Laughlin that I make a point of visiting when staying in Laughlin just to see the interesting bird life and check out the petroglyphs.

Ever visit the hot springs on the Arizona side not far from Laughlin down by the river?

[quilbilly]

Ever visit the hot springs on the Arizona side not far from Laughlin down by the river?
Wanted to but never have? I have tended to stay on the Nevada side of the River where no hunting license is required for things like coyotes we often see around the riparian areas in the mountains above Laughlin. We do the hot springs up by Winnemucca occasionally, however. I may be camping near an unpublished one in the days before NCBS in a few weeks but it may be just a "warm" spring. I just read a couple of people cooked themselves in a hot spring up on the Nevada side of the Oregon border last week. We found those springs to be too hot much of the time. Without knowing details, a "Darwin Award" may be forthcoming.

[MT Gianni]

From what I have read the old Santa Fe trail left St Louis and left the Missouri E of Colorado then went through E NM on their way to SF. No reason to go further, If you went to California you went by ship. The Mormon Battalion went south from SF and followed the Gasden? purchase because of the war against Mexico at the time. From what I have read they encountered few settlers or few reasons to stay, Most folks stayed in Santa Fe area or took the North trail to Walla Walla Mission. Some branched off along the way, Stevensville MT was settled in 1841. Louis L'Amour wrote an interesting book called "The Lonesome Gods", It is fiction but shows the country from someone who spent time there. Peg Leg Smith had a horse herd somewhere So of Death Valley that by it's description is only found today in horse in Mongolia.
When it comes to western lands the easiest way to be shown a fool is to claim you know all about it.

[quilbilly]

At least one branch of the Santa Fe Trail went into Nevada in the Mesquite, Nevada vicinity where water was available in the Virgin River then headed over to Southern California over Cajon Pass. Exactly how that branch got to the Mountain Meadows area of SW Utah I don't know. If memory serves, it was along that branch of the trail somewhere that Jedediah Smith ran into serious difficulties with the Mojave Indians in California's Mojave Desert.

[MT Gianni]

Jedediah Smith is a true character not enough is written about. Bridger got the press he should have. That is what happens when you outlive folks.

[runfiverun]

Jedediah was a wanderer.
I have seen his initials carved in the hillside next to a stream in LaBarge Wyoming.
going from there to any where in southern Utah would have been an epic journey.
it would have been up and over the mountains to the Wasatch front [where peter skein Ogden was]
or over the flats and over the mountain into the Vernal or Price area and down/over from there, that would have been quite the lengthy walk.

[popper]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedediah_Smith#First_trip_to_California.2C_1826.E2 .80.9327
More interesting stuff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenaventura_River_%28legend%29#/media/File:Miera_map_1778.jpg

[jonp]

Wanted to but never have? I have tended to stay on the Nevada side of the River where no hunting license is required for things like coyotes we often see around the riparian areas in the mountains above Laughlin. We do the hot springs up by Winnemucca occasionally, however. I may be camping near an unpublished one in the days before NCBS in a few weeks but it may be just a "warm" spring. I just read a couple of people cooked themselves in a hot spring up on the Nevada side of the Oregon border last week. We found those springs to be too hot much of the time. Without knowing details, a "Darwin Award" may be forthcoming.
Watch yourself in those springs in that whole area. Some of them have a nasty little worm parasite thing that will swim up your nose. Keep your head above water and you will be ok. I did some Desert Bighorn surveys on the AZ side. found some nice hot springs with sheep nearby that are not on the maps but AZ Game and Fish know where they are if they will tell you

[quilbilly]

Watch yourself in those springs in that whole area. Some of them have a nasty little worm parasite thing that will swim up your nose. Keep your head above water and you will be ok. I did some Desert Bighorn surveys on the AZ side. found some nice hot springs with sheep nearby that are not on the maps but AZ Game and Fish know where they are if they will tell you
All the springs I have seen in Mojave area mountains around Laughlin then west are more like seep springs. The bigger ones I have visited are more toward Vegas.