Week ending Feb 25, 2016 Vicksburg BLM

This week, we remained parked in BLM land by Vicksburg.   In the cool of each morning we head off for a hike along one the many old mining roads that criss-cross the slopes of the hills  Each day, we have gone a little further, tracking our progress on our Garmin eTrex20 hiking GPS.   We have encountered ATVs a couple of days.   We were hiking back toward camp when the day the first group met us, so they stopped to check whether we had broken down and were returning for help.  Another day, we stepped off the road to let a stream of about 10 ATV's go by.  Since we were heading out at the time, the last ones checked to see if we were lost.   We don't think they see many people on foot on these roads.    Our hikes has taken us into the hills here, exploring several abandoned mines, particularly the Desert Queen gold mine.   There was also silver in the area.

View of BLM area with Vicksburg in background

Gecko

ATV training

Full moon rising over hills

Desert Queen (including next 2 photos)

Shelter from the sun

Ground Snake (non-venomous)

Crows Nest

Once we return around noon, we watch the Scotties, and the Daytona 500.

There aren't as many people boondocking here as we saw last year near Quartzite.   There have been up to 5 RVs with ATVs across a wash from us.   Other than that, we encountered a young couple from upstate New York, who  told us they had a fox curl up near their fire the night before.  On Tuesday a retired couple from Oregon, who have been boondocking in Arizona since early January pulled in along our side road.  We chatted with them yesterday about their experiences this winter.
On Tuesday, we drove into Parker, a bit north on the Colorado River.   We enjoyed a nice breakfast in the Crossroads Cafe.  Definitely a senior crowd.  Then we stopped at the Visitor Center to find out where we could fill a 7 gallon water jug.  After that we checked out the La Paz County Park as an option when we leave here next Tuesday.   Finally we stopped back in Parker to pick up some supplies.