01-31

Last Sunday, we took a ride with Becky, Dennis, Suzanne and Roy to the Plomosa mountains. (See blog for Monday Jan 25.)
While we were out there following one of the trails we came to a tree across the road.
It was late in the day so we decided to leave the tree and come back another day to remove it and follow the road to the end.
Well, yesterday we went to do just that. When we got to the spot where the tree had been, some one else had removed it for us. :o)
We followed the trail to its terminus at a deep gully




with some interesting features. Much of the bed rock was exposed in the bottom of the gully and in the rock were many large holes. Some had water in them with sand or gravel in the bottoms. We thought that this would be a good spot to do some prospecting. No one had any tools or gold pans so we just looked the area over with an eye to coming back in a few days with proper tools to see what could be found.

I am sure that everyone who comes out here has the same idea but you never know and
it is a perfect excuse for an other foray in to the desert, eh (Canadian influence).
On the way back we checked out some other trails. One took us to a Wild life watering station where we decided to stop for lunch.

After lunch we stared back toward "Q". As we drove along I could see an interesting canyon to our left and kept an eye out for a trail going up the canyon. Soon we came to such a trail and turned onto it. The track wound around and over a few low hills, through a few washes and eventually ended far back in the canyon.

As always the scenery was wonderful.
Here are a few random shots for your enjoyment;


It may be a little hard to tell but there is a large hole through the bottom of this rock.

We had another fine day with friends playing in the desert.

01-28

I woke up around 3:30 and heard the pitter-patter of light rain on the roof of "Plan B".
"I hope this passes over" I thought and went back to sleep.
When I got up at 6:30 the sky was clear.

Today we went to "Skull Rock" for a weenie roast.
There were seven vehicles in the group;
Four Side by side ATVs, two Jeeps and one Quad Runners.
The group consisted of seven Canadians;
Suzanne, Roy, Missy, Junior, Cindy, Dave and Bob.
And six Yanks;
Becky, Dennis, Debby, Mike and of course Patti and me.
We lined up at the entrance to the Holiday Palms.

When every one was in line we headed out of town and down highway 95 for about 15 miles to the road to Palm canyon in the Kofa Refuge. We turned onto the road and into a large parking area where the ATV drivers could off load there rigs.

Eventually we were ready to go so we headed out Palm Canyon Rd. to the intersection with the Queen Mine road where we turned left heading for Skull rock. About half way out we stopped at a place with a nice view of beautiful rocks and canyons. I always stop here because the view is so nice.

Here the trail drops into a wash that winds up the canyon. The wash showed the effects of the recent rains and was a little rough.
Eventually we got to Skull rock.

Roy got the fire going.

While we waiting for the fire to get to the point where we could start burning the dogs, Junior and Bob climbed the hill behind Skull Rock. There is a huge rock up there with a rectangular hole at its base.

There are other rocks with holes or arches in them farther up the hill.

Just about every direction you look has a nice view. This one is looking down the wash that we drove up.

After lunch, we hung out for a couple of hours enjoying the company and the scenery.

Several parties of Jeep's, ATVs, a couple of hikers and one guy on a motorcycle came by while we were there.
Eventually it was time to go so after loading up our gear and pouring water on the fire we headed back down the wash to the parking area where the ATV were loaded back on there trailers and we headed for home.
It was another great day and it was nice to go back to Skull Rock.

I don't know what we will do next but keep checking the blog.

01-27

It has been a little boring here lately.
Monday I went to "Herbs Hardware" a really good hardware store here in Quartzsite. I needed to get some parts to set up an auxiliary propane tank for "Plan B".
Otherwise I would have to drive the RV to the "RV Pit Stop" to get the on board tank filled.
I found all the parts at Herbs. Then spent about an hour putting them together. It works great. no leaks. :o) Now when the Propane runs out I can just disconnect the tank, throw it in the back of the jeep and go get it filled.
Simple eh?

Today, we decided to take a ride out to the "Horse Tanks" to see how much water was left after the big storm. Also, we wanted to check out a cave that the natives had used.

As you will remember, last week we went out there at the height of the big storm to get pictures of waterfalls.
Here are some pictures to compare last week with today.
This is during the storm.


This is the same place today.

There is still a nice pond at the bottom.

and a trickle coming down the rock.

There is a pond a little further up stream with a a little water dripping into it from above.

After checking out the water we drove back along the road about a tenth of a mile to check out the Indian cave. Here is Patti at the opening

Look at the many grinding holes in the floor of the cave.

This must have been a good area for Mesquite beans or what ever they were processing here.
We wandered around a little bit looking for other habitable caves but didn't find any.


Tomorrow we are going to take a group to "Skull Rock" for a weenie roast so stay tuned.

Monday 01-25

A week ago we took Becky, Dennis, Missy and Junior, on a ride into the Plomosa Mountains. See blog entry for Sunday Jan 17.
While we were there we passed an area with lots of roads and mines. We were running late so decided to come back to explore the area at a later date.

Yesterday we took B&D and Suzanne and Roy out there.
We started off around 10:00 and drove out Sunkist Road to Plomosa Rd. where we turned right and drove a little passed mile post 7 then turned off the highway and into the foothills. After a few miles we came to the mining area. We stopped to investigate some stone walls

(Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them)

and concrete foundations.

Its hard to tell for sure what the buildings were used for. Some must have been housing and others were no doubt processing structures.
We followed several rough tracks into the hills and found some mines to explore.

This shaft went back into the mountain over 100 feet. At the end it split into three shafts, one straight down ,one to the right and one to the left.

This is the first mine that Patti has been in that wasn't part of a tour.

We drove on and found some more man made caves.
This one looked like it might have been a talc mine as there was several seams of talc in the walls.

There was a flat area near the entrance to the cave so we stopped here for lunch.

After lunch we started the drive home. We passed a large arch

and some vertical shafts. This one was very deep.

This horizontal shaft was a little too scary to explore

After several dead ends and false trails

we got on the track that goes by the Climax Mine. This is the road that we couldn't find the last time we were out here.
We got home around 5:30.
I was tired and didn't want to cook so Patti and I were going to just go to Carl's JR for a burger but Becky and Dennis invited us to join them for grilled chicken. Thanks B&D it was great.

01/22/10

Patti took a walk around the park last evening to see what damage had occurred from this ferocious Storm.
Our friend Mike had a tree next to his trailer that split in half and just missed crushing the slide out.

The only other damage she found was a large cactus that was knocked over.

This is Tyson wash which runs along the east side of the RV park. The picture was taken around

5:30. The rain continued until around 9:00

I guess we won't be driving through there for a few days.
It looks like there is another Storm coming through today.
It's 9:20am and Patti just got back from another tour of the park. Here are updated pictures of the wash.


S
he also got a bunny picture.

Stay tuned :o)

jan. 21, 10

Because of the weather we have been pretty idle the last few days.
On Monday we went to the big RV show here in Quartzsite. We had a list of things that we wanted to get there and we found two of the four items on our list. I ordered the stabelizers for "Plan B" (our motor home) and we picked up some "Techni-ice" which is a reusable ice substituit.
It rained on Tuesday so we hung out in the RV.
Yesterday we went to Blythe CA to do some shopping. We drove on I-10 to get there but took the Powerline road on the way back (much more fun ). :o)
The same storms that have been crashing against the Pacific Coast have been making their way through Arizona bring snow to the high country and wind and rain to the desert.
Today, the rain is particularlly heavy.
Around 8:30 the guys showed up to install the stableizers. they were done by 9:00.
After they left I decided that this would be a perfict day to try and get some desert waterfall pictures so after letting Becky and Dennis know where we were going (just in case), we headed for the horse tanks. The last time we were there, the ponds were almost dry.

After working our way through the trafic jam in Quartzsite we drove down hwy. 95 into the teeth of the storm. The wind was so strong that I had to stay in 4th gear with the throttle to the floor to maintain 55 MPH.

At the Stone cabbin we turnned left, onto King Valley rd. then after a mile or so we turned onto the trail to the tanks.
We saw the first waterfall just after turning onto the trail.

In some places the road was becoming a creek.

The next fall was just a trickle.
Then we passed a twin fall.

and a tall fall.

When we got to the parking area near the tanks. we saw a very nice cascade to our left.

We walked the short distance to the first tank with the rain pouring down.

When we got to the tank I tolded Patti that we needed to get the pictures and get the hell out of there because the water in the creek was rising fast and we would have to cross it on the way out.

By the time we got back to the jeep we were soaked.
As I predicted the creek was rising fast.

On the way out we had fun driving across and in the creek that used to be the road.


Even the main road was covered with water.

Eventually we got back to the highway.

Even in the rain these mountains are breath taking.