03-31-13

We played cards at Becky and Dennis’ on Friday evening.
Shirley had the loser’s hat from the last time we played.

Bill and Patti got to wear the hat this time.

Yesterday, we took a ride to the desert. This is the first ride where Suzanne and Roy went with us.
We left the park around 10:00 and drove out Dome Rock Road where we turned south on the road to Rainbow Acres. We followed that road to where the pavement ends, then we headed west toward the mountains.
We stopped to check out an area that may have been an old Gypsum Mine.

In the rear you can see Suzanne and Roy’s Rhino.

The bag that you see in the back of Clifford is a bag of peanuts, the life’s blood of jeepers.

The desert is beginning to bloom.
Below are pictures of a Hedgehog Cactus blooming

 

and a couple of pictures of Pincushion Cactus in bloom.

To the left of this Saguaro in the picture below is a beavertail cactus in bloom.

 

One of the things we wanted to see is the Deer Run B&B.

The B&B is just a slab of concrete in a canyon that people have decorated and left chairs and signs and other stuff for entertainment.

Here are some pictures of the stuff.

We continued on the trail through the mountains over a rough trail.

We drove to the top of a hill to check out a mine we could see in the distance.

This shaft had a fence in front of it but there was a trail around it.

The shaft doesn’t look like one I would want to explore.

We continued on across the flats and eventually came to the Tyson Wash where we turned north and followed the wash toward home. We stopped to see the Petroglyph's. Unfortunately we didn’t take any pictures. From the glyphs we continued up the wash to where we entered the back gate of our RV park.

It was an easy ride but still a lot of fun.

03-28-13

It’s still pretty quiet on the Quartzsite front.

The weather has been nice and warm for the last week most afternoons have been in the high 80’s. Yesterday it got to 90.

On Tuesday we went to Blythe to do some shopping. we had lunch at Rosita’s Mexican restaurant I had a Chimichanga, it had a little beef and a lot of beans in it. I don’t really like my chimi’s with beans in them. Patti had Chicken Fajitas. The Fajita was mostly onions with a little chicken. We probably won’t eat there again. After lunch we stopped at the new Mexican bakery and picked up a couple of things for dessert.
In the evening we went to Susanne and Roy’s to play cards. It was a lot of fun.

Yesterday Patti went to Parker with Shirley, Debby, and Bill. She didn’t win but she took me out to dinner any way. We went to the Mountain Quail. I had the special (pot roast) and Patti Had shrimp and Tater-tots.
Becky and Dennis got back from Moab Tuesday evening. We went to there place last evening to look at some of their Pictures. It looks like they had a grate time.

Today we are going back to Blythe to have our taxes done.

We are planning to take a ride in the desert on Saturday.

03-25-13

We haven’t been doing much the last couple of days.

Bob left Saturday about 9:30 and got back to Guerneville around midnight.

We have been just relaxing and reading out by the pond.

We also have been looking for places to stay in the Williams area for the month of May. Our original plan was to spend a month up there but there aren’t many RV parks in that area that aren’t expensive. I am not sure how much time we will spend there now. We will probably get a spot for a couple of days and then look around. Or we might spend our time some where else. But, that is a month away so we’ll see what happens.

Today looks like it will be filled with more relaxing and reading. 

Stay tuned.

03-22-13

We left Ajo at 9:30 yesterday morning and drove north on 85 through Gila Bend to I-10 where we turned west and drove until we came to the Zip station at Vicksburg Road. We stopped at the Zip and topped off the tank in the RV. The total trip from the Zip to Ajo and back took 40 gallons of gas It is around 297 miles from the Zip to Ajo and back to the Zip. That means we only got 7.425 miles to the gallon.  Yuck!! It cost us about $150 in fuel just for the RV.

Highway 85 goes through some interesting rocks north of Ajo.

Unfortunately these rocks are in the Berry Goldwater bombing range and are closed off.

We got home around12:30. Bob came over around 4:00 and we hung out by the pond until dinner time. Bob said his goodbyes and left at 9:30. He is leaving Quartzsite to go home this morning.  

03-22-13

Yesterday we took a trip to the Organ Pipe National Monument.

To get there we drove south on hwy 85 thirty four miles. The entrance to the campground is on the right and the 21 mile loop trail entrance is on the left. We turned left and drove east for about a mile where we came to a fee station. The day use fee is $8.00 or if you have a Golden Age pass it is free. The funny thing is all three of us have a Golden Age pass BUT none of us had them with us.
The road is very good and any car can make the drive.
The area is very scenic and the trip takes about two hours.

Here are some pictures from our drive.

 

Below is the cactus from which the monument gets its name.

There were some wild flowers blooming but no blooms on the cacti.

We came across this picnic area with a shade cover made of Ocotillo branches.

We didn’t see much wild life. Only a few squirrels and chipmunks but they were too fast to get a picture of.
Patti did get a picture of a mouse that must have been sick because it was moving very slowly.

We have plenty of Cholla cactus around Quartzsite but down here they have Cholla trees.

We drove by a couple of arches.

The whole area is very scenic.

We stopped for lunch at a turn out along the road.

It was a beautiful drive and worth the trip.

In the last blog I mentioned the “mountainous tailing piles” at the south end of Ajo I didn’t have a picture of them so I asked Patti to try and get a shot of them as we came into town yesterday.

The piles are on both sides of the highway.

Yesterday evening on the way to dinner at Marcela’s we went to see the open pit mine where all the tailings come from.

Ajo has some old Spanish style architecture especially in it’s churches and public buildings.

We had a good time down here but since all the roads are closed for the Pronghorn fawning season we decided to head back to Quartzsite. We will be leaving this morning around ten-ish.

03-21-13

On Monday evening Bob and I poured over maps and in the end I loaded a route to Marble Mountain into my GPS. So far I have had mixed results with GPS routes.

Tuesday morning, Bob showed up at the RV around 8:30. We left about 9:00 for our trip to Marble Mountain.
We drove south on 85.

About a mile from Ajo just past the mountainous tailing piles, we turned left onto the pipeline road and headed east across the flats.

As we started down the road we saw this sign.

A little farther down the road we saw a maybe “wild” horse.

A little farther we saw a ranger in his truck. We stopped to get some information from the Ranger. He didn’t know where Marble Mountain was so we shrugged, smiled and continued on our way.

We stopped to check out an old cattle loading corral

and broken wind mill.

From there we continued east into the mountains. At one point we drove up a rocky trail I saw what at first I thought were some king of wild life about a quarter mile up the trail. As it turned out they were about six illegal aliens. When they saw us the ran of into the desert and hid.

Later down the road we saw a game camera propped on a rock.

 

We continued along the trail over steep rocky mountains and into a valley. Following the route on the GPS all the way.

We passed one of those engines that we see on the pipeline road in the Kofa.

 

We passed a emergency rescue station.

  

Eventually we came to the end of the route and stopped near a dry pond with a small hill to our left.

Bob and I walked up the hill looking for marbles

and after a short time we began to find them.
It was interesting to see how these stones were formed in large boulders.

Then some how they broke away from the boulders and were laying on the ground in singles and clumps.

Many were broken but occasionally we found some that were whole.

After we tired of picking up rocks we had lunch under some bare Mesquite trees near the dry pond.

After lunch we headed for home. 

When we got to the highway we turned south to check out the road to Darby Wells.  About a mile down the highway we turned west on Darby Wells road and drove past some more tailings and eventually came to this sign.

Apparently all the roads to the west are closed until July for the Prong Horn Antelope fawning season. All the roads going west clear down to the Mexican Border are closed.

We came into town from the back side and passed this interesting sculpture on a house.

There were some wild flowers blooming in the desert.

And of course the views of the mountains along the way were spectacular.

A view of Coffee Pot Mountain from Marble Mountain

Today, we are going to the Organ Pipe National Monument to take a twenty one mile loop through the desert.