Week ending Jan 15, 2015 Mohave Valley to Quartzite

Thursday afternoon we went for a walk in the desert by the park. On our way out of the park we chatted with a couple. He was sitting on a deck by his trailer and beside him was a road runner.  He was telling us that this particular bird comes to visit him a couple times a day and if he ignores it, the roadrunner will jump on his shoulder to try and get his attention.

Friday morning we got a call from the GM dealer telling us the truck would be ready by mid-afternoon. Since we don't have a truck we have been watching some of the Continental Cup of Curling taking place in Calgary this week. We then decided that today would be a good day to get caught up on laundry.   While we were in the middle of a Wii golf game the lady driving the courtesy car from GM showed up to take us to pick up the truck.  Nice to have a vehicle again.

Saturday morning we struck out for a hike called Grapevine Canyon at Christmas Tree Pass, with better directions than last time we tried to find it.  At the mouth of the canyon we saw an abundance of Native American Petroglyphs, believed to be at least 1,000 years old. 

The general rock formations were interesting, the trail ok for the first mile or so.   Then the trail became a scramble. mostly on slick rock.  Finally Joan gave up - her knees don't bend in the directions required for this trail.  John went further on and found that the past the slick rock area the next trick was a 8 foot climb, with a tree, using its limbs as a ladder.  Make no mistake, this is not Joan's kind of trail.  At that point we turned back.

We were not the only ones that turned back at that point and we walked back to the mouth of the canyon with a couple from North Dakota. We got back to the parking lot, found a flat rock and eat our lunch.  Since the hike had only taken us 2 hours instead of 4 we had lots of time. We drove down the strip in Laughlin, neat looking casinos, but we drove right by. Our destination was Avi Resort and Casino. When we arrived at the casino we registered in their hospitality club to got 10.00 each in complementary gambling coupons. The bottom line was we spent 5.00 and came out with 42.00, not a bad ROI.  Don't we wish our stock did that well.  It was obvious that our luck was used up so time to go back to the trailer.  We got back to the trailer in time to watch some more of the continental cup.

Sunday morning John's computer again was acting up.  Time to replace it. We looked on-line and discovered that our choices here are Wal-Mart, Target or Staples. Staples it is. We did look at the other 2 places, but they did not have a computer suitable. Staples actually had a sale on - what a shock.  After dropping our purchases off at the trailer we headed to the Colorado River Nature Center.  According to the information we had there are numerous trails, and many birds and animals call this sanctuary home.  Everyone seemed to be away today, no birds, no animals and the trails where poorly marked.  We did some walks, but finally gave up.  After a short scenic drive between Mohave Valley and Oatman we headed back to the trailer so John could start playing with his new toy.

Numerous people had suggested to us that we might enjoy Fisherman's Trail at Katherine's Landing on Lake Mohave. The trail was  across volcanic rock and then through sand dunes to Turkey Cove. It was a great hike.  Of course the fact the day was warm and the sun came out half way through the hike didn't hurt.  It was a a beautiful area, the part of the hike through the volcanic rock reminded us of some of our hikes on the big island of Hawaii.  The golden sand dunes looked spectacular against the beautiful blue water of Lake Mohave. We stopped at a secluded beach to enjoy the views, the sunshine and the serenity to have lunch.  

After our hike we stopped to fill the truck up with diesel and get groceries in preparation for our departure in the morning.

Tuesday was  moving day and another warm and sunny day in southern Arizona. We arrived at Desert Gold RV Park in Brenda, AZ close to 12:00 noon. We were guided to our site by a staff member.  This is quite a park, it has 549 sites.   We usually avoid these large parks, but our desire to go to the Quartzsite RV show this weekend override our desire for smaller parks. After we got set up, John even set up the hammock, for the first time this winter.  It was warm enough this afternoon to sit outside enjoying the sun and check out our area information.

Wednesday was the perfect day for a hike. We had discovered that this RV park backs on to BLM land, so we figured we would go hiking there. As we were leaving the park we encountered a couple of fellows coming off the desert golf (ie. rocks, sand and a flag)  course on the BLM lands. The one fellow pointed out an American flag at the top of a hill and told us there was a path up to it. He  told us where the trail head was and off we went. It was a nice hike, to the top of a block lava hill. There was a metal box with pen and paper so that we could add our names to the people having been up there.  From the top we had 360 degree views, of the RV park, the town of Brenda and the neighbouring town of Bouse.

Desert Gold RV Park

Thursday  we went into Quartzsite to check out its amenities, to look into Solar systems for the trailer as well as check out some BLM land for camping. We spoke to a couple of people and got some very useful information regarding using solar as our electricity source. We also wandered through some of the booths in one of the many flea market areas set up in Quartzsite. What a strange little town. It truly is a gigantic flea market. About 4 miles of booths about 5 or 6 rows deep. After our browse through some, we headed out to the BLM camping land to take a look. There again camping on a scale unseen anywhere else in the world. Some of the areas are free camping, no facilities, no sewer dump or water, you just have to register with the campground host, since stays are limited to 14 days.   Another area, for longer stays,  is $40.00 for 2 weeks since it supplies a sewer dump and water, but nothing else.  For $180, you can stay the entire winter.   What we found fascinating with this whole process is that there are hundreds and hundreds of RV'ers camped in these areas.  We even saw a tent, think about this - yes its free, but there are no facilities. Where does a tenter go to the bathroom?  We spoke to the hosts at one of the areas and they assured us that after the RV show in Quartszite the number of people camping in the area would greatly decrease. We got back to the trailer in time to lay out and enjoy the hot sun for a while.