Foothills Christmas Light Parade

One thing that is very cool for Christmas in this part of Yuma is the parades.  We had a parade that came right through our park.  People put lights on their jeeps and large 4wheelers and drove through the area going through each RV park.  They must have hooked the lights up to their batteries somehow.  They were very creatively decorated and it looked like the folks in the vehicles were having a blast.  We also had groups of Christmas carolers come around the park spreading Christmas cheer. 

Its been fun to enjoy Christmas in a busy area for a change.  The last several years we've been out in the boondocks -- a very small town in Texas and the wildlife refuge north of Yuma -- where nothing much happened for Christmas.   Our park had a Christmas lights decorating contest.  Four sites won the contest but there were so many great decorations it was hard to pick four.  Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Learning to Drywash for Gold

We met an old gold miner here in Yuma that makes his money by teaching folks how to prospect and gold pan.   His name is Old Stony and he was quite a character.  We decided to take him up on his proposal to teach us how to run a dry washer to find gold.   He took us a little north of Yuma onto some BLM land (public land) where you can prospect for gold.   He showed us where some tailings (old diggings) from an old mine were and showed us how to set up a dry washer by them.  The picture shows the dry washer on top of the pile of dirt that we ran through it.  The motor sat on top of a bucket with a hose running to the dry washer.  The hose blows air through the dry washer and also makes the whole thing vibrate.  The air and vibration push the dirt that you shovel into it down over the riffles -- kind of like a washboard -- and the gold catches in the riffles.   We shoveled dirt into the machine for about a half an hour.  You can see the gold in the pan that we found.  A little bit but it was sure pretty.

Old Stony also went over some pointers on using metal detectors the proper way so that you don't get tired out using it.   He also explained about other metals that you can find and are worth more than gold -- especially meteorites.--   Another find that he told us about is called a fulgerite.  Its where lightening has struck the ground where its sandy and turned the sand into glass.  You have to dig down carefully and what you will find is a formation of obsidian (black glass) that has limbs like a tree.  Some fulgerites that have many limbs and look more tree like can be worth thousands of dollars.    We learned a lot and had a lot of fun and would recommend Old Stony as a good teacher. 

The Potholes

This is a view taken from an area called the Potholes.  It's on the California side of the Colorado River.  The Colorado River is the little bit of blue water in the distance.   Castle Dome is the mountain peak way in the distance.  The Potholes is an area of Bureau of Land Management land that is supposed to be good for finding gold.  You need a dry washer to find gold in the desert.  It works by blowing and vibrating the dirt down over some riffles (looks like an old fashioned wash board) and the gold because its heavy settles in the riffles.   We went to check out the area and we saw lots of evidence of digging and dry washing activity.

There are You Tube videos of guys digging dirt and running it through their various kinds of dry washers in this area.  One group of guys said that they ran 20 - five gallon buckets of dirt and found about a $100 worth of gold.  That's a lot of dirt moving but that's what it takes.

Fall Colors

There is a little fall color in the salt cedar trees -- the yellow/orange color in front of the mountain.   This is the only fall color you see in the desert.  Even our first winter in New Mexico -- the only fall colors we saw were the same kind of salt cedar trees.  The only other fall colors we saw this year was in Utah up at 8000 feet of elevation.  We have a lot of mesquite trees and ironwood trees like this one in the picture in the Yuma area.  They are always green or shed their leaves and never turn any colors. 

Many people in the park are decorating their yards, palm trees and RVs so its starting to look like Christmas.  It took a few years but now I can get in the Christmas spirit looking at decorated palm trees instead of snow covered houses with Christmas lights.   I especially like walking around in the evening looking at all the lights while still wearing shorts.  

Yuma is very nice in the winter but it does have a few downsides.  The water out of the tap is too salty to drink so we have to buy drinking water and water for coffee.  They have water stations all over town where you can fill gallon jugs with reverse osmosis filtered water.  The cost is cheap .50 cents for 5 gallons.  Our park like most parks in Yuma have a water station right in the park for convenience which is nice.   The traffic will continue to get worse through the peak time of January and February when everyone who can comes down.  The stores will also have a hard time keeping the shelves stocked as demand increases so much they just can't keep up.  Oh well - its worth it for the weather.

Winter in Yuma

Sorry I can't download/upload any pictures this week on this post.   We are settled in for the winter here in Yuma, Az.  The weather has been very nice.  Staying in the 70's with only the need to wear pants early in the morning.  It might rain a few drops this week but probably not although sometimes its nice to have the dust washed out of the air. 




The water in Yuma, like many places we travel, is very hard so we bought a small portable water softener.  You just add table salt to it and so far its been working great to soften the water.  Its supposed to save the plumbing in your rig by keeping the pipes from getting corroded and clogged with hard water deposits. 


We are expecting a big influx of winter snowbirds coming down this week.  Many people wait until after Thanksgiving to come south.  The traffic on the roads and in the stores has been steadily increasing and it gets a little scary around here with all the seniors driving that probably shouldn't be anymore.