Muggins Mountains Wilderness

We went on another hike with our "hiking club". This time we went to the Muggins Mountains Wilderness which is just a little north of our park. The scenery was fabulous. We got to see some "water tanks". These were natural water tanks. They are just deep holes in the rock along the bottom of a wash where water can collect. Miners that were in the area in the past also created some of their own tanks by making the holes deeper or wider.

I took a picture of Muggins Peak. If you look closely at the picture with people -- Jim is on the far right. We were looking down into one of the holes. The third picture is of an Ironwood Tree. The wood of this tree is what everyone tries to collect here but you have to find the pieces that have dried to almost stone or else they just rot and turn to dust.

We had a great Christmas Dinner at the park. Our table had four couples and we each brought our favorite recipe. It was all very good -- ate too much -- but thats part of Christmas!

Water and Mines

We've been busy doing more exploring around the Yuma area. We found water -- the lower Colorado River. There are a couple of "lakes" along the river. These are places where a dam backs up the water in the river a little bit. It's very nice to see palm trees around water.

We went with a hiking group into the Barry Goldwater Range. You need a permit from the Marines to go on the range because it is part of an active base. They do some sort of bomb testing there.

We went up to the Fortuna Mine area. It was very interesting -- huge deep hole where they mined gold and some other minerals. You needed a 4 wheel drive to get there so it was nice to go with a group and ride in one of their vehicles. Our truck has 4 wheel drive but its too wide to fit on the narrow little trails you have to follow.

The weather is holding -- its staying in the 70's during the day and 50's at night.

Castle Dome

We went to the KOFA Wilderness are on our first adventure in the Yuma area. Kofa stands for King of Arizona as in the King of Arizona mine. This widlerness area is full of old mines. Some had gold in them but most were mined for lead and silver. The most famous rock formation in the KOFA is Castle Dome rock.

Jim had to take a picture of the truck out on the dusty gravel roads. We couldn't go on most of the roads in the wilderness area because you need a high clearance four wheel drive. Our truck with dual wheels gets stuck in sand very easily and we had a bigger fuel tank put underneath that hangs a little low so we can't really do much "4 wheelin".

We were able to walk to the mine in the picture. It is the Hull mine and it closed down just back in the 90's. It supplied the U.S. army with lead for ammunition from the Civil War up through the first Iraq war.

We are enjoying exploring the desert areas around us and are amazed at the agriculture in the middle of it all. This area supplies almost all of the winter lettuce for the entire country. I'll have to try and get some pictures of the fields, irrigation canals and workers that make sure we have fresh lettuce throughout the winter.

Historic Tombstone, Az

When we were staying in Benson, Az we went to Tombstone. It is a very small town down in the desert. The main street has been kept the way it was in the 1800's. They reenact the shootout at the OK Corral everyday. I got a picture of the guys getting ready to do the shootout. There is a stagecoach that you can take a ride in for a tour of the town.

We also stopped at Boothill cemetary. Its a genuine old time cemetary. The graves have new stones over them and readable markers. Most of the "residents" of Boothill were shot, murdered or hanged.

We went to Casa Grande, Az for a few days and visited another couple we worked with this past summer. Didn't like the area -- way too dusty. Lots of signs on the freeway warning of possible blowing dust with zero visibility. Luckily all we saw was lots of dust swirling in the air but it didn't limit visibility.

We have now arrived at Wellton, Az which is our winter destination -- Pioneer Rv Park. It is very nice -- big about 350 sites and we have a nice size lot. There is an outdoor heated pool and spa and lots of activities. The weather is great -- its been in the 70's just right for shorts and t-shirts.