Wednesday, February 15, 2006
River Island Unit, Buckskin Mtn SP, Parker, AZ - Feb 13-15
This small unit of the much larger Buckskin Mtn SP (about 1 mile south) is located about 11 miles north of Parker. We came here to dump, fill up with water, get rid of some of the desert dust and enjoy being beside the Colorado River for a few days. There are many interesting birds to watch on and near the river, and it is quite peaceful sitting beside the water, despite the highway being so close. For our Valentine Day celebration, we enjoyed a final buffet at the casino.The cats are all doing well. One would almost say they are starting to enjoy traveling! It is fun for us to be seeing some new places. We look forward to putting a couple of new states on our map!
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Osborne Wash, BLM Land, Southeast of Parker, AZ - Jan 30-Feb 12
After the "hustle and bustle" of Quartzsite, it was pleasant to come to this lovely 14-day BLM area on Shea Road. We camped with a group of Escapees that planned to be here mainly for the Parker "425" Best in the Desert off-road vehicle race, held on Saturday, 2/4. About 25 RVs attended, so it was a relatively small gathering, and there was lots of room for us to spread out along the wash. The race was held on a 140-mile course, part of which went through this wash, so we didn't have to drive anywhere to watch the race. Of course, race day was not at all peaceful, but the rest of our time here was. The race itself was fun just because it was such a different experience. The dust was not so much fun, and side effects lingered in nasal passages for days. The vehicles varied from "almost stock" Jeeps and VWs (the slowest who only had to do two laps) to really high-powered dune buggy-like creations and modified trucks that went really fast -- over 100 mph at some places on the course. The winners finished with average speeds around 60 mph, which is quite good considering the rough terrain they traveled.We took a 4-wheel drive with the group to Swansea Townsite, which was once a flourishing copper mining development. They began working the area in 1862, looking for silver. It wasn't a successful operation until the early 1900s when copper (first thought to be "trash") had become valuable. The population of the town was about 500, with even a post office and a moving picture house. Unfortunately, due to poor management, the owner was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1911. It was restarted again and successfully ran from 1918 until the copper market declined during the Great Depression. The last milling was reported in 1944.
Just north of Parker is the Blue Water Casino, which has quite a good buffet, with half-price coupons available when you get a Slot Club card for gambling. You don't have to gamble much, and you can get one coupon per day (good on Sun-Thurs), so it's a pretty good deal. They have cheap (penny & nickel) video slots that have video games as part of the "rewards", so it's fun to play on them. We partook of way too many of these good buffets!! We also came out about even in our gambling, risking as much as $7 one day!!
The casino is on tribal land of the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT), which also has a nature preserve and beach/picnic area near Parker. The CRIT Indians have been on this land prior to European settlement. The CRIT is composed of four distinct tribal groups, Mohave, Chemehauvi, Navajo and Hopi, each with distinct culture and traditions.
The Parker Dam Road Scenic Byway runs from just west of Parker at Earp, CA, to the Parker Dam, about 20 miles north on the west side of the Colorado River. This is a very lovely drive, with many views of the river and quite a few expensive campgrounds. We continued north of the dam to Black Meadow Landing, another concession-run campground, where we picnicked and enjoyed the view of Lake Havasu (the lake formed by Parker Dam). We also got to see two Wild Burros.
Another day, on the east side of the Colorado River, we visited the other side of the dam. We couldn't drive our truck over the dam, due to width restrictions, so had to visit each side separately. Parker Dam is the world's deepest dam, which means that the largest proportion (73 percent) of its structural height of 320 feet is below the original riverbed. Only about 85 feet of the dam are visible. Just north of the dam is Bill Williams Natl Wildlife Reserve, which is mostly water and best seen by kayak. However, there is a nice trail going out a small peninsula for about 1/2 mile at the refuge HQ. Where the Bill Williams River flows into the Colorado River is the Bill Williams bridge, which has panoramic views from pull-outs at both ends. There are cattail marshes on both sides, which offer excellent birdwatching opportunities. Bill Williams was an interesting person. He came out west as a missionary to "convert the heathens" and was instead converted himself -- into a mountain man.
About 11 miles south of Parker, in Poston, is a memorial and kiosk marking the site of the Colorado River War Relocation Center. During WWII, all persons of Japanese ancestry, both US citizens and aliens, living on the west coast and in western AZ were removed by force and housed in internment camps such as the ones here in the Poston area. During the period from 1942-1945, 17,867 men, women and children were incarcerated without any due process of law. Living conditions were very harsh, and the housing was sub-standard. The monument is dedicated to these people. It is hoped that the memorial will serve as a reminder for us to protect the rights of all citizens in the future. The memorial was dedicated on 10/6/92 and the kiosk on 11/7/95.
Our final outing in the Parker area was to the Nellie E Saloon (Desert Bar), located northwest of Parker in the Buckskin Mountains. It is built on the site of the old Nellie E mine and is about 5 miles back on fairly rough roads from AZ 95. Doug felt that it was scenic but not worth the rugged drive (especially in a wide truck!); Willie thought that it was interesting to see but was definitely a "one time outing". Been there, done that was pretty much her feeling about the place. We did have a tasty veggieburger while here -- maybe it just tasted so good because we were so hungry!
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Tyson Wash, La Posa South LTVA Camping Area, Quartzsite, AZ - Jan 16-29
After installing the new batteries and testing them out in Wellton (while we still had electric hookups to fall back on if anything was wrong) we headed for the boondocking areas near Quartzsite. At this time of year, Quartzsite swells from its regular population of 3300 to several hundred thousand, most of the increase being RVers.
There are many swap meets (junk sales mostly, some of which is worse than in most peoples' basements!), RV shows, gem & mineral shows and a rock & roll car show. While we were there they had several of the biggest swap meets and the main RV show. Willie is the main one who wants to go shopping at these places, but Doug goes along and enjoys it, too. Often it's not worth the hassle of the crowds and traffic to see (and sometimes buy!) so much stuff you have no use for.
We chose one of the Long Term Visitor Areas, which have potable water, Dumpsters and (usually) a dump station. Permits are required but are relatively cheap: you can either pay for up to two weeks ($30) or up to seven months ($140). These fees are reportedly going up to $40 and $170 in the next year or so. Still, a pretty good bargain, although the lines for the few dump stations can be fairly daunting. There are several of these around Quartzsite, Yuma and Blythe(CA), which allow you to use the same permit. There are also free 14-day BLM areas, where you get no amenities. You then buy water in town and take your trash to the dump. Honey wagons will pump out your tanks for a fee of about $20 or you can visit a place with an RV dump. There are also quite a few RV parks in Quartzsite, which are often full. Tyson Wash LTVA is suitably far from Quartzsite and therefore not very crowded, so we were able to enjoy relative solitude, depending on how many from our group were actually there at various times during the two-week period. One of the main reasons to come to Quartzsite is to meet up with friends (old & new) and relax in the relative warmth of the desert. The area we camped in was quite scenic but also fairly cold for the first week. The second week it warmed up, and we were able to enjoy being outside a lot more. We also enjoyed many potlucks and campfires with our group.
We enjoyed hiking on the Palm Canyon trail in the Kofa Natl Wildlife Refuge. The trailhead is located about 18 miles south of Quartzsite, and it is an easy 2-mile round trip hike. At the end of the trail, visible up a small side canyon, is a small cluster of native palm trees. These trees, California Fan Palms, are unusual in the desert, and their survival is dependent on the micro-climate in the protected canyon.Getting mail at Quartzsite usually requires standing in line for two hours along with hundreds of other RVers trying to get their mail. To avoid this, we decided to have our mail sent to general delivery in Blythe, CA, about 20 miles west of Quartzsite. This turned out to be a mistake, since it took so long to get through Quartzsite (high volume of tourist traffic) that we may as well have just waited in line in Quartzsite and saved the gas! Also, in our case it would have been better, since all our mail wasn't there the first time, so we had to return to Blythe a second time. Once is okay, since there is a "real" grocery store in Blythe, and it was good to be able to stock up on groceries. The second time to Blythe, we decided to turn it into a trip to do laundry and a scenic outing. We left early in the day and were done with laundry, successfully getting mail, and excellent breakfast burritos at La Paloma Cafe before noon.
We then headed north to the Blythe intaglios, about 15 miles north of Blythe on US 95. Intaglios are large (~30 ft long) human, animal and geometric figures on the ground surface, sometimes called geoglyphics. They are one of the few unsolved mysteries of modern archeology, since they cannot be dated and little is known of their creation. They are best seen from the air (indeed, they were first discovered by plane), but you can get a fairly good view from the ground. There are other of these figures scattered throughout the region. Their locations are not always made public in order to discourage vandalism. The Blythe figures are fenced in an attempt to better protect them. Most experts believe that these figures are thousands of years old, but no one knows for sure.Sunday, January 15, 2006
M&M RV Village, Wellton, AZ - Jan 10-15
We chose this location since it's Passport America and we had heard good things about Wellton, ie. it's nicer than Yuma. That may be, but only because Yuma rates about a 2 on the old 1 to 10. This park will probably make our "ten worst" list. It's right by the railroad tracks, with trains running fairly frequently. For some reason, not one went by the whole time we were checking in, which is saying something since the owners kept going back & forth about how full they were, and this space might not be available, etc, so we thought we better grab one for 5 nights. Snookered again. When we got to our site it was in a row of 6 or 7 empty sites (all along the RR, of course).Chief on our list of to-dos is getting new batteries, since many days of boondocking are ahead of us. We called a contact we have heard good things about, who convinced us that AGM batteries were the way to go. We had been leaning this way anyway. The only problem was he just sold the last set. But another shipment should be here later this week. Now that later this week is here, the shipment still isn't. Only time will tell whether and when we get new batteries. And yes, we find we do get used to the trains and are able to sleep some at night.
Monday, January 9, 2006
Painted Rock BLM Petroglyph Site and Campground, Gila Bend, AZ - Jan 8-9
The name refers to the petroglyphs chipped into the black basalt intrusion of rocks by the Hohokam people over a thousand years ago, so "painted" is inaccurate. The campground is vast with the spaces far apart. There are no hook-ups. We had planned on staying at least three nights and maybe as many as five, but when Doug checked the batteries the day before our move, the water level was down on a number of the cells even though he had checked them three weeks earlier.
We managed to stick it out for two nights, but worry over the batteries dying completely before we were able to put in the slide-outs and hook up made us decide to leave a day early.We drove into Gila Bend one day since we had heard it was the latest "Boomtown", with 40,000 houses planned. The reasons land is so cheap there are 1) temps regularly get in to 120-degree range during the summer, and 2) there isn't much to do there.
You know you're in trouble when the woman at the Tourist Bureau says "there's not much here". She first suggested Painted Rock (sound familiar?), then Organ Pipe NM 100 miles away. We're not investing in any Gila Bend real estate any time soon.Saturday, January 7, 2006
Sunrise RV Resort, Apache Junction, AZ - Jan 1-7
This park is also owned by the same company (Robert's Ranch) as the last two, and we had a $10/night coupon for our week here. The initial spot we were assigned to not only required backing in a S-curve down a side road, but we would have wound up 20 feet from one of the busiest streets in town, so we requested and obtained a different site. One of the "strangenesses" we have had to get used to as RVers is being put in the Pet Area of RV parks since we have cats, even though Pet Area pretty much means Dog Area, since they lump them all together close to the Dog Walk to minimize complaints about barking. So we get stuck in there with our cats who never go outside and never make a peep (OK, Amber whines all the time, but you can't hear her outside). Here we got put in a very small detached pet section, with no close neighbors and consequently no barking dogs. Quite a pleasant change!Speaking of cats, January 1 is our anniversary, and we discovered that "Cats" was playing on the ASU campus that day, so we called and were able to get tickets. We both enjoyed it immensely. I have always felt that "Cats" was far superior to Webber's other super-hit "Phantom of the Opera" which just passed "Cats" in length of run. "Phantom" relies too heavily on special effects and the music is too repetitive and, in my opinion, rather lame.
