02-18-13

Saturday;
The mornings are finally getting warm enough so I can comfortably sit outside with a book and enjoy the pond.

If you look closely at the picture you can see a Dove on the left shore of the pond.
 

Bob came by around 11:00. We spent some time working on the picture size problem but as you can see we haven’t gotten it fixed yet.

Around 2:30 Bob and I took a short ride into the desert. We went through the La Posa North long term visitors area and headed into the mountains. 
We drove around, over hills and through gullies enjoying the beautiful scenery.

We came to a hill that was covered with quartz. We stopped there and climbed the hill.

You can see the jeep at the bottom of the hill.

While we were up there we found some pin-cushion cactus in bloom.

We got home around 5:00 and went to dinner at the Mountain Quail Cafe.

Sunday;
Around 11:00 we headed out for a ride to the Cinnabar Mine. There were 3 jeeps in the group. Jo Ann didn’t want to go so Patti rode with Dave. Becky and Dennis came along and Bob rode with me.
To get there we drove south on 95 to the La Pas Valley turnoff where we turned west and drove to Kofa Road. We turned left and followed it to the Old Yuma Road where we headed south until we came to a trail that goes through a section of the Yuma Proving Grounds

and eventually leads to the Cinnabar mine. 
Although there are a few rough spots, most of the road is pretty mild with some nice views.

We wandered along for about two hours and after going across some rough washes we came to a stone ruin near the mine.

After checking out the ruin we continued up the trail.
 
About a quarter mile further along the trail we came to the mine. Below shows what is left of the ore processing area.

This mine dates back to the nineteenth century and has some very deep shafts. The main shaft is over 300 ft deep.

Looking into these shafts is pretty intimidating.

We walked around the area for a while and then headed for home.

Along the way we got a nice view of the Kofa Mountains.

Of course it was another fun ride.

This morning I took the jeep back to the shop to get the rest of the exhaust system fixed up. Also there is a starting problem that needs to be addressed. It began after they worked on the manifold so I hope they fix it gratis.  
Yah, right!