Phew! Picacho Peak State Park In Arizona, Just Love This Place

This guy  got a little too much sun.

This is the home of many different varieties of Cacti

Sunset from our campsite

These Saguaro Beauties have to be fifty before the start to get arms

This is the state tree of Arizona, the Palo Verde. It has green bark.

Desert Wind Chimes

Bowling anyone?

There is a little Bird hiding in this bush right by the Barrel Cactus.

Flowering, a great time of year to be here.

Ocotillo in Bloom

Different camera setting for the sunset

Closer look at the Ocotillo flower. Those thorns are killers.

Freshly bathed and nowhere to go. Missing the cousins.

Just happy to be on the couch!

Love this Place. Third time here.

Desert Landscaping

Gila Woodpecker

I Owe You A Few Pictures!

My question from the last post was what movie was the quote "What Hump?" from?   And the winner was Uncle Norm. It was from the movie Young Frankenstein.    Congratulations Norm.

What was Paul Revere's occupation?   

Well, I have been trying to get pictures on with no success tonight. So I will try again later... 

Anyway,  our last post had us leaving Ogilby Road BLM Property, at the California border . We are  headed to the National Parks in Central California. I have a few great pictures of the sand storms we seem unable to avoid along Interstate 8. There is a portion of the road that is just so beautiful and the boulders along the road are huge and just seem to be perched on top of each other. I am in awe of each area that is more spectacular than the one before. Stay tuned for pictures.

We headed up Interstate 8, cut north past the Salton Sea. This is a large salt water lake that was created by a break in diversion canals from the flooding  of the Colorado River between 1905 and 1907.  It is the largest lake in California and has no outlet.This is partially what causes it to be salty as well as being in a salt basin.

We continued our beautiful drive in the bright California sunshine. We passed Palm Springs and saw some of the  golf courses that draw  celebrity  golfers from all over the world. We drove under the Bob Hope Highway, Gene Autry Trail,  Jack Benny Road and Bing Crosby Drive. Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shores spent many years here.  There is a tram in the area that takes you above the beautiful city. The view is breathtaking. The tram rotates 180 degrees. In 10 minutes you go from 2600 feet to 8500 feet elevation up the sheer cliff of the Chino Canyon. Wow!

The whole area is a huge solar energy farm with solar panels and wind turbines. The area is quite windy due to the location in the Chino Canyon. The  huge amount of sunshine the area gets makes it a great spot for the solar panels. The average rainfall in this area is only 4.8 inches per year. The temperature in this area averages 74 degrees. Nice!

We found a nice campground in Yucca Valley, California. I needed to catch up on laundry and we needed to do some grocery shopping.

Next on our list was Joshua Tree National Park. The Park Campgrounds were full and experiencing heavy volumes of tourists due to Easter Vacation and Spring Breaks from school. So we took our trailer and went to the overflow area which was another BLM (Bureau of Land Management) Property. We were ready for dry camping. I truly believe it was a dried up lake bed. The ground was so cracked and hard. The dogs could wander all they wanted unleashed but poor Toby couldn't find a single rock to christen. It was so windy that their ears kept lashing their faces and the breeze whipping their tail was very disturbing. It took Toby several tries to get that he could not pee into the wind.

We got to recognize returning campers over the four days we were there. The sunsets were beautiful and the stars, oh my. 

The Answer

Well, the answer to the question of who has larger ears,  Spock or Yoda, is Yoda! Not to surprising. I was thinking of another question.... for you movie buffs. What is the name of the movie that had the line "What hump" in it?

After we left Deming and the City of Rocks in New Mexico,  we jumped back on I-10 and headed toward  Arizona. We spent one night at Fort Wilcox Campground. Nothing special,  but we got off the road early and had a quiet evening. We planned to get to the Tempe area the next day.

 We needed to find a spot to get the dogs groomed because they were so dirty. We found this awesome town called Oro Valley near Tucson. They had a PetSmart and we were able to scheduled baths for them. While we waited we had lunch, walked around Target to kill some time and just appreciated the magnificent view. Do you think people stop seeing the mountains and blue sky when they can see it every day? Maybe so, but it still makes me catch my breath when I look out the window of our car or trailer every morning.

We drove to Picacho Peak State Park after and spent two days there doing some hiking and watching the sun set. We were trying to rendezvous with Alison's friend Ben and his girlfriend Cait for a bite to eat. But Ben was busy and Cait's family was in town for Spring Break. It just didn't workout, bummer, but maybe on our way back through. Ben did invite us to join them at a local Bar to play trivia but we were leaving the next morning and Tempe is about an hour from where we were staying. It sounded like a late evening and I wanted to be fresh for the next days drive. Besides, I am really good at trivia and I didn't want to show him up! Game on Ben!

Bill has been following a blog called "Love Your RV.com" and that led us to our next adventure. This fellow that writes the blog does a lot of Boondock camping which is generally on BLM or Bureau of Land Management property.  Usually there are no facilities and you just pull off the road into open land and find a spot you like. So we bought a generator before we left that would power up the fifth wheel after the sun went down and in the morning to take the chill out of the trailer and get us our morning cup of coffee. I wasn't sure but oh my gosh it's great.

We stopped and spent the night in Yuma Arizona. There was a Walmart, so we shopped for some groceries, bought batteries, wood for campfires and filled up our gas tanks as well as extra gasoline for the generator.

The next morning we crossed into California and jumped on I-8 to exit 159, Ogilby Road and found one of the spots that Ray and his family stay at often. Seriously it was neat. Next time I can get pictures on it was crazy. Our nearest neighbor was about four football fields away and we met some of the nicest people. We were close to the Imperial Sand Dunes. These are a dune buggy drivers paradise. People pull their campers right onto the dunes in designated camping areas and have a blast. I have some great shots and can't wait to get them up.

I never heard of the dunes but they are unbelievable. Also in the area was an abandoned  gold mine ghost town where we took the dogs walking. It was too hot to leave them at camp with no electricity and they would have been toast by the time we got back. The temperature was 105 and SUNNY! They are such good campers.

Well it is getting late and I am rambling a bit so I will sign off for now.

It was nice to see all your faces  at Patty's house on Easter and it looked like everyone was having so much fun. I can't wait to get details about the adult Easter Egg Hunt.  Love you all and Stay tuned for from the Wright Road.

Moving On Again, From Alamogordo

To fill that awkward thirty second conversation gap ............Who's got bigger ears? Yoda or Spock? Tune in to the next blog entry for the answer to the Question.

The time has finally come to leave Alamogordo. I have already posted pictures from there because it was such a perfect spot to visit a lot of places and not have to move the trailer. The weather here as well as the scenery was perfect. But all good things must come to an end. I also included some photos of the White Sands Missile Site which we visited on our way to Las Cruces, New Mexico. 

It was early enough in the day and we made it it to Deming, just past Las Cruces. We had stayed in the area before but this time we chose this out of the way old cattle ranch. It was quite a dusty ride but well worth it.It was called Hidden Valley Ranch, and no, we did not have a salad when we got there. The sites were big, and the family living there had been running the ranch for about three years. There were many residents who have been returning guests for many years. The campground had just celebrated its eightieth birthday.

We stayed a few nights because of its central location for more sightseeing.

Hidden Valley Ranch

An Old Water Well and Tank. They had it decorated and lit up at night with festive lights. Very Cool.

There was a pool.......at one time!

We enjoyed our morning coffee and plain donuts looking at this view.

This was where we got our best phone reception. That is our campground wayyyyyy down  there. See those white specks by the mountain base, those are the trailers.

We took the dogs and walked down this dry river bed.

Rock drawings we found while we were trying to find a spot to use the phone.

Petroglyphs

This was a little cave or fire pit we found on a hike. It looked like it had been there a very long time.

Came upon this guy at the side of the river bed

Bones in a fire pit.....Need to brush up on my bone identification skills.

Anyone remember what these are from our Colorado Horseback Pack trip?

The only tree in the camp. A premium shade area

The next area we visited while we were in the Deming area was City of Rocks State Park. It was close to the ranch so we drove about twenty miles up the road and stopped to see these magnificent rock formations. They were formed of volcanic ash 30 million years ago and shaped by the wind and water into these monolithic blocks. 

These rock formations are so unique and are only found in six other places in the world. If you use your imagination the shapes take on the likeness of familiar things. Some look like houses, chimneys and line up like houses on a city street.

There is a botanical garden here as well. Many cactus plants are in the area. There are rumored to be deer, javelinas, jack rabbits and antelope in the area and plenty of birds, from Golden Eagles to finches.

The big guy in the middle reminds me of a bird with a hat on.

The little rock is just perched there.

The scooped out areas are caused by water and wind. I forget what it is called but find out and put it in later. This appears in other rocks we have seen.

Looks like a chimps face.

The round one is just sitting there.

This big guy is seriously just balanced on the two rocks.

Bill shows up in the darnedest places!

The campground has no facilities at the individual sites and you just tuck in between the rocks. 

More campsites, and it was full.

The Garden

Hidden Micky

Ocotillo

A small Mohave Yucca

A Hedgehog Cactus about to bloom.


We  heard this was a great year for the flowering cactus  because of the cycle they seem to be on. Every ten years or so is a good year, and this appears to be a great year. We have seen lots of blooms and I have more in the next set of pictures. Well I guess that is all for now.


Have a great Easter! Love you.

In Our Travels Along The Way

While here, at Alamogordo, we had a chance to visit Fort Stanton Historic Site and the city of Lincoln.

Fort Stanton was built before the civil war to support and protect the settlers coming to the area.  Since then it has been a TB hospital and an internment camp for German POW's during the WWII.

This bed was about the size of a three/quarter size bed.

Very cozy

Off site they are working on the  Merchant Marine cemetery. It is quite impressive

The city of Lincoln is famous for the "Lincoln County War" of 1877 to 1881.  Billy the Kid was involved in that war and it w

as in Lincoln that he killed a federal marshall and a deputy sheriff a few months before he was killed by sheriff Pat Garrett.

First class transportation

Billy the Kidd, 

Often prisoners were handcuffed or shackeled to bars like these when cells were not available

This broken down building appeared to be some type of jail because of the bars remaining on a window in the back

On our way to Deming we stopped by the "White Sands Missile Range" to tour their museum.  They did a security check that took 15 minutes before we were allowed into the area.

Security Checkpoint into the Missile Site in New Mexico.

This is the code name for the test of the first Nuclear device in the White Sands area of New Mexico

Called the Gadget

This is a casing like the one that was around the  plutonium

bomb called Fatboy which was dropped on  Nagasaki,Japan in the second world war. This essentially ended the war.

I think this was an Atlas Missile. They kind of all looked the same to me, just different sizes.

More Missiles

Our view at the approaching mountain range. I wish they named them on the maps.

 Along the way we stopped at McGinn's Pistachio & Winery, where we tasted and bought wine. We were also treated to a view of the worlds largest Pistachio.

This Roadrunner was a frequent visitor in our campsites in New Mexico.