Hiking Yuma's Telegraph Pass

Today is going to be a chore day/reading day for me, since Jim has an Oregon Beavers' football game on his agenda. 

As for yesterday:  I'd picked up the official visitors' guide “Visiting in Yuma” at the Yuma Visitors Center for ideas of things to see/do.  The magazine listed “Telegraph Pass” as the best local hike and I read on-line it was a four-mile round trip.

The hike started with a slight incline, leveled out and then...well, if you’ve every been to our house and experienced our driveway, it's similar to the last part of this hike. Our steep driveway, complete with a bad concrete job, except it kept on going.  Jim guessed it was a 30 degree incline, although I can’t swear on the Bible about the last 3/4 of a mile. We'd done our expected two miles one way -- but had nearly another mile to the top  -- when I told Jim to go on without me.  He didn't seem to mind going back instead.

So the hike was steep, but pretty and a good work out.  Even the weather was good -- high 60s with a breeze. 

Near the beginning of the Telegraph Hill hike which goes to the top of one of the Gila Mountains near Yuma, AZ.

The Gila Mountains in the distance. The highest peak in the range is just over 3,000 feet.

Jim on his way up.  You can see cell phone and antennae towers at the top of the hike -- which we didn't quite complete.

After the first mile, the trail meets a rough cement road used by cellphone and telephone antennae techs to drive to the top of the mountain.  On the way up we met a Marine who ran half of the hike with his dog, ran back down to get his mom and sister, and then passed us again. He and his pit bull were obviously very fit, but they didn't make it to the top, either. Probably because mom and sister said "no."

Part of the cement road, plus the view beyond.  We'd spotted a truck coming down from the top of the mountain and it had just passed us when I took this photo.   There 
was no room on the road for both us and the truck, so we started looking for a wide spot. Jim found one on the down side of the mountain; I barely got there before the truck reached us. I'm guessing he would have stopped, but we didn't want to make him. He was really hugging the upside of the road.

Bev taking a break near where we ended our hike. That's a mild dust storm in the background caused by the wind.

Jim post hike and pre burger at Burger & Beer in Yuma.  
Per the Yuma visitors' guide this restaurant has the best 
burgers in town and they were good.  After our burgers we 
stopped at Martha's Gardens Medjool Date farm.  The area 
around Yuma is the world's largest producer of Medjool 
dates, which originated in Morocco.

Plus a photo of our front yard patio at home in Salt Lake 
City -- sent to us this morning by our house-sitting  
daughter and son-in-law.

Yuma, AZ and the Yuma Proving Ground

We’ve been in Yuma, AZ since Tuesday and are staying at the Desert Breeze Travel Camp at the US Army Yuma Proving Ground, about 10 miles north of the city.  Yuma is in the southwest corner of Arizona and shares a border with both Mexico and California. 

I was really surprised to find that agriculture is the number one industry in Yuma.  In addition to having a John Deere tractor pulling a disc get on the freeway in front of us, we saw a lot of crops. In fact, 90 percent of all leafy vegetables grown in the US from November to March come from Yuma county. I don’t have any crop photos yet, but have to get some because they are very pretty.

As for the Yuma Proving Ground, it established in 1943 to test mobile bridges used in World War II and as a training site for the infantry and mechanized troops (troops that use tanks and other vehicles that protect them from hostile fire).  Today the YPG tests weapons systems, vehicles and other equipment headed for the battleground. About 500 troops are stationed here year round, but another 2,300 contractors make it one of the county's largest employers.  Also, George H.W. Bush made the second parachute jump of his life at the YPG in 1997 at age 72. His first was in 1944 when his plane was shot down during World War II.

Jim and an "overland train control car" not far from our 
RV park at the Yuma Proving Ground.  It was developed  
to transport heavy cargo through undeveloped areas, was 
the front car of a total of 13 vehicles, and has living 
quarters for six people in it.

Bev and some desert flowers at the Yuma Proving Ground.  It's so hot here I'm actually wearing shorts which I rarely do.  The first two days it was in the 90's; the local weatherman says that's about 10 degrees above average for November.  Today it's cloudy and cooler -- it even rained toward evening -- but I'm still wearing shorts. 

We took a trip to nearby BLM land where a lot of people camp in RVs very inexpensively.  It was hot and dusty, and while it has an "away from it all" charm, I couldn't see doing something similar for very long.

Also near the Yuma Proving Ground is a resort called Hidden Shores Village.  It's on the Colorado River and has the above very well-watered golf course. You can actually rent RV spaces there, plus it has small homes.

Our RV spot at the Yuma Proving Ground is about ten 
space down from the above tank.  Seriously.

Jim and Cooper on the YPG base.  I've posted two photos here with very green grass -- but it has to be extremely well watered to stay that way, and the field you see here is practically flooded.

Election Day

We got to Yuma, AZ on election day and stayed up late watching the results on TV.  Late for me, anyway, since I usually crawl into our sleeping loft at sundown to read.

Jim and I voted by mail before we left Salt Lake City in late October.  Since we’d spent most of the last 14 months out of state, I knew I wasn’t up to date on local issues.  But I was still really surprised to discover that my congressional district had changed, and the name of the man who’d been my congressman for six terms wasn’t on my ballot. Instead, my choices included a congressman who'd leg wrestled Stephen Colbert on TV.

When I researched my school board candidates, I discovered one of them was a convicted sex offender.  I’m thinking, well, maybe it was a bad decision a long time ago between two teenagers. Instead, it happened when he was in his late forties and involved an eight-year-old girl.  I’m all for second chances, reinventing yourself, paying for your mistakes (he spent five years in prison) etc. But I could’t get past the crime.  Not to mention the fact that as a convicted sex offender, he would not be able to enter the schools he’d oversee without special permission. 

The sex offender didn't win. My former congressman did, barely, and my leg-wrestling rep won big time.

Quartzsite, Arizona

Quartzsite, Arizona  -- with a year-round population of just under 4,000 people -- looks like a huge RV parking lot.  RV parks are everywhere.  In the winter they are filled with “snowbirds,” most of whom come to Quartzsite in their fifth wheels RVs and motor homes.  In fact, an estimated two million people come to Quartzsite for the winter and/or to attend huge gem and mineral shows, swap meets, and RV shows.  Per the Quartzsite visitors' guide, the town has 70 RV and mobile park homes, plus camping on 11,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management property.  You can camp for free on most of the BLM for up to two weeks with a permit; for BLM land closer to town it costs $40 for 14-day permits which you can extend for up to seven months.  We’re staying where it’s free and are only a couple of miles out of town.

Today we briefly explored the town and then came back to the rig, enjoyed the scenery here at our campsite, and I read the tourist literature we picked up.  I should have read it in the car, because next time I want to see these three things:

The Great Tree:  Near the Quartzsite Town Hall is an ironwood tree that’s supposedly over a thousand years old.

World’s largest saguaro cactus:  I do love the saguaros.  And near Castle Dome Peak south of Quartzsite is what’s claimed to be the world’s biggest, with 47 “arms.”

The Hi Jolly Monument: The US Army once brought camels and their drivers from the Middle East in an attempt to introduce camels to the American Southwest.  The experiment failed and the drivers left except for one man named Hadji Ali.  Locally known as Hi Jolly, he became a prospector.  A memorial at the local cemetery pays tribute to him.

A pretty typical view near downtown Quartzsite, Arizona. 

Three states in one day

First, I obviously changed the top photo on our blog to one I took this afternoon at our Quartzsite, AZ, campsite.

As for what we are up to: Yesterday we were still at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas and it was chore day:  laundry, clean the rig, figure out where to get gasoline on our way out of town (found it for $3.55 a gallon, the least expensive we’ve seen lately.)  Plus Jim watched football while I read a great memoir by Richard Russo called “Elsewhere.” 

This morning we headed towards Quartzsite, AZ.  Las Vegas is in the desert, but once we turned south onto US 95 near Boulder City, NV, the 200 miles we drove to Quartzsite really looked like the desert. No Stratsosphere skyscrapers here, let alone buildings over one story.  Let alone buildings, period.  It was brown and gray rocks, scattered Joshua trees, a few ocotillos, and mountains in the distance. Scrubby desert; beautiful in its own way but not somewhere you’d want your car to break down.  The closest city to the west was Barstow, CA, about 150 miles away.  To the east was Lake Havasu City, AZ, which you can’t get to from most of the desert we were in because few roads crossed the lake.

And now we are in Quartzsite, which we’ll explore tomorrow.  Quartzite is kind of famous in the RV world because it hosts a huge winter RV show.  It also has about 6 large Bureau of Land Management areas were people can stay for free for 14 days.

High desert chaparral as seen from the passenger window somewhere in California.  Or maybe it's low chaparral.

We were in three states today:  Nevada, California and Arizona.  Here's another view out the rear window of the rig as we move down US 95 in California.

And yet another view.

If you are on RT 95 and find our hubcap, let us know.

Bev at our campsite in Quartzsite.  Jim said Quartzsite's motto is "Rock capital of the world."