January 19, 2021 Tacna, Arizona

RAIN! Haven't seen rain in ages and there is such a drought here It was nice  to hear it on the roof.

Yuma is surrounded by miles and miles of huge farms.  Many of the green vegetables we get in the winter come from here. they are harvesting lettuce and broccoli now. We followed this massive semi load of iceberg lettuce. 

We went to Mittry lake today. There is free BLM dispersed camping on one end. the lake itself is a wildlife refuge, lots of birds. 

It was a little more crowded than we like, but there are still some nice spots. We were going to move here tomorrow but there are flash flood warnings out for the area from the rain, so we will stay at the RV park another night. This gentleman is camped on of the inlets to the lake. Hope he does not drown when the rains starts.

They are tearing out these old canal structures. They were built in 1907. The bridge looks to have swastikas' on it. But it was built long before the Nazis adopted the symbol, it is a common character to the native Americans, it means among other things the 4 winds.  We visited beautiful, historic downtown Yuma today.

 Part of beautiful historic downtown Yuma. John walking along an archway in Yuma. 

 The town square with the fountain seems to have been turned into a round about in historic downtown Yuma. John loitering outside the Prison Hill Brewery. We have not been going inside eating or drinking establishments this year because of Covid. Usually John stops at all breweries along the way to taste their IPA.

Beautiful  historic downtown Yuma. Gateway park is on the Colorado River-which starts in Colorado, we have seen a lot of it on our travels. By the time the river gets here, to the border it is really small and polluted with salts in the soil, fertilizers, antibiotics and everything else that gets in our water. Only a small part of it goes to Mexico and none of it reaches the ocean, it is all used up.

 This church is built on the site of the mission  founded in 1780. It is on the Quechan Indian reservation and is not open for tours. But you can attend mass. A row of ibis's along a waterway. 

One of things Yuma is know for is its iceberg lettuce, so on New Years they drop a head of lettuce instead of a ball downtown to celebrate.  Border patrol station, they let us through. 

The Copper Mountain RV park we are staying at seems weird to me. My favorite ski area in Colorado is Copper Mountain. we should be skiing when we are at Copper Mountain. 

January 16-18, 2021, Painted Rocks campground, outside of Gila Bend, to Yuma, Arizona

 76 degrees and sunny today. It was too hot in the sun to sit in my lawn chair, but lovely in the shade.

Not much of photo interest happened in my lawn chair today so only one photo of sunset with the moon a tiny white dot at the top. This whole week we have been here we could not tell if the people in the  next campsite were a man and a woman, or two men. The sites are so far apart it is hard to tell. So today we had out the binoculars trying to tell. We have been out in the hot sun too long. . .

The masterpiece is taking shape. The bus, the car with the boats on it  and the moon in the sunset. 

We stopped at Dateland, AZ for date shakes. The have a big travel center, RV park with a huge grove of palm trees. Cool mountain on our drive.

We are camped at  Copper Mountain RV park in Tacna, Arizona. My favorite ski area is Copper Mountain in Colorado. But no skiing here. Desert landscaping with metal flowers and a palm tree.

Here is the bus in our spot. at Copper Mountain RV park.  We have a nice palo verde tree. Typical commercial RV park. The sites are big, but we spent the last three weeks in the desert, quiet, dark and lots and lots of room. A bit of a shock. It is very clean and nice enough, but right off the highway and there is busy train track. Right behind us is a truck stop with lots of lights. And it is downwind from a very large feed lot, the fragrance wafts in now and again. There pool seems to be under repair. Bummer, it was 80 degrees today and it would have felt good. 

Copper Mountain RV park has 204 spaces and it pretty full. Snowbirds. Seen on the way here Fly Yuma, you'd already be home. We are about 30 miles from Yuma, and we had our home with us. Wholesale land, so if I bunch I get a wholesale rate?, the thermometer by the office, 80 degrees!, Welcome to Camp Quitcherbitchin,  and a "towed hut" seen in the last campground.

Sunset was very dramatic. Looking back at the RV park to the east. We are in the lower left corner, right by the truck stop. Looking west at the mountains. There was some virga that turned pink. I even got hit with a few rain drops. 

At the end of sunset the horizon glowed red. Here it is reflected on the side of the bus. 

January 15, 2021, Sears Point, Arizona

 78 degrees and sunny. We went hunting for Sears Point to look at more petroglyphs.

We drove by Solana power generating station on the way. A huge facility with curved mirrors that follow the sun and focus the heat onto a pipe that creates steam that runs a turbine and makes  electricity. We exited at Spot road. A warning that we are near a border crossing area and to be on the lookout for suspicious activity.  We also drove by Middle of Nowhere-Sentinel, AZ. 

Sears point is a bunch of buttes that have petroglyphs on the cliffs below the rim. We climbed up then walked around a large part of two of the buttes. Which included crawling around over a bunch of big boulders. John with some of the first ones we saw. 

Looking down into the parking lot to our car and the other butte we climbed later. The other car left soon after we arrived and we had the place to ourselves. John with more petroglyphs. 

There were whole walls of glyphs. These were made over thousands of years by many different tribes and cultures of people. One type in top of another style on top of another type. They can sort of date these by the styles used. 

A few interesting glyphs. There were many trails right under the cliffs, and lots of crawling over and between huge boulders. This trail led to a few large panels.

The trail led to these. There were some historic graffiti too.  Two gentlemen in 1889. 

Looking west toward even more buttes that we didn't have the energy to hike to and up. Notice the rock circle below. Taken from the second butte we climbed, looking back at the first one we climbed over a  glyph covered rock.. Our car is below in the parking lot.

These are more interesting glyph. The lower two are older and fainter. The desert varnish is starting to form back over them. John climbing around the big boulders looking for glyphs. 

On the road back to camp, which is on the other side of these mountains. I started another masterpiece when we got back. I made the dichroic glass center and dyed these pine needles. 

Sunset over camp. See how far apart the campsites are spaced. No clouds for sunset, but there was this pink jet stream under the crescent moon.