California Camping, California Weekends, Cabins High Sierra Maps

Total Escape Adventures: the survey

Happy Anniversary! Total Escape turns 11 years online this week. DanaMite started her research & documenting the local back roads prior to 1990; created this very web site in 1996 & is still at it today. What in the heck has Total Escape been doing all these years you ask? Traveling California - camping, hiking, biking, kayaking, off roading, hot springing.... seeing is believing!

Northern California

Eastern Sierra Maps

Wilderness Topos CA

QUALITY LIGHTS by

mojave desert
what the heck is a charcoal kiln? who is buried in the Ballarat cemetary? From Red Rock to Fossil Falls, highway 14, the infamous 395 & the Nevada state border make up the boundaries of this huge mass of land called the Mojave Desert. Diverse landscapes from lush palm oasis to high elevation mining camps. Bordered by the west with Sequoia NF, this desert region stretches over 30% of California's space. Home to Death Valley NP, Red Rock SP, Joshua Tree NP, Mojave NP, & Deep Creek Hot Springs.

half moon bay
As autumn brings cooler temperatures to California, the coastal chill can be sunny with a cool breeze or foggy with stillness falling over the land. Only the waves can be heard in the distance, crashing against the shore. Coast highway Hwy 1, north of the Big Sur Coast & south of San Francisco, the delightful seasie village of Half Moon Bay, CA offers recreation, quaint bed & breakfasts, small inns & plenty restaurants. Even a pumpkin patch! A nice weekend getaway destination for Central Cal & Bay Area residents.

CA ghost towns
Never before has California seen a population boom like the one of 1849, when gold fever struck the nation; everyone & their brother was headed west. Several small towns never made it past the heyday of mining & can be found in the desert regions of eastern California. While Death Valley & Panamint Valley have some old mines to explore, there are also more abandon ghost towns north along the Eastern Sierra's Hwy 395. Check out the rich history & remnants of our state. Plenty of great reasons to use that SUV on the dirt roads.

Classic