With me being hobbled by my hand, we haven’t been doing a lot. Then again, beautiful sunny skies and temps near 70 (or more) have made doing nothing very enjoyable! There has been a lot of sitting in the sun during the day and sitting around a campfire at night.
We did go to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday. We took a slow but scenic route through the Yuma Proving Grounds on a gravel road that wandered through beautiful country.
YPG is a wildlife sanctuary and desert plant refuge in the barrier areas.Lots of green here plus a (Afghanistan?) “village”Of course I don’t recommend going off the main road!Cibola NWR attracts a lot of birds to its pondsThere were huge numbers of sandhill cranes tooThis guy decided to show offOh, and this style of saguaro was plentiful
Saturday our group had a potluck meal. As usual my Dutch oven green chili chicken enchiladas were a hit, but there was a lot of other good food too.
Sunday we took a trip to the Desert Bar again, a totally off grid bar and music venue that is only open 12-6 on Saturday and Sunday during the winter. Amazingly cool place.
The last 5 miles are on a very rough dirt and gravel roadThe roads in the area originally led to minesA number of old dead cars along the roadIt isn’t a “real” church, but you can have weddings thereA mandatory view of the women’s toilets built into the hillView looking out from the women’s toiletsTotally self-contained and off grid but with a 1000 people means lots of solar
We have decided to stay in Q until we head to Yuma on 3 February. I am sure I will have at least one more post from here. Hopefully the cell service improves with thousands of people leaving.
Warning, this is a long post. I really should have posted more frequently, but the data on my cell phone has been very slow until a lot of people left.
While we did go to the Big Tent, we have also done other activities in the area. Last week we took a trip to Castle Dome, a mining museum and ghost town about an hour and a a half a way. The first 45 miles are highway, but the last 8 or 9 are washboard gravel so it was slow going. The area is well worth the trip though. Here is why the community and mining district got its name.
The builidngs came from various mining camps in the area with only a few being original to the town itself. One of those was the hotel.
The place is just full of wonderful history.
The mining continued through the 1950s, but I didn’t take pictures of the later period exhibits. Down the road a bit they have a walking tour past a number of old mines. They range from hand dug pits 30’ deep cut by the early Spanish explorers to sophisticated hard rock mines last worked in the 1950s and 60s that are hundreds of feet long with multiple levels. The area was know for gold, silver, and lead with some copper too.
We took a trip down to the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge southwest of Quartzsite on the Colorado River. When the river was channelized for irrigation purposes in the 1960s, the refuge was established to mitigate some of the loss of wetlands. We drove down on a dirt road that mostly edged along the river. It had been washed out completely in a few spots. Most of them had been fixed recently (the bulldozer tracks were still fresh), but we did have one spot where we had to detour. I would not recommend this route for passenger cars. We returned via a hard surface road that went to Blythe that would be suitable for passenger cars. The refuge looks like a classic dry desert until you round a corner on the auto tour and see (and hear) this. You will have to click to see the video, but it is worth it to turn the sound up.
Besides the thousands of ducks, geese, and pelicans in the water, we also saw a few dozen sandhill cranes standing in the alfalfa fields grown for their use.
We also took a trip to the Desert Bar northeast of Parker, about 45 miles from Quartzsite. This is a classic place, completely off the grid, open only on weekends from October to April. All kinds of bar and grill food – burgers, pulled pork, chicken fingers, etc. – plus a full bar and live music. The road is very rocky and rough. A passenger can would have to be careful, but it is doable.
The band the day we wentLove the viewsNice view from the open air bathroom (the stalls have doors)It takes a lot of solar to keep this place goingA popular viewpoint
We now intend on staying here until Thursday. Early Wednesday morning there will be a lunar eclipse, so we decided to stay another day.
Oh, and a few housekeeping items. There is a really nice Albertson’s in Blythe, CA about 20 miles away. Quartzsite only has a couple of convenience stores that carry a (very) few groceries. We did laundry on a day trip to Yuma at Plaza Coin Laundry, a very nice spot. We ate lunch at Ronnie’s Pizza. Great pizza at a real hole in the wall place. I did make ribs again, and this time I took a picture before we ate.
For the traditional Saturday potluck I made my tried and true green chili chicken enchiladas, made New Mexican style (layered) in the Dutch Oven. They were a hit. I always feel a bit guilty when I get complements on them since they are sooooo easy.
