Salt & Cactus

 A friend of ours has a really cool cactus called a pencil cactus.  It doesn't have sharp spines like most cactus.  It is actually soft to the touch.  As it gets more crowded in its planter it will have more blooms.   There are so many kinds of cactus it is mind boggling and each one has something unique about it.  

We had new tires put on the 4wheeler and took it out to where we gold prospect.  We noticed right away that the new tires gripped the road better.  When we were out there I took a picture of the white stuff all over because it looked like snow.  We got a lot of rain and it seems to have made the salt rise to the surface.  The area we prospect in is close to the river and is where the salt deposits are more plentiful.  This area used to be part of the ocean and the salt was left behind when the water evaporated.  It will be awhile before the dirt is dry enough to go back to gold mining.   It is nice to have a little break  from digging and the weather is getting very nice so it is time to do more 4wheeling and exploring.

Citrus Time

 Grapefruit and oranges abound in the neighborhood.  Also there are lemon and lime trees full of fruit.  Some people advertise free fruit and some seem to use all they have hanging from there trees.  Grapefruit are always in the most abundance because so many people are on meds that don't interact well with grapefruit.  The oranges aren't the best eating like a Florida orange but for juice and recipes they work well.  

It is finally raining here after almost nine months of no rain.  So we are done digging for gold for awhile.  I haven't been called back to work yet and with covid raging in Yuma I'm kind of glad.  The restaurants and bars are all open and there are large gatherings of people at the outdoor markets and outdoors listening to music.  It is no wonder the covid rate is really high here right now.  

Interesting Rock Formations

 I have more pictures of some of the sites out on the Barry Goldwater Range.  I thought these rock formations were rather unique.  I like rocks and belong to the Yuma Gem and Mineral Club.  We go on outings to find interesting rocks.  There have been two outings so far this season but I didn't go.  The person we usually go with in a jeep didn't come down this winter so not sure if we will go on any outings.  The club also has two meetings a month which haven't happened because of covid and not sure if there will be any meetings.  Most of the members are in their late 60's and 70's so they are reluctant to gather in crowds.  I'm not that comfortable with it either so we will see.

The weather here in Yuma has been fairly warm and dry.  Our cold snap is usually from mid December to mid January and that is holding true this season.  We have had a few weeks of 60's during the day and 40's at night.  The weather forecast starting around January 15th is predicting close to 80 degrees.  Last spring we stayed in Yuma until the third week in April and it was getting way too hot.  We are hoping to leave by the first of April but would like to get vaccinated before we go.  It just depends on how well the vaccinations in our area are going.  

Fortuna Mine Area

Friends that we have known since the 70's came to visit us.  They have a winter home in Tucson and like gold prospecting.  They belong to a prospecting club in Tuscon and thought it would be fun to join us in Yuma for some prospecting.  The first day we did some touristy stuff and then we took them on a ride in the Barry Goldwater range to the fortuna mine.  We have been there several times and I have posted pictures of the hole where the mine was.  This time I took some of the surrounding area.  The hillside picture has a tiny whole where a miner dug probably trying to find a vein.  There are lots of "prospects" or holes that have been dug all around the area.

The next day we took them out to the potholes area on the California side of the Colorado River to do some digging.  They helped shovel dirt and run the drywasher.  We had a good time and found a little gold.  They had brought their metal detectors so we got a little detecting in as well.  It was fun to compare notes and share what we think we know about prospecting and detecting.  It was hard work but I think everyone had fun.  
 

4wheeling north of Wellton

 We took our neighbor out 4wheeling and went to Wellton.  Wellton is the next town east of Yuma off of interstate 8.  We were going to ride north of town and head east toward the next towns along the interstate.  Our plan was to follow a part of the Arizona peace trail.  This is an ATV trail that makes a giant loop within Arizona and is at least eight hundred miles long.  It isn't really a new trail.  It uses existing roads and trails but they have added signage so you can make the giant loop without getting lost.  Well east of Wellton it isn't marked so we had to guess where we were.  We thought we were doing well when we saw a sign for a BLM road that looked well used.  We followed it until we hit the Yuma Proving Ground signs that warn of danger and then the no trespassing sign.  We turned around and headed back.

We took some other trails that go north toward the mountains.  Where we were you could only go so far and then you hit the danger signs again.  It was beautiful back where we went and we had good views of the fields in the distance toward the interstate.  You can't really get lost out here so that is one good thing.  When we got back we realized that we shouldn't have gone on the BLM road but should have stayed on the road that follows the irrigation canals.  Oh well we will just have to give it another try one of these days.

More of Barry Goldwater

 When we went 4wheeling on the Barry Goldwater there were some other things we saw besides the border wall.  At various points out in this vast desert there are emergency call boxes.  The top picture is one of these call boxes with the huge antennae.  If you use it then you had better be in real trouble and the sign on it warns you it may take up to an hour to get to you.  They put these in place across the Barry Goldwater area after a number of illegal aliens died trying to cross the desert.  It is also nice for those of us who choose to go 4wheeling out here since there isn't a lot of cell coverage.

The other picture is showing the way to follow the Devil's Highway.  You can take this "road" all they way over to Ajo a town west of Tucson.  We had friends that drove most of it and it took them a good twelve hours.  It used to be a road back in the forties that tourists followed by mistake and would get stuck in the sand and many died in the heat of the summer because there aren't any ready water sources.  It is still not an easy road/trail to follow.  

The Border Wall

 Our neighbor wanted to go for a 4 wheeling ride.  His friends aren't down yet so he is was looking for something to do and doesn't like to ride alone.  We decided to to go out on the Barry Goldwater Range south of us.  We thought it would be fun to see if we could get all the way to the border.  The road we took is only open to the public that have gone online and gotten a permit.  It's free and you have to watch a safety video but that's all there is to getting one.  The road wasn't in too bad a shape.   We were on it last February and it was so rough we didn't get far. 

This trip we were able to go all the way down close to the border.  We couldn't get to the wall itself because they had the area blocked off .  They are working on it redoing the old wall.  There were lots of big trucks rolling by carrying rock, hauling big metal pylons, cement trucks, etc.  Its hard to believe that they ran the wall across a mountain side.  It is fifteen or twenty feet high and this part of the wall is in a very remote part of the desert.  We rode thirty-five miles south to get there and only saw one border patrol but they had two trucks positioned at different places with all kinds of surveillance equipment.  So they are watching.