Tag Archives: RVing

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site

Posted on by
Comment

I make an unscheduled stop at an interesting place I don’t need to visit again.

After my very successful show at White Tanks Regional Park on the west side of Phoenix, I headed southwest to southeastern California. The goal was to stop in Yuma to do laundry and buy some groceries and then spend a week in the desert near the Holtville Hot Spring.

Along the way, however, not long after I got on I-8 at Gila Bend, I saw a sign for the Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site. I’d lived in Arizona for 15+ years and had never visited this archeological site. I wasn’t in any hurry and I didn’t have anyone expecting me anywhere, so I turned off the freeway and headed north.

The 14 mile road was smooth for the first 5 miles or so. After that, it headed into the hills and got windy. This was unfortunate because one of my new puppies, Rosie, gets carsick. I had her on medication but the drooling started nearly immediately and she lost her breakfast before we reached the park.

I pulled into the campground, which was just past the main parking area, got out with my puppies on leashes, and walked back to the pile of boulders that appeared to be the main feature of the park. I immediately saw a No Dogs sign. I’ll never understand why places in the middle of nowhere that are mostly fenced off anyway don’t allow leashed dogs. We went back to the camper and I tucked them inside, when went back for a walk around the boulder pile.

There were a lot of carvings on the rocks. Most looked like they could be prehistoric, but there were also a bunch from various explorers, missionaries, and other travelers coming through in the 1800s and early 1900s. There was a trail going around the pile and I took it. Most of the markings appeared to one on the southeast side, but who knows? Signs forbid going up into the rocks for a closer look.

Petroglyphs
Many of the boulders had prehistoric markings.

Petroglyphs
Here’s how it works. The rocks naturally form a black color known as “desert varnish.” People chisel away at the black color to expose the natural rock color beneath it. You can see this in many places in the desert southwest.

I took some photos, including two shots of a flower I’d never seen before, and headed back to my rig.

Flowers Flower Closeup
These little flowers were relatively widespread in the area. I don’t know what they are; I still haven’t bothered looking them up.

The campground was nearly empty. I debated back and forth whether I should just camp there for the night. It would be nice to be somewhere quiet with dark skies. I could get to Yuma and then my final destination earlier in the day. With that in mind, I drove through the campground, found a site away from everyone else, and parked.

More campers arrived throughout the afternoon. Despite the remoteness of the area in a valley surrounded by ancient volcanic remnants, my cell signal was strong and Internet access was wicked fast. A rainstorm came through. I went for a nice walk away from the rocks with my dogs. My next door neighbor ran a relatively quiet generator in the evening. It was too cloudy to see stars.

My Rig
Here’s a photo of my rig at the campsite early the next morning before we departed. You can see the pile of rocks that’s the main feature of the park in the space in front of my truck. You can also see Lily the Dog standing up in my truck window.

It had been a relaxing day — something pretty rare when I’m in transit — but I realized early in the morning that I was eager to get to my next destination. By 7 AM, we were back on the road. Rosie, dosed up with her motion sickness medication, hardly drooled before we got to the freeway.

And although I rarely have a “been there, done that attitude,” I had one about Painted Rocks as I drove away.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: Catalina State Park, Round 1

Posted on by
Comment

I visit an extraordinary state park for the first time and sleep through much of my stay.

I was scheduled to spend the first full week of February in Tucson, AZ where I was taking five jewelry making classes. The first one was scheduled for Monday, February 3, at 9 AM sharp. Although I’d booked a campground in Tucson starting on Monday, I had no accommodations lined up for Sunday night and did not relish the thought of driving in rush hour traffic from Phoenix to Tucson first thing Monday morning. So I drove to Tucson and worked on getting a place to stay once I was there. I figured that in a worst case scenario, I could camp out at a Walmart or casino parking lot.

Saguaro Cactus
How’s this for an iconic image of the Sonoran desert and Arizona in general?

I wasn’t feeling well that day. I’m not sure what was going on, but I had a low-grade headache and felt very tired. So after making a number of stops at dog shelters — long story there — I was very glad that a call to Catalina State Park that Sunday evening assured me that there was space for me in overflow parking.

I had never been to Catalina, but a friend of mine who had a girlfriend in the Tucson area had suggested it as a place to camp during my trip to Tucson. Three months in advance, I’d tried to reserve a site but it was already fully booked. Snowbirds, of course. People kinda sorta like me. So I’d found an RV park in the city that was affordable and closer to where my training was being held. Trouble was, the office was closed on Sundays so check in wasn’t allowed. (Am I the only one who thinks that’s weird?)

Sunday afternoon saw me driving up to the Catalina State Park gate/ranger station, getting out of my truck, and getting assigned a space in one of the overflow campgrounds. I’d left my cargo trailer behind in the Phoenix area, so parking was not a big deal. I drove through some gorgeous Sonoran desert scenery, found the campground, found spot #13, and backed in. Then I locked up the truck, climbed into my camper, and basically passed out on my bed for a 2-hour nap.

I felt a lot better when I woke up. It was late afternoon and the light was just getting good. It was too late for a hike, but not too late for a quick walk in the desert behind my campsite. I took the photos you see here — magnificent saguaro cacti and rugged desert peaks. I regretted that I’d have to leave by 8 AM to get to my class.

At Catalina State Park
This was also shot within sight of my campsite. It was absolutely gorgeous there.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: At Catalina State Park

Posted on by
4

A gorgeous park for hiking, biking, and horseback riding.

Saguaro Cacti
What a magnificent specimen of saguaro cactus. It had to be at least 30 feet tall.

I arrived in Tucson the afternoon before I had a 9 AM jewelry-making class scheduled. The campground I’d booked for the week couldn’t let me in a day early because (if you can believe this) the manager had Sundays off. So I had to find somewhere else to camp. I wound up at one of the overflow campgrounds in Catalina State Park.

I should mention here that I arrived feeling awful. I’d had a headache all day and felt exhausted. (In hindsight, I think it may have been because I’d skipped my blood pressure meds two days in a row.) When they said they had room for me and put me in Site #13 in the Ringtail campground for just $20, I was thrilled. I drove in, backed into my site, climbed into bed, and passed out for three hours.

So it was about an hour before sunset that I actually got a chance to walk around and see the place. I was immediately struck by the lush (in desert terms) saguaro forest filled with huge cacti. I followed a trail from my campsite into the desert and managed to snap a few photos in the warm late afternoon light. I like these best.

Desert Scene
The Catalina Mountains are beautiful and rugged.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: El Dorado Hot Springs

Posted on by
4

An oddly pleasant hot spring an hour west of Phoenix.

Janet and I left Quartzsite on the Wednesday after Tyson Wells Sell-A-Rama show in Quartzsite ended. She was headed for a ranch near Wickenburg where she’s based with her significant other and their horses during the winter months. I was headed for a friend’s house in Laveen, AZ. But first, we’d make one overnight stop: El Dorado Hot Springs in Tonopah, AZ.

We’d heard about El Dorado from a mutual artist friend who really loved the place. I’d tried to research it on the Internet and found a website so messed up that I couldn’t get much information. But I wasn’t in a hurry to get where I was going and neither was she. We figured that it would be nice to soak off the dust of Quartzsite — well, at least I figured that — and this hot spring was on the way.

I’ll start by saying this: it’s a weird place. Located just south of I-10, it has several electric and water hookup sites, as well as some overflow sites, which is where we ended up. The place has peacocks and a very large pig roaming around. There are two kinds of tubs: the big public tub, which you can use as much as you like when you pay for a campsite, or a private tub, which you must reserve and can only use for an hour. The catch: clothing is not allowed in the public tub.

I’m shy and the idea of soaking in a hot tub, naked, with strangers, was not very appealing. So we opted for the private tub and got a 7 PM time slot.

It was dark when we made our way to the tub. It was in a little fenced in area with two lounge chairs and some mellow lights along the top of the fence. The tub itself was made of stone and concrete with lots of embedded agate slabs along the top. The water came out of a pipe and down a little rock waterfall. The tub itself was big enough for 6 or 8 people — certainly plenty large for the two of us.

I can’t begin to tell you how pleasant it was to soak in a hot tub under a star-studded Arizona sky. The water wasn’t hot; it was about body temperature. Very pleasant for long-term soaking. Indeed, we stayed in the water for nearly the full hour.

It was so good that we signed up and paid for another soak the next morning. That’s when I got this photo of our tub.

Hot Tub
One of the private hot tubs at El Dorado.

The place isn’t perfect. There are more than the average number of flies in the camping area and if the wind is blowing just wrong, you can smell the Hickman’s egg farm less than a mile to the west. But it’s mellow and laid back; a nice place for an overnight visit.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: Last Aerial Look at Camp

Posted on by
2

I send the drone up for one last look at our camp in relation to surroundings.

Our camp, which was home to six people at its peak, is down to just three of us. Karen and Steve left a little over a week ago; they couldn’t seem to get work done with some much nature to distract them. (Steve loves to go fishing.) Janet left on Sunday morning to set up camp at Tyson Wells in Quartzsite, where she’ll be selling her artwork for the next three weeks. I moved Lily Rose, my mobile jewelry shop, over to my Tyson Wells spot yesterday afternoon. I toyed with moving T2, my camper, over there later in the day but decided I wanted one more night along the river. I admit that I was thinking a lot about Penny, who can be off-leash here. Once we get to Quartzsite, she’ll need to be tied up whenever we’re around other people. The Canadians, of course, are still here and will remain a few weeks after I’m gone.

After doing my last power walk along the levee road and driving down as far as what we call “Janet’s Camp” — maybe 6 miles south? — to see who was camping down along the way, I came back to my much smaller campsite community and sent up my drone for a few late afternoon shots. Here they are.

Campsite Looking West
Here’s a shot of my campsite looking west. In this shot, you can see my path to the levee road and the channel coming in from the river. You can also see the backwater channel on the other side of the road from our site and the island it makes. While everything looks pretty flat in this shot, I’m about 10 feet above the river/channel average level and another 5 to 10 feet below the level of the levee road.

Levee Road
Here’s a shot of the backwater channel south of ours, on the other side of the road with the southern tip of its island. I see here that the opening to the river is pretty much dried up. That huge sandbar would be covered with water when they release enough from Parker and Palo Verde Dams, but right now it looks as if you could walk right down it, wade across the channel, and step into California. The levee road runs in an arc from the right side of the shot to the center. To the end, it’s just 1/2 mile from our camp, making a nice, brisk one-mile round trip walk.

Two Channels
This shot is looking northeast from where the road from our camp makes the turn onto the levee road. You can see the narrow entrance to our backwater channel from the river on the left. Those folks camped on the left are only a few hundred yards from us by air but several miles away by road. The white van on the road belongs to Steve, who had come to go fishing with the Canadians; they’re on their way back here.

Our Camp
Here’s another look at our camp from the air, this time from the west. You can see the top of T2 (my truck camper); my truck is hidden by the tall bamboo. On the Canadian’s side of camp, you can see their fifth wheel and truck, as well as Steve’s van, which has just arrived. If you’ve got really sharp eyes, you can see Penny chasing the van.

I feel extremely lucky to have arrived at this camp shortly after the previous occupants left. This site is one of the best on the river and my personal favorite, mostly because of the long backwater channel for paddling — it goes two miles north, which is almost all the way to the freeway — the privacy, and the relative proximity to pavement (only three miles). I know for a fact that when I leave on Monday, my spot will be taken within two hours.

I’m sad to say goodbye to this camp, but it’s time to move on.