Hiking, Old Mines, Lots of Rocks and a SPIDER

Saturday March 15th

We left Lake Pleasant today and headed west about 100 miles to the town of Quartzsite. We are approximately 20 miles or so from the California border. Quartzsite’s claim to fame is that it hosts two large shows annually. The RV show and Gem and Mineral show.  With a normal population of between 2000- 3000 the numbers can swell to over a million during these shows. I cannot imagine trying to drive around here with that many RV’s in this town. Quartzsite is to RV’s as Sturges is to motorcycles. Fortunately the shows have ended for the year and most visitors have moved on to other snow birding locations located throughout the south and southwestern parts of the US.

The vast expanse of desert around the town of Quartzsite is BLM (bureau of land management) land which is to say that it is government land that is available to its citizen to enjoy. Therefore you can drive your RV out to an area that meets your fancy and camp for free or minimal charge for areas that provide access to water and a dump station. We are on the west side of town in a free area at a beautiful spot with no one around us. 

Sunday March 16th

The agenda for today will be exploring the desert around us and the town of Quartzsite as there are still vendors from the RV show with their tents still setup peddling their wares. There are a few things we would like to get for the RV and now maybe the time.

Solitude

The other side view, we will climb the tall hill tomorrow

From the back, really no neighbors

Flowering Ocotillo

What do you think lives here?

If you don't like spiders look away

I said look away

 Typical campsite with fire pit, this one has a fire place as well

Fancy outdoor fire place, some folks have too much time on their hands

The desert is full of diggings such as this, folks looking for treasures

 We found this mine half way up the hill we are climbing

There was a time when I would have ventured on in

 We continued on up

View from the top, you can just barely make out our RV

We drove a road we hadn’t noticed before on our way into town so we thought we would take it and see where it goes. To our surprise it led to a beautiful neighborhood that was probably the nicest area of Quartzsite. We enjoyed driving around and getting information on the places that were for sale. It was more or less a RV community where folks bought lots to just park their RV’s or rent the space out to people looking to spend a month or so. Many of the lots were developed with homes, garages, casitas etc. The lots alone go for $70,000.

Just about everyone in this neighborhood had this style wall around their lot

We did make a couple of purchases from a couple of dealers in town that are getting ready to pack up and leave until next year. Prices are marked down and there are deals to make. We did get what we were looking for.

Yesterday when we arrived the wind was blowing with gusts up to 35 miles per hour. Today however has been great with little wind, sunny skies and a high of 85. The forecast for tomorrow calls for a high of 90 and low to mid 80’s for the next ten days.

It is what it is. 

Fun Road Trip

Arizona Sunsets

We ended up exploring a good part of Arizona today by taking a 300 mile road trip that took us to some interesting places. First stop was Montezuma Castle. The structure was built between 1100 and 1300 and is a five story 20 room dwelling. It sits in a cliff recess 100 feet above the valley floor.

 Montezuma Castle

Another View

Palo Verde Tree

More Barkless Trees

From Montezuma Castle we continued north bound for Sedona which is located along scenic route 179. The views along this route are fantastic, and the rock formations like Courthouse Butte, Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock give this area its red rock claim to fame. Traffic was very heavy going through Sedona and we didn’t have an opportunity to stop and walk around, we will save that for another time.

From Sedona we took alternate route 89 which left Sedona and headed for Cottonwood. It was a beautiful drive but our goal was to continue on to the mining towns of Clarkdale and Jerome. These were booming towns during the early 1900’s.  The mines were owned by W.A. Clark and along with another one of his mines in Montana produced the majority of cooper in this country.

Mining Town of Jerome 

We stopped for lunch at a cute Mexican Restaurant in Clarkdale than continued on our way through the town of Yarnell, a quirky little hippy town in an unusually beautiful mountain setting with very interesting shopping opportunities Chris would definitely love to go back. We then continued on through Congress, an old gold mining ghost town then Wickenberg and back to Lake Pleasant. It was a long day of driving but well worth it.

View of Pleasant Lake from the visitors center

Nice Morning for a Hike and Beautiful Sunset

We decided that it was time again for a little exercise so we choose a hike. The hike we took is considered moderate with little elevation gains. It is a two mile one way hike so we figured that a four mile and couple hour hike would be just what we needed. It was a beautiful bright sunny day and still cool enough to be comfortable.

The trail head is on the north side of the lake so we got to see a new area that we haven’t seen yet. We thought for sure we would run across a snake or two but we didn’t. In fact we saw nothing other some small lizards that are always present. We did notice a lot of evidence indicating the presence of wild burros, they said there are a lot of them in the park however other than hearing them occasionally we have only seen one so far and that was on the entrance road the day we arrived.

The wind kicked up again this afternoon which prevented us from putting the awning down preventing us from sitting outside. We are hoping the wind will die down enough so we can BBQ this evening. As I am typing this I noticed that the wind has indeed quit so it is BBQ after all.

Finally some sunset pictures that show how beautiful the sky became after the wind blew some clouds in.

 Along the trail

 Part of the trail includes the bridge which takes us across part of the lake

Very north most part of the lake

Time to catch up

We left Mesa this morning for Lake Pleasant Regional Park. It was about an hour and a half drive to the northwest side of Phoenix. We are just north of Sun City West and Surprise Arizona. It’s a beautiful park that includes RV and Tent camping, fishing, boating, swimming, and hiking. We are camped on the west side of the park overlooking the desert and valley below. On the other side of us is the lake. We haven’t seen much in the line of lakes down here so this is a nice surprise. We are staying here for a week so I expect we will have a lot of down time. We are out far enough where trips into town will be far and few.

Our view from our campsite

Another view from our RV

The other side of the campground

Lake Pleasant

I don’t know if it is because we are high in the hills or not but it is very windy today. The wind takes some of the fun out of sitting outdoors. The wind also keeps us from lowering our awning which we will need as we are facing west and the only other shade we have is a small tree.  

 Another view of the lake

Sunday March 9^th

The wind has in fact died down and it is just beautiful. Just sitting and enjoying our morning coffee or reading has made the entire trip worthwhile.

After a very leisurely morning we drove into Wickenburg to visit the Desert Caballeros Western Museum. This museum has been called Arizona’s most western museum. There are over 400 paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs and sculptures. It is one of the finest collections of Western art in the country. The main building has two levels with the upper level containing the art and sculpture galleries and the lower level depicts life in the town as well as out on the ranches of Wickenburg during the early 1900 hundreds. The second building or the Cultural Learning Center features exhibitions about local mining history, Arizona minerals, American Indians of the Southwest and many fabulous photographs. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

Some pictures from the museum..

Because the town did not have a jail outlaws were chained to a tree, the above sign reads: 

The Jail Tree

From 1863 to 1890

Outlaws were chained

to this tree

for lack of a Hoos cow

escapes were unknown

Back on our mountain side campsite we spent the late afternoon and early evening sitting outdoors watching hot air balloons as they made their way through the valley. 

 Can you spot the balloon

 There's four in this shot

 This one is tough, but there are four balloons

I don't know, but I see five

Monday March 10, 2014

So much for staying close to home and do nothing today. We did do nothing this morning but have our breakfast and coffee sitting in the sun, I’ll never get use to that. But this afternoon we went to Surprise AZ to buy some envelopes so I could get our Minnesota taxes filed and Chris could send some papers she needed to send. So a trip to Wal-Mart for envelopes and who can go to Wal-Mart and only buy envelopes we can’t so we loaded up on a few other things. The shopping trip was followed up with a trip to the post office and then a stop at Red Robin for lunch. Again back home for happy hour, catch up on the daily news, super and hopefully a quiet evening.

Worlds best coffee, worlds largest pipe organ and pizza

Monday March 3^rd

Not much going on today, we spent most of it outside. Sometimes it is just great doing nothing. Besides, anytime you can take your morning coffee outside it’s a bonus day.

Tuesday March 4^th

Today we made a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some supplies. On the way we saw our favorite coffee house, Dutch Bros. Last summer we discovered Dutch Bros coffee in Oregon and northern California. We looked for them as we traveled back to Minnesota but never saw them again. We did not know they have a couple locations here in the Phoenix area, so it was a pleasant surprise to say the least.

We first heard about this fun pizza place in Mesa last year and today we decided we would give it a try. I have attached their web site if you care to read about them, it is too hard for me to put into words what it is http://www.organstoppizza.com/the-pipe-organ/history/   In addition to the entertainment, which is the reason people go there, the pizza was very good and when in the Mesa area should not be missed.

What a morning

It wasn't coffee outside all day, a beer on the patio hit the spot.

The fruit tree at our door smells fantastic

                             Order your pizza as you enter 

Step down the line and order your drink

Get a table in the main room or head upstairs to the balcony

 The lights go down the music begins and the organ appears from below

It continues to rise and rotate

 He has a lot to control

The entire back wall is two stories of organ pipes and the remainder of the room and ceiling is covered with instruments and lights all controlled by the organist. At times, when he really cranks it, the entire room will vibrate from the music.