Ferguson Lake

We took a 4wheeler ride with our neighbors over to Ferguson Lake.  They have been coming to Yuma for years but had never seen this part of the Colorado River.  We trailered our 4 wheelers over to the California side of the Colorado River and started our trip from the long term camping area by Senator Wash.  This camping area is run by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and for around $80 or so you can dry camp for up to a 180 days.  They provide a water and dump station but you need to provide your own power.   Most people are running solar panels and generators for electricity. 

The road to Ferguson lake goes right through the camping area and then north.    We stopped at the top of the highest point and I took a picture of the lake.  Really the lakes here are just small back water ponds.  The bottom picture shows the river with a boat fishing and then farther in the back is Martinez lake.   If you click on the picture it should get bigger to see the boat.  Martinez lake has houses around it and there are two restaurants as well as a boat launch.  It is a popular place to stay especially in the summer.  People come over from California and boat on the river, stakeout a sandbar and party.

Polaris Mine

When we went out  to the refuge we also made a stop at this mine.  The building used to house the miners.  It is locked up because the floors are unsafe.  There are a few things left around the mine area.  A very scary looking ladder that goes up to the mine -- the ladder looks very rotted.  There is a mine tunnel that is open and on the floor of the mine are core samples from the surrounding rock.  They would drill to see if there was a good vein of gold or other metals.  The cores are about two inches around and anywhere from inches to feet long but most are broken into small easily carried pieces.  People like to take them and polish them up because they have colorful rock in them. 

Mining out here had to be a pretty hard life but there was a lot of mining activity back in the 1800's.   Now there are still one or two active mines in the area.  They are very small scale and don't produce much.  It is very beautiful country and fun to explore when the temps are reasonable.  Can't imagine what it is like out here when it gets up to 120 degrees.