Jan 31 Aqua Caliente

Jan 30

Went to Aqua Caliente. It is a state park operated unit within the Anza-Borrego state park. It has hot springs and a rv park. There are 2 pools with the water supplied by the hot springs. A kiddy’s pool 2.5 feet deep, an outdoor pool with water at  around 80 degrees and an other pool that was 101 degrees Fahrenheit.

They have hiking there as well so we did a hike and then relaxed in the afternoon in the hot spring pool. 

checking the map as we work through this narrow gorge

at this very narrow spot on the trail there was a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the path. The result was this growth of bushes on both sides that you walked under

a chuparosa plant 

a desert snowman. Some one in Aqua Caliente had put this in their garden 

Jan 30 Torote Canyon

Jan 30

Hiked Indian Gorge to Torote Canyon. 8-mile hike Still no big horn sheep

Typical view of the bottom of the wash when you are not climbing

aloa vera  plant 

a barrel cactus starting to bloom. Most desert plants won't bloom for another few weeks

our neighbours for the last few days
Blaine and Shirley Kitchener and Don and Gayle Bucannan fro Vancouver Island

Jan 29 Mountain Springs

Jan 25

We hiked up to a Palm Grove just before Torote Bowl, about 2hours.

Jan 26

Hiked to Bow Willow camp site and back. Took us a bit longer than it should have as about a mile up we missed a turn and the wash brought us back to the start of our hike. Altogether we hiked for about 3½ hours. We don’t have any cell service at this site so in the afternoon we drove down the highway until we got a few bars and stopped on the side of the road and sent out some messages to let everyone know we were all well.

In the area of the park that we are hiking there are what they call washes where over the thousands of years of earth quakes and other events valleys are formed between the peaks. When they had rains and flooding the water from the mountains would all fun into the valleys between the peaks and flow to the bottom. These became known as washes. In some of these washes there are springs, even well up in elevation. Where ever these springs occur a grove of fan palms grows. This is also where the animals come to drink. In this area there are cougars, bob cats, coyotes, which we hear at night as well as small heard of mountain sheep. We have searched daily for them but haven't seen any yet. Anza-borrega in Spanish for mountain sheep

in urban areas the dead leaves are all removed from the palms t make them look nice but in the wild it is a bit unusual to see the dead branches fall of naturally. It is a natural habitat for birds rodents etc

Jan 29 Hiked to Indian Gorge

Jan 29

Hiked along to he tops of the mountain to Indian Gorge, This hike was a pretty difficult one with a lot of climbing switch backs, and then along the top of the mountain for about 4 miles and then turned left into a wash that had 3 palm groves in it that brought us back down to the bottom.

 In the afternoon we  went to Palms Springs turn off at

N 032.54.932 W 116.14.428 The cell service only had 1 to 2 bars, but the hot spot worked pretty well.

View of our camp site from part way up the mountain.

This is a view of the entrance Indian Gorge, it goes on for miles back  through the hills.

Jan 28 Well of eight echoes

We hikes about 5 miles round trip to see this well of eight echoes that I had read about. A bit of a disappointment. I think it was originally an old oil well, about 20 inches in diameter and now only maybe 25 or 30 feet deep. It probably was much deeper at one time before there was garbage dropped in it. The folkore was that the natives used to hear voices.

Beautiful day for a hike so no big deal

I have no idea why the  park would even mention this site 

Jan 27 Bawley

Jan 27

Went to Bawley to do laundry, shopping, and returned to Mountain Spring campsite. 

About 1 hour and 15 minutes each way.

this  is our set up for playing crib or yatzee in the afternoon

Jan 26 Hiking in Mountain Springs Camp

Jan 26

Hiked to Bow Willow camp site and Back . Took us a bit longer than it should have as about a mile up we missed a turn and the wash brought us back to the start of our hike. Altogether we hiked for about 3½ hours. We don’t have any cell service at this site so in the afternoon we drove down the highway until we got a few bars and stopped on the side of the road and sent out some messages to let everyone know we were all well.

When you hike in the washes every once in a while you come across a palm grove that has survived because there is a little bit of water coming out of the mountain

looking down on the valley from the palm grove

Jan 24 Salton City to Berrego Springs

Jan 24

We drove from Salton City to Borrego Springs. Spectacular mountain views through the bad lands. Borrego Springs is small town surrounded by the mountains. Just a tourist town, they had small craft and local food market going on the lawn of the town center. We walked around some of the small craft shops and then proceeded towards Mountain Springs campsite about an hour a way. This was not one of Rose’s favorite drives. We had to climb up over the n mountains and down the other side most of the time at 25 or 30 mile an hour speed limits. The road was built in between the mountains peaks and was constantly twisting and turning . Fortunately on this road there were guard rails along the drop offs. Some of the drop offs were a couple of hundred feet down.

About 10 miles before our campsite we passed Aqua Caliente which is a group of hot springs. H0pefully we will come back and enjoy them before we leave the area,

We arrived at the campsite around 1:30. Beautiful desert mountain spot with mountains on 3 sides and the flat areas only have cactus for vegetation. Mountain Spring park,  just south of Marker 47 on Highway S2 at N2.8661 w116.20978.

View from windshield on way to Borrega Springs

This is a view of the bad lands along the highway

Badlands on the left and Salton sea in the background

A map of the Anza-Borrego State park 

Entering to town of Borrego Springs 

one of the shops on the mail street

Highwau S2 from Borrego Springs to Campsite.

 

Lots of twists and turns at 20  or  30 mile an hour speed limits

Jan 23 Yuma to Salton City

Our plan was to drive from Yuma to a BLM campsite near plaster city. We took the slow route away from the freeway and drove through the imperial desert recreation area then south along the Mexican border to Calexico and then on to Plaster city. When we arrived there we discovered that the BLM land was blocked of by some private land owners so we had to extend out rip on up to Salton city. to stay over night. A bit longer day than we planned but it was still good as we got to see the southern California landscape along the way.

Click on this link for an interesting  history of this lake

Salton Sea History

This is the view from the car as you drive through the sand dunes.  When there is high winds the sand blows across the highway like a  snow storm. Last year we saw them cleaning the sand of the road with a snow plow on a truck

These dunes are open to ATV 's and 4 wheelers

This is a massive area covering  a few hundred sq miles

As we moved closer to Calexico you could see the landscape transition to farm land

This is all farmland where they grow alfalfa  all under irrigation. 

Those white buidings are all storing giant square bales of hay

This hay is transported by trucks to the mega dairy farms . 

In the middle of no where on a back country highway was this huge set  buildings where they appear to be making sheet rock. No houses near by, just the factory. Not sure why it would be called a city.

Jan 22 Solar panels on the roof

We have been having trouble with our batteries staying charged. They should have been lasting at least 2 to 3 days and yet they were dead every morning. I contacted Total Battery in Ottawa and they told me to bring them back. Not a good solution so we purchased 2 lithium batteries and installed a solar panel on the roof.  The batteries should now last a week without charging and with the solar panel we should be good for ever.

Jan 20 Palm Canyon

 We drove about 6 or 7 miles down a gravel road that took us to Palm Canyon . It is supposed to be a growth of the only palm trees that are native to Arizona. There are big horn sheet that inhabit this area but we didn't see any. There is actually very few animals and birds in this desert.

There are 3 cactus types that are abundant in this area. This is one of them.

This type has a red flower on the tip of the branches. They are just starting to bloom.

The tall one in the center of the picture is the most common.

This was the path we walked  on. Pretty steep and rugged. Lots of loose stones that didn't give us good footing.

The picture doesn't do a good job of telling the storey. The palm trees are growing in the recess  in the mountain in the center of the picture, less than one hundred of them. This recess in the mountain is at least  200 feet up from the end of the trail.

Jan 16 Yuma to Quartzite

We travelled from Yuma to Quartzite , about 1 hours drive. When we went to put the slide out out it didn't want to move more than an inch or so on the back end. We contacted Cite Caravane in St Eustache where we bought the motor home. The service tech, Dannie,  worked with us for about 10 minutes and then came to the conclusion that we had to get it serviced. The Service Manager JP called around the Quartzite area to get some one to service it , but the only one that could work on it right away was in Yuma. We drove back to Yuma and had it serviced at 8 o'clock the next morning. The replacement controller will be in by noon on Monday and we have an appointment for 8 o'clock Tuesday morning to install it. Meanwhile we are back in Quartzite enjoying the RV show.

That was super impressive service to have our dealer's service manager completely arrange for the repair work to be done 4000 klm from home and all arranged with in one hour. It doesn't get any better than that.

This is the place that is repairing our RV.

Jan 18 RV and Gem Show Quartzite

Quartzite is a town of about 3000 people during the summer. Every year in Jan and February the run exhibitions . It starts of with an RV show and then a gem show and then a flea market. Some of the exhibitors stay for the 6 weeks. During this period the population swells to about 250,000.  There is unlimited rv parking on the BLM lands around the town. Many people spend the entire winter here.

This is the place for lunch and a beer while at the show.

These jugs were pretty neat. They heat up the bottom of the glass and then mold it to the root while the glass is still hot

This airplane was made from bullets 

The sun set from our campsite