Yuma–to Quartzsite and the big Tent RV show!

We spent most of our allotted 2 weeks camped off Ogilby Road, using the time to take advantage of being around lots of businesses in Yuma, as well as the Arizona Market, etc.  When the weather was conducive for a happy hour, I biked over to where Deb & Riley and Tom & Deb were camped.  I knew that Doug & Yuma had already gone, but all I found was empty desert where they had all been.

There was lots of opportunity to hike and bike more, exploring back into the hills.

There are frequent signs of old exploration or mining activities, with lots of small excavations, and well weathered lumber, and rusted metal parts laying around.

There are lots of these old (and some newer) mining claim stakes around.  These ones have simple engraving on an small aluminum plate.

This one has a small cavity behind a tin lid that would have held more detailed information about the claim.  Modern claim stakes often have a small plastic container with that information.    

Some of the holes go down vertically …

 While others go in horizontally. 

Never try to do a Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper – if your cat is there to help!

Keeping the hot spot warm – or vice versa!

If you are a cat; why lay in a nice soft warm bed in the sun – when you can lay on a bag of apples?

We made it up to Quartzsite in time for the start of the big tent show.  Being a sucker for punishment, I headed into town on opening day!

From the last LTVA site south of town, it was stop and go traffic.

Sure enough, vehicles were parked along both sides of the highway 95 – all signed ‘no parking’!

Vehicles in the turning lane coming from town were backed up all the way across the overpass,almost to the traffic lights on main street.

We didn’t even attempt to join that throng, but headed into town, got a bottle of propane filled, then came into the show from the back side, finding a parking spot in the big wash.

I expected the big tent to be a zoo, but found it surprisingly quiet, with lots of room to move around.

Found this interesting rig outside.  Not sure what to call it, but it fit’s in your truck like a truck camper.  The back is wide open, with ramps to load your ‘toys’, and the front only has a small double bunk.  Didn’t seem much sign of a kitchen, or bathroom facilities, though I did see an outdoor shower compartment.

I even saw my first Javelina of the trip!

The wash back at camp, where it’s peaceful and quiet, unlike in town this week!

Expecting friends from the Great White North to start arriving this week!

Till next time …

Coyotes, Foxes, and camping along Ogilby Road, California

We spent another week or so, back in the southern end of Anza Borrego Desert State Park in California.  Some nearby Oregon full-tmers were coveting my camp spot, and it was time to move on, so we headed back to Ogilby Road, with stops at two rest areas along the I-8.  The rest stops in both directions about 8 miles west of El Centro have free RV dumps, so we took advantiage of that, and topped off the water in our usual spot going through the dunes. 

Back in the park we’d had a night time coyote visitor checking out our camp under the cover of darkness.

We picked a spot off Ogilby Road (S34) with a deep wash sort of on three sides of the rig.  In a few places, the wash is 10-12’ deep, and there is evidence that the water was at least 5-7’ deep at some point in the recent past.  That would be quite the sight to see!

As with many boondocking camps, there are nocturnal visitors that you never see – if it weren’t for a few trail cameras.  This little fox made regular visits to see if there were any scraps left out.

There were at least two of them, but only caught a glimpse of the second one once.

Every once in a while I play around with a simple microscope that plugs into my laptop.  Took these photos of a thorn from one of the local bushes.  This kind often pokes up through the bottom of my sandals at about 1/4” long.

Lots of bushes and pieces of grass leave patterns in the sand, as they blow back and forth in the wind.

Lots of old mining operations in the mountains just back of camp, and perhaps some new ones too, judging by the Jenson Jr outhouse and pile of new lumber.

Someone went to a lot of work to build this little stone cabin, and even used a fair bit of concrete on the stonework and the little patio area out front.

There was even a little stone fireplace inside, and lots of little trinkets like some sort of shrine too?  Looks like it had once had a roof of a tarp or some fabric long gone.

Looking south from the stone cabin, with a Mexican dump fire in the background.

What?  A Trans Canada pipeline on the Mexican border!  Looks like it used to be operated by PG&E National too.

This shot was about a 2 second hand-held time exposure on my iPhone 14, which somehow doesn’t show any of the camera shake!

Some shots of the local wash.

Flood debris several feet high on this bush in midstream.

Haven’t seen any tortoises this year so far, but we did see one in this same area in early 2020.

Remnants of another abandoned mining (?) operation back in the hills.

I’m guessing this may have been the mine managers house, judging by the  fancy rockwork at the front door.

Not a lot going on while we are camped here, just the usual runs into Yuma for supplies, trips into Los Algodones, Mx, hiking, biking, and a few happy hours with Doug, Yuma, Deb, Riley, Tom & Deb about a mile away.  There is a scattering of campers around, but not too crowded at all, and only a few Atv’s.  I think we may be heading back up to Quartzsite in the near future, to take in some of the big RV show, starting on the 21st …

And there has to be at least one pic of Hailey in every post!

Till next time – somewhere down the road.