A ride to Cibola Lake. 12-08-14

 

When we were in Oregon this summer we met a guy while we were on a jeep ride.
I got to talking with him and found that he also was a winter resident in Quartzsite.

While we were talking, he told me that there were some cliffs along the Colorado River south of Ehrenburg that had some fossil beds in them.

I decided that it would be fun to go check it out so yesterday; Jo Ann, Dave, Becky, Dennis, Patti and I took a ride to Ehrenburg where we got on the dirt road that follows the east bank of the river.

Right after we turned off the I –10 we stopped to let anyone who wanted to air down do so. Dennis pulled up and said that the check engine light had come on in his jeep and he didn’t want to take a chance that his jeep would stop running in the back country. He decided to turn back.

Jo Ann, Dave and we continued following the dirt road along the river.

There are some trees with feathery leaves that are turning golden along the road.

We continued along the road and drove by several cliff areas.

At one spot there was a trail going to the top of some cliffs so we turned onto this trail and after a short steep climb we were on top.
From up here we got a nice view of the river and the agricultural area in California.

Back on the road again we continued heading south.
We stopped at the base of a couple cliffs and looked around a bit.

Here, I realized that I wouldn’t recognize a fossil if it hit me on the head and trying to find one in these rocks would be like trying to pick fly specs out of a bowl of pepper. Eventually we gave up on the fossil’s and just enjoy the ride along the river.

We stopped for a picture of the Hart Mine Marsh

A little further along we noticed this old abandoned cabin.

We turned left and followed this track to the cabin for some pictures. This cabin is called “The Cibola Cabin”.

 

Patti and I had been here a few years ago on one of our exploration trips.

Here are a few more pictures of the cabin.

It looks like they had a nice veranda off both sides of the cabin but of course everything has collapsed over the years partially due to vandalism.

From here we continued south and stopped along the shore of the northern arm of Cibola Lake

where we had lunch.

After lunch we continued traveling south until we came to the southern end of the lake.

Here we turned around and headed north.

Just across the river from Cibola Lake are what appear to be some very high end homes.

We turned east off the road passing the cabin again. We continued along this road where we saw a mining area to our right. We turned onto this trail and stopped at a kiosk with some information about mining in the area including this plack showing pictures of the different minerals found in the area.

We drove toward the mine but encountered several no trespassing signs so we turned around and continued our ride. Eventually the dirt road became paved. We passed some agricultural areas on the Arizona side.

Lots of cotton still in the fields.

 

and rolled up into bales.

We also passed a large Date farm.

We came to a bridge across the river and crossed it. After several miles on the pavement we came to I-10 just west of Blythe. We turned east and headed for home. 

It was a nice easy ride and of course we had fun.