Yuma sunset

Sometimes the sunsets and sunrises are gorgeous.  All it takes is a few clouds in the sky and the usual dust in the air .  This creates the canvas for the setting sun upon which to paint an amazing scene.  It rained a few days later and there goes our hope to do any gold prospecting with our dry washer.  So why not use gold prospecting equipment that uses water.  You would think that would be the logical next choice.   The ground is too wet to use a dry washer but there are no sources of running water to run water based equipment.  You have to recirculate water from a tub of water through the equipment which quickly becomes a muddy nightmare.   

Our truck was in the shop for several weeks getting new injectors, etc.  Now that we have it back we should at least be able to go out metal detecting and do a few more interesting 4 wheeler trips.  The rain we had should also provide some great blooming desert pictures soon.

Red Cloud Mine

Our neighbors and us took our 4 wheelers to the Red Cloud Mine.  The miner who works the mine has product to sell right on the mine property.  I love buying specimens there because you know its real and you are getting the wholesale price.  The bottom picture is wulfenite that I bought awhile ago.  The top picture is of vanadinite --tiny orange red crystals that really have a great shine to them.  The vanadinite comes from a mine they just purhased called the North Geronimo Mine a few miles north of the Red Cloud.  Both of these gems are just to look at because the crystals are too soft to make into jewelry.

The road back to the mine was pretty rough, rougher than it usually is.  We then went farther north past the Red Cloud and did some exploring.  The farther we went the prettier it got.   We finally turned around because it seemed to be getting rougher and narrower which we don't enjoy.

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. 

KOFA Wildlife Refuge

Our neighbor wanted to go for a ride with the 4 wheelers so we took him out to the Kofa wildlife refuge.  We entered it on the King road which is up highway 95 toward Quartzsite just north of the border patrol check point.  Kofa stands for King of Arizona which is the name of the gold mine that produced lots of gold back in the day.  There are still a few active mines in the refuge on some private land within the refuge.  People always get confused when they see no trespassing signs in the middle of some government land but there are private holdings in the middle of public lands.  If you have ever been to Glacier National Park you will see some privately owned houses inside the park. 

The refuge has some beautiful scenery and lots of wildlife.  There are desert bighorn sheep, mountain lions, pronghorn antelope, wild burros, wild horses, desert fox and coyotes not to mention all the smaller critters.   We didn't see any but we were out in the middle of the day when you typically don't see much.  The road was fairly good which isn't the case with most of the roads in the refuge.  People can camp out here as long as you don't go more than 100 feet off of the road.  The weather was perfect with sun and no wind.  We went about 35 or 40 miles and our neighbor really enjoyed his first time out there.

Barry Goldwater Range -east of Yuma

Gold prospecting is on hold because it rained so we have been doing more 4 wheeling.  We went over to the Barry Goldwater military range east of Yuma and south of Wellton.  Its about 30 miles from where we are staying for the winter.  We had never explored this area of the Barry Goldwater before so we thought we would check it out.  It had rained a day or two before we went.  We thought it wouldn't be such a dusty ride if we went after the rain.  It was a good day for a ride and the road we took wasn't muddy.  We got quite a ways south but then the road turned into a very sandy wash.  The sand made us sink about a foot and while we could have continued it wasn't any fun slogging through the sand. 

The area is surrounded by very pretty mountains although my picture doesn't do the colors justice.  We also came across three tanks sitting out in the middle of nowhere.  Not sure if they were still in service since they had a bit of rust on them.  I can't believe the military would just leave them out in the desert to "die".  We tried a different road but it eventually got very narrow and muddy so we gave it up but it was still a good day riding.

Spook Canyon

We took a ride out into the Barry Goldwater Range.  It's a military range south of Yuma that allows some public access.  You need to go online and get your free range permit.  When you are ready to go out on the range you go online and check in so they know you will be out there.  The ranger we talked to said that was kind of a joke.  He said that when your relatives or friends start wondering what happened to you they go back and look at the records for the day you entered the range so it gives them a starting point.  There are rangers and border patrol that are out and about on the range so you might get help if you break down.  There are also emergency beacons scattered around the range but if you hit the button you better be in trouble. 

We took the road out to Spook Canyon.  There are two spook canyons in the Yuma area.  One on the range and one in the Dome Mountains.  We have been to both.  They get their name from the funny lights that can be seen when there is no moon which makes it "spooky".  Something in the rocks or soil of the area must give off some kind of gas that glows a little bit.   No one has an exact reason for the "lights."