Quartzsite Gold Mining History

Miners have been working the area in and around Quartzsite for a very long time.  Every time we go hiking around in the desert here we find old mines and holes in the ground.  Most of these were dug long ago.  Its very difficult to get a permit these days that allows mining with heavy equipment.  We've been gold mining on some claims that the local metal detector club has.  Once you join you have access to the claims.  We've had fun and found about $10.00 worth of gold.  We don't work very hard so that's all we got. 

We have seen local folks with nice nuggets they found.  If you want to find more gold you need to dig down and in this area that means at least a four to twelve foot hole.  That's a lot of work and we aren't ever here long enough to try it. 

We are headed to Yuma now and will be trying our luck there this winter for a little bit of the yellow stuff.  Its something to do but we'll never get rich!

The Quartzsite area

We are spending some time in Quartzsite, Arizona.  The weather is perfect right now.  It gets in the 80's maybe 90's during the day and 50's at night.  We've been out hiking checking out some back country.  There was a nice rain this summer and you can still see some of the growth from a little rain.   Normally this time of year it looks very brown but there is actually some green grass and green leaves on the ocotillo bushes.  I had to take a picture of the vultures.  It looked like part of a migration there were so many vultures in the air. 

Its very quiet in Quartzsite this time of year.  So we enjoy checking out the area.  Once all the snowbirds get down the desert will be full of 4-wheelers and the dust will be swirling in the air. When the "big tent" show happens in January there won't be a bare spot of desert because it will be covered with an RV.  Everyone comes and camps out in the desert (dry camping) -- no hookups for water, sewer and electric.  They live using their generators or solar for electricity and fill up their fresh water tank.  When its time to dump all the waste they have to drive the rig to a dump station.  No thanks we like staying in parks with full hookups. 

Valley of Fire State Park

I was able to take a few pictures when we went through the Valley of Fire State Park by Lake Mead.  This was the scenic route we took to avoid going through Vegas.  Its a beautiful drive (in a car) -- you can see how the road just disappears going up and down and around these impressive rock features.  There were a bunch of Japanese tourists going through the park when we were.  When we stopped to do the self pay thing at the entrance they gathered around our RV.  I think I could have charged money for tours inside if we would have had the time. 

Of course I got these few pictures and then the camera decided not to continue working.  So when we got to the Lake Mead Rec Area and tried taking pictures of more gorgeous rock features no luck.

We are enjoying our time in Quartzsite not working too hard at gold prospecting just kicking back and relaxing mostly.

Heading South Fast

We headed south as fast as we could with the threat of snow in the high country.  We stopped at a rest area north of Ely, Nevada.  Its called the Pony Express station rest area.  It was a stop along the famous Pony Express route.   The rider looks like he's trying to beat the snow coming just like us.  When we got south of Ely and at a much lower elevation we were back in warm weather.  Las Vegas is full of road construction and heavy traffic.  We opted to go the long way around by going through a state park and the Lake Mead Recreation Area.  It was an extra hour of driving and the road in the state park was not fun pulling an RV but we didn't have any traffic or road construction.  We met people later that went through Vegas and said they missed their exit because of poor signage with the construction and spent an extra hour on the road.

We enjoyed some time in Kingman, Arizona.  The weather was perfect -- 70's and 80's.  We went and picked up our boat out of storage.  It survived nicely and Jim already has the batteries charged up.  We are now in Quartzsite, Arizona where it is still in the high 90's.  We are enjoying doing a little gold prospecting -- early in the AM while it is still cool.