Painted Desert & Indian sights

Our hike this week took us over by the Colorado River in the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge. We went on the Painted Desert Trail. It was very pretty. Many different colors in the rocks and lots of different rock formations. We usually hike 5 miles but this trail was only a mile and half long. Not to worry --- we wandered up canyons off the trail and managed to make the hike the usual length.

A new rockhound friend we met in camp took us over to the California side of the Colorado River. He took us to see this quartz circle. It is quartz rocks laid out in this design. Not sure if the Indians did this or just some rockhounds. The Indian tribe in the area does have a site in the area here where they gather for a powwow. I took pictures of the framework for their sweat lodges. They also had a large framework for shade (like a picnic shelter) that they could gather underneath. When they get together out in this desert area it is a private affair and not open to the public.

We were searching for a specific kind of rock while we were out there. Jim was the lucky one and found a couple of nice size rocks. They are a deep blue almost purple. I can't spell or pronounce the name of the rock but we saw some on the internet and they can be used for jewelry. I'm going to take them to our next Gem & Mineral Society meeting and find out for sure if they are the real thing and what you can do with them.

Sightseeing & Hiking

We went to the Quartermaster Depot Museum that sits on the shore of the Colorado River in Yuma. Its where the army had a post. I took a picture of the old car to show the "plank road" that you drove on that is under the car. The plank road was built over the sand dunes that are just west of Yuma. Half of the museum is dedicated to the history of putting the dam and siphon in place to take water from the Colorado in order to irrigate the land in the area for crops. The other half shows what the quarters were like for the military personnel stationed here.

We also went to up to the city of Quartzite with a neighbor to the Rock & Gem Show. I got a picture of some of the booths set up -- all selling rocks of every kind. Beautiful rocks from near and far -- even rocks from China. You can't get away from buying "chinese" goods no matter what it is.

We did our weekly hiking trip. This time we went around the Muggins Peak. It was very beautiful and we found pretty rocks galore. We found the best desert roses (a kind of rock) that we have seen so far. They are kind of like crystal quartz that forms a circular pattern and builds up to look like a rose.

Jim wants me to add that its been very nice and warm here -- 70's and low 80's :)

Tumco Mine and "Our Mining"

We hiked through the Tumco Mine area over in California as part of our weekly hike. It was very interesting to see how large a hole they dug to get the gold. There are no real structures left of the old mining town but lots posters to show what it looked like in the past. There were some old tanks left from where they used to store arsenic to seperate the gold from the rock. You know the leach fields they left behind have to be very contaminated. We collected some black sand from the mine area and panned it. We did find two tiny flakes of gold in it.

We have also been doing some of our own "mining". We bought this little machine to help wash the sand and gravel and get down to the black sand and "gold". We have found a few specks but nothing big enough to get real gold fever. We aren't fishing so we have fun trying to find specks of gold. This little machine is all self contained and portable. The heaviest thing to haul is the water jug to fill it up.

Mitry Lake

We went with our hiking group to Mitry Lake. It's a small lake created by a small dam on the Colorado river. I took the picture of it from up on top of a giant hill that we climbed as part of our "hike." At certain times it felt like we were following mountain goat trails up and down the hills. We saw the Wellton Canal -- you can see where the water goes under the mountain. This is the water that goes to the town of Wellton (where we live).

I also took a picture of these green globs hanging in this tree. The globs are live mistletoe. They actually hurt the tree they are attached to so its good they cut them out and sell them for Christmas kisses.

We also went on an outing with our rockhounding group. We were allowed to go on a special part of the Barry Goldwater Restricted Military Area. This area is always off limits to nonmilitary personnel even with valid permits. It was great to go to an area that still had a lot of pretty rock

to pick. We got lots of jasper.

The Yuma area is filling up with RV'ers -- the RV parks are almost full up and there are thousands of spaces. We are very glad to be outside of Yuma and away from most of the RV crowd.

Prospecting the Area

Jim has been using his metal dector to try to find gold. The areas we check out don't really have any old artifacts to find so we look for gold. We found a few microns of gold by doing some panning. We got all excited but haven't been able to find anything worth putting into a vial -- YET!

I had to take a picture of the poor Gila River. It flows through the valley here in Wellton -- I think it starts somewhere up in the northern part of the state -- and eventually dumps into the Colorado river. They tell us that last spring it was so full it almost spilled over the road. Hard to believe.

We've had a little cold snap -- only in the 50's during the day and slightly below freezing for a few nights. Brrrrrr -- It should warm up by the end of the week back into the 70's.