Friday morning, we did laundry. We walked toward 'downtown'. We checked out Del Sol Market, a few blocks from the RV park. Okay for most things. Once we got to the main intersection, we were surprised how few businesses there are in town. Heading back, we walked by the town golf course. We were surprised to see a few power golf carts coming down the road with the people holding hand drawn golf carts. We stopped to chat with a lady waiting for her husband (turned out they live in Coleman in the Crowsnest Pass) to find out why. Power carts are allowed on the course, but a lot of people drive the cart to the course, then get their exercise walking the course with their hand carts.
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| Pretty bush |
From the north edge of town, we could look over the fields of vegetables towards the hills.
Back in the park we asked a couple from Florida why they come here for the winter. Too much rain and bugs at home in the winter. They told us another couple down the way were from Cochrane. They were outside when we went by so we chatted with them for a few minutes.
Saturday we went to the RV show in Quartzite. We managed to pick up a few discount coupons for RV parks, but not as many as a few years ago. On the way back, we drove up King Road toward the KOFA Wildlife area to check out boon-docking opportunities. It looks very promising. We even had good cell service, as there is a tower on the highway close to the road.
Sunday, after watching the morning draw of the Scotties, we walked for about a mile along the canal that is beside the RV park. At one point, Joan asked, facetiously, if John had seen any fish in the canal. As it happened, there was a fish, about a foot long swimming along the canal right at that point. About 5 minutes later, we saw a couple of fish swimming the other direction. Then we saw 3 more. A pattern was developing. They were all at least a foot long. We were surprised to see any fish in the canal, as it is a concrete trough with very little vegetation in it.
Monday noonish, we drove east about 43 miles to Aztec, along I-8. About 5 miles east of town, we found the source of the odor we get occasionally in the mornings, a huge feedlot. At Aztec, there is only a holstein feedlot on the south side of the freeway and an abondoned service station on the other side of the freeway.
We headed about 6 miles back west to Dateland.
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| Date palms at Dateland |
The Dateland Service Center has a large gift shop, a Quiznos and world famous date shakes. We picked up some dates, a hot dog and two large shakes.
They also have some special facilities, presumably so you don't have to leave your pet in the car while you enjoy date shakes.
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| Special pet facilities |
From Dateland, we drove north to the UP railline which runs from Yuma northeast to Phoenix. There is a gravel (sand) road that runs parallel to the rail line. We were on the section northeast of here a few years ago when we went to Agua Caliente. Shortly after we turned onto the road we came to the memorial for the 81st Infantry Division that did desert training here in 1943.
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| 81st Infantry desert training memorial |
The first section of the road was rough washboard, but eventually it got smoother. After a while we got to quite a smooth stretch, until we caught up to the grader that was finishing the second side of the road.
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| Coming up on the grader |
After we passed it, we stayed on the recently graded left side of the road. Then we encountered the truck that was watering our right side of the road. Not too far past it, we got to the beginning of their grading for the day. Later on we could see why they were grading and watering, as the sand blew across the road (better than snow).
Once we got past the north end of the Mohawk Mountains, we were out of desert into heavily irrigated leafy green crops, that varied from just seeded, we assume, to young plants, to mature plants. We drove through the small town of Roll, then looked for 'Radium Hot Springs'. The last half mile looked like it was through private property.
Tuesday we watched Scotties. We planned to play the mini-golf course, but the odor from the feedlots deterred us.
Wednesday we did another recon, looking for dispersed camping. We had been planning to stay for another week, but the feedlot odors and the slow Verizon internet in the area made us change our minds. There is a BLM Long Term Visitor Area (LTVA) at Imperial Dam. It is about 3500 acres of desert just west of the Colorado River in California. There are hundreds of RVs spread over this area, most of them in large clumps, with maybe 3 times the space between them as a decent RV park. There were a few areas with less density. The attraction here is that for a about $200 (we think) for the winter, or $40 for two weeks, you get access to sewer dumps, dumpsters, potable water, and maybe pit toilets. In some areas, units had to be self-contained (i.e. you have to have a toilet).
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| LTVA from across Mittry Lake |
From there, we went to Mittry Lake Wildlife Area. The road in from Imperial Dam Road had several pull-outs, some with RVs, or tents, on them. We pulled off on one of the spots, dug out our camp chairs and had lunch.
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| Mittry Lake |
Once we got down to Mittry Lake there was an area along the lake with lots of RVs, and another area on a plateau above the lake densely occupied. There is a 10 day limit on staying here.
Thursday, we decided the local dispersed camping wasn't dispersed enough, so we headed up Highway 95 to King Road, which we had checked out on Saturday on our way back from Quartzite. Around the Castle Dome Road area, we had seen a blimp tethered above the desert. It wasn't flying today. Instead, it was on the ground. Some internet research found a yumasun.com article from Feb 4, 2013 that describes it as an 'aerostat' 'eye-in-the-sky' scanning for low-flying aircraft that could be bringing illegal drugs into the U.S.
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| Blimp on ground |
King Road is about halfway between Yuma and Quartzite running through KOFA Wildlife Refuge. We saw the Wildlife truck several times once we arrived here. There are about 15 RVs spread along 1.5 miles of road (as far as we went), so much more spacious than the LTVA or Mittry Lake. After getting set up, and watching the end of the Scotties tie-breaker, we decided to find a point of interest on our Arizona Topo Map about 1.5 miles from us, labelled as a natural arch. After crossing washes for about an hour and only getting about half way, we gave up for today and headed back to the trailer.
We are looking forward to quieter nights since we aren't beside the transcontinental railway line that runs through Wellton.
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