We made it to Quartzsite on Friday, 3 Jan. We decided to leave Oklahoma City and take I-40 to Albuquerque before heading south on I-25. We took the cutoff at Deming to join I-10 at Hatch. We then take I-8 to the Phoenix Bypass up again to I-10 and into Quartzsite. Spent a couple of nights in a Walmart and another in an Elks Lodge, so it was easy stops. The weather was quite cooperative after we left OKC. We arrived about 2, dumped our waste tanks and filled with fresh water, then moved to our campsite in Tyson Wash LTVA. This is where we stayed last year, and it is lovely.
Yesterday, Saturday, we headed out to the Barry Goldwater Training Range for a UTV trip. We hadn’t taken the RZR out of the truck bed, so we drove down to Wellton, AZ east of Yuma to meet up with a local guide. It is a 100 minute trip or so each way, and we drove a total of 50 miles on the range. Interesting trip. Here are some pictures with captions.
Our first stop was a picnic spot. The covered shelter had four fireplaces, and was quite impressive. The women’s restroom had a wall 3’ or so high, big enough to cover the important parts! The men’s toilet was quite a ways away and constructed the same way.
The range takes helping endangered species so there are a series of what are called “tanks” in this part of the world. They are many times big catchment ponds like this one that was almost completely empty. Nice scenery though.
There were all kinds of old military hardware along are path. Lots of old dead army tanks, pretend artillery batteries, multiple launch rocket systems that were rusted solid, etc. You can climb around them, and some of the folks did.
There is also a wooden replica of a town informally called “Combat City” used for training. These pictures were taken by my husband since it was more walking than I wanted to do.
Sadly there are some aircraft wrecks too. Luckily the pilots survived both of the ones we saw. This is one of them.
And what desert trip would be complete without some really cool rocks? The weathering in this aged sandstone was fascinating. The scale is shown by the folks next to it.
We were exhausted by the time we made it home to the motorhome. We went to bed by 9:15 and didn’t get up until 6:30! I admit I woke up a few times, but I managed to get back to sleep quickly each time. The sunrise was glorious.
I will end with a demonstration that the two cats love the magic blankie!
