Tag Archives: Arizona

Alamo Lake State Park – continued (AZ)

2015/03/01 davidhobden@mac.com

We made it back to Scott and Julie Richardson’s house this evening (Sunday) after enjoying the day with them touring the area. I’ll post about that shortly.

But first, I have to bring you up to date on the rest of our time at Alamo Lake State Park. As I mentioned in my last post, the reason I got behind is because internet connectivity at the lake was almost non-existent. So, to continue on where I left off in my last post from this morning, here’s what we did…

21 Feb (Saturday):

We got invited to go ATVing with some other campers that we got into conversation with the day before. So we graciously accepted their invitation and met the group first thing in the morning. We carried our little dog “Coach” in his doggie backpack. And off we went…

There were seven ATV’s in the group altogether and our first destination for the day was going to be the “Mud Cliffs” that you can see on the right side of the hand drawn map (below) that we got from the ranger station. Our start point is labeled “Camp C” in the lower center of the map.

Stilla took some pics while riding on the back.

And here are the Mud Cliffs.

We rode through the sandy bottom of the gorge between the impressive cliffs.

The trail got smaller and smaller as the cliffs closed in on each side. Most of the group waited at the entrance to the cliffs because they had been there before and many of the side-by-side ATV’s were too wide to make it very far without getting stuck anyway.

We rode until the trail was blocked.

Then we parked and walked a little ways further up the canyon.

Stilla posed (at a safe distance) under an arch that looked like it could collapse at the first hint of rain.

After our “Mud Cliffs” adventure, we rejoined the rest of the group and headed further east. The destination was supposed to be a magnesium mine that some in the group had an agenda to see. However, during a short rest break, one of the side-by-side ATV’s wouldn’t restart. So we ended up spending the next hour or so troubleshooting the problem. We finally got it restarted but it was getting late so everyone decided to head on back instead of continuing on to the mine.

We got back in time to stop at the “Wayside Inn” before they closed for the day. This little bar and grill is in the middle of nowhere but they still manage to serve up great burgers and fries. They also have the only gas for sale within 35 miles.

Little “Coach” was happy to run around a bit after a long day of riding on the ATV. We had gone about 55 miles for the day and still had a few more miles to get back to the campground.

The “Wayside Inn” A small campground bar and grill – miles from nowhere.

One of the other riders in the group had a Can-AM ATV just like ours. His was a year newer than our 2007, but it was the same silver “limited-edition” series… the first one I’ve ever seen like ours. I took a couple pics and took note of how his mirrors are mounted because that’s something I’d like to add to ours in the near future.

We finished up our adult beverages (also available at the Wayside Inn) and motored on back to the campground to call it a day. And what a fun day it was!

22 Feb (Sunday):

We decided to spend the day (Sunday) on the lake to see if we could get some good use out of the $55 Arizona fishing license I purchased at the ranger station when we got here. So we broke out our Sea-Eagle inflatable raft that we keep in the back seat of the truck. It’s the SE-9 model called the “Fisherman’s Dream” with an electric trolling motor. We got ours from InflatableBoats4Less.com. The link to the SE-9 model we purchased is here.

We bought some live minnows at the ranger station / general store ($2.75 per dozen) and went to the boat ramp on the west-end of the lake to inflate the boat. After we got the boat into the water, we slowly motored our way to the other end of the lake while I trolled behind us with the minnows for bait. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the east-side of the lake, which is peppered with dead trees, the wind had picked up significantly. We were told that the “hot spot” for fishing was near the dead trees, however, an inflatable boat, no matter how sturdy, is no match for dead trees sticking up out of the lake… especially in high winds. So, we had to cut our day short and motor all the way back against the wind. We were worried the battery might not hold up, but luckily we were fine and didn’t have to flag down anyone for a tow.

Once we were safely back at the dock, we stored the trolling motor and battery, left the raft inflated and loaded it onto the back of the truck. We then released the remaining minnows on their own recognizance to fend for themselves in the dark waters of the lake.

Oh well, there’s always another day. You know what the say; “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work” 🙂

We spent the rest of the day hanging around the Coach. I used the time to give the ATV a good washing. Then I cleaned and serviced the K&N air filter after removing an old animal nest I found under the plastic cowling in front of the seat. A fellow camper gave me some of the “recharge” oil I needed to properly service the filter.

I know you’re disappointed, but there’s only one picture for the day.

It rained off and on all night.

23 Feb (Monday):

It was still sprinkling in the morning and it was chilly… I don’t think we’ve had temps this cold since we left Colorado. Another ATV ride had been scheduled with the same group we hung out with before, but everything was cancelled due to the poor weather.

We took the inflatable boat off the back of the pickup and drained out all the water it had collected overnight.

Then we decided to take the pickup out to the Wayside Inn to get our 5 gallon fuel can refilled, but that ended up being a short trip because the dirt road that goes out to the Inn was too muddy… I didn’t want to spend another day just washing the truck. We turned around and went back to the campground.

So we ended up taking another trip up to the dam to look for burro’s. We’ve heard the burros almost every night but haven’t seen any yet… Stilla wants to see some burros. Unfortunately for Stilla, no burros were to be found anywhere… just several road signs that say; “Watch for Burros”.

The rest of the day, we spent hanging around the Coach. At least the rain washed some of the dust off the Coach, so I spent some time wiping it dry once it stopped drizzling. Then we closed out the rest of the day with a lot of television.

24 Feb (Tuesday):

It was another chilly morning, but at least it was dry. We got invited to join a different group this time to do another ATV trip. The destination today was a giant Saguaro cactus that someone in the group had discovered on an earlier trip. This time, we left little dog “Coach” in the big Coach since it was supposed to be a long ride.

There were seven or eight ATV’s in our group today.

It was a long way out, but we finally arrived at the giant cactus.

Stilla posed for this picture which gives the huge cactus some perspective.

Pretty impressive, eh?

We then headed towards a distant mountain range… the goal was to see if there was a way across and then back to the campground. That goal was not realized…

Along our route to the mountain range, we stopped to explore around some abandoned mines.

Everyone had brought their own lunch which we stopped to enjoy after checking out the abandoned mines.

We then headed on up the mountain. Check out the long winding road in the picture below.

Here we can see the top of the mountain with all the antennae on top.

Getting closer to the top.

View back towards the lake… way in the background.

We ended up having to turn around at a gate near the top. At least the views were awesome. It’s a shame we couldn’t make it all the way up, or even better, down the other side. The GPS said we had attained an altitude of ~5,200 feet above sea level.

We stopped at the Wayside Inn on the way back. We must have been on fumes after traveling over 70 miles for the day. The fuel gauge was showing empty for miles before we finally rolled in. They close at 4 PM on weekdays, so we were especially lucky to have made it back on time, just as they were closing. Another good day!

25 Feb (Wed):

Today (Wednesday) was another full day of ATVing. We met John the first day we got here and he was with the group from yesterday when we visited the giant cactus. He and his wife offered to take us to the north side of the lake to “Red Canyon”. We took little “Coach” along with us today.

We crossed to the north side of the lake by going through the marsh-like river bed on the east side.

It was dry where we crossed the river, the water was running underground. John said they had to ford through at least six inches to a foot of water when he crossed last week.

After an hour or so we finally reached the “Red Canyon”. Here’s some pics for your viewing pleasure…

We even explored a couple side canyons, but most just dead-ended like this one.

This is truly a “must-see” canyon… and super fun to ride through. We’re going to have to come back here sometime in the future to explore of the area, we only scratched the surface from what we’ve been told. We ended up going about 50 miles for the day.

26 Feb (Thursday):

It was time to give the fishing another try. Today, the water was calm with very little wind. We stopped at the ranger station / general store to get some more minnows on the way to the boat launch. We met a guy that was checking out of the campground and he offered to give us his remaining minnows. I thanked him and we hit the lake.

Stilla thought it would be funny to take a picture of my catch. Really, it’s the bait minnow ready to go into service and do his duty.

This time, we stayed on the west side of the lake and didn’t worry about trying to go around the dead underwater trees on the east side. We didn’t want to get caught too far away from the boat launch if the wind picked up again… plus, we didn’t want to fight for space with the other fishermen in their boats.

After an hour or so, I hooked a fairly large fish, but it got off the hook just as Stilla was putting the net in the water. Bummer.

But it wasn’t too long before I landed another one.

It was a male crappie according to a fellow fisherman and our ever-helpful friend; Wikipedia.com.

It was a slow fishing day according to other fishermen that I talked to later. But at least I didn’t get skunked this time 🙂

We cleaned the fish back at our campground at the fish cleaning station with the help of yet another friendly fellow camper that was an experienced fisherman. We got some pretty nice filets for the freezer.

Here’s a final parting shot of the lake, since this is our last day here.

Tomorrow, we plan on moving on, as our weeklong reservation concludes.

And Stilla finally got a picture of some of the local burros. So she’s happy too.

Goodbye and good evening from Alamo Lake State Park. We’ll be back!

27 Feb (Friday):

We left the state park after driving the Coach over to the dump station and taking care of business there. Tire pressures are all still holding… no more slow leaks, at least for now.

Once we drove the 35 miles or so to get back to highway 60, we expected our AT&T service to be back on. But, alas, it was not to be… it seems we used all our “off-network” allowance and can only connect once we get an actual AT&T 3G signal. At least we can still make phone calls, but I guess we’ll have to wait until the end of our billing cycle to get the “off-network” ability reset in order to use WiFi or google maps, etc.,

We decided to head east on 60, and since we were this close to Prescott Valley where my good friend and former coworker (Julie Richardson) now lives, I gave her a call to see if we could stop by.

After ~150 miles, and the help of google maps, we made it to Scott and Julie Richardson’s beautiful retirement home. And guess what – there’s a strong AT&T 3G signal here!

I’ll post more about our visit here at the “Richardson Ranch” later. Stay tuned…

Arizona

VFW (Yuma, AZ)

2015/02/11 davidhobden@mac.com

Still trying to get caught up with the posts. Let me bring you a little closer up to date. But first, I forgot to mention in my previous post about the Yuma Territorial Prison that our neighbors’s (Don, Kevin, and others) invited me to tag along with them to the races Saturday evening at the Cocopah Speedway back in Yuma. I’m not sure why I forgot to put it in the post for Saturday… guess I better start keeping notes if I get behind. Anyway, what a blast! The speedway was well laid out, not a bad seat in the bleachers. Thanks for taking me along Don! Stilla opted to stay in the Coach with the dog and catch up on TV shows… her loss.

Here’s a couple pics:

We even had a beautiful Arizona sunset as the races got started.

Anyway, back to Monday… in the morning we folded up the chairs and patio mat, pulled in the slides, and raised the jacks to go to the nearby campground just this side of the Los Algodones (Mexico) border crossing. I don’t think it was more than a mile away. We just needed to dump and take on water. This campground charges $50 for a night. I’m assuming most folks that stay here are getting dental work done across the border but they probably pay the more reasonable weekly rate. We paid the $10 fee to dump our tanks and take on water. Then we stopped back at our campsite to say goodbye to our good neighbors from the last several days.

After saying our farewells, we hit Interstate 8 towards Yuma and then turned north on 95. There was a Barons gas station that Don gave me a tip about – easy in – easy out, and diesel was around $2.54 a gallon which was a pleasant change.

Since we didn’t have to be in Lake Havasu for the Fireworks Rally until the 11th, we decided to pull in to another boondocking spot (BLM land) located right next to the highway (95) and behind a VFW post. We still wanted to visit the museum at Yuma Proving Grounds since we didn’t stay at the Fam Camp there as previously planned.

Here’s the VFW post. The entrance to the BLM boondocking land is right behind the building. The post has a band playing almost daily from 2 or 3 until 5 PM. We stopped in for a refreshment after we got parked and settled. Unfortunately, the post didn’t have a kitchen… no snacks at all except for chips and pretzels behind the bar.

This tank is on display out front of the post.

Here’s a view of our boondocking spot. No hookups here.

Most of the rigs spaced themselves out pretty well from each other. We found what we thought was a quiet corner.

Here’s our spot.

Now, after spending the night here, all I can say is – avoid this spot at all costs if you want any peace and quiet. There was a plane, maybe a crop-duster, that continuously zoomed in and out around the area until late into the night. And the train tracks across the highway must be one of the busiest railways I’ve ever seen (or heard) to date. We had to keep hitting the pause button on the TV every time another train went by or the plane made another run, it was so loud. I can’t understand why anyone would stay here for more than one night when there are so many other opportunities to boondock along 95. We won’t make this mistake twice.

The next morning (Tuesday) we visited Yuma Proving Grounds and toured the BLM spots around the Imperial Dam area for future reference. I’ll put that in my next post.. until then, have a nice and quiet night 🙂

Arizona, California

Imperial Sand Dunes (Winterhaven, CA)

2015/02/11 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

Almost caught up now… here’s what we did on Sunday:

We loaded the ATV back onto the pickup to go check out the nearby Imperial Sand Dunes that we had heard so much about.

The BLM website says this about the dunes; “Located in the southeast corner of California, the Imperial Sand Dunes are the largest mass of sand dunes in the state. Formed by windblown sands of ancient Lake Cahuilla, the dune system extends for more than 40 miles in a band averaging 5 miles wide (map). Widely known as “Glamis” and a favorite location for off-highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts, the dunes also offer fabulous scenery, opportunities for solitude, and a home to rare plants and animals.”

Google images has some really good photos… click here.

We took Interstate 8 for about 15 miles from our campsite near the Quechan Casino Resort and took the exit to the recreation area / ranger station. We went into the ranger station to get more information about the area. What we found out set the tone for the rest of the day… the fee to take the ATV or even our pickup into any of the dunes was $50 for a week. Of course, we’re told if we had bought our permit outside the dunes, it would only be $35 for a week. Only a few places to get the permit other than online. Oh, and also… if the ATV doesn’t have a current state OHV permit, well – that will be an additional out-of-state permit cost 🙁 And don’t forget – if you don’t have the proper size and color fluorescent orange flag on your OHV, you will certainly get a citation and fine, said the nice ranger lady.

So, after checking our “value-meter”, we decided it wasn’t worth it for just a day of riding on dunes. However, the ranger told us we could go down the side service road for a few miles to view the “plank road”… that didn’t require a permit. She also told us about a viewing spot (way up north) that is also free. We could drive up there and get a birds-eye view of the dunes from a hilltop. These were the only non-fee areas we could go. Ya just gotta love California, right?

Here’s a picture of the signs that surround the dunes at every access point… we saw these throughout the day.

So we left the ATV on the pickup and took the service road through the soft sand to look at the “plank road”. Here’s the information placard. And you can click here for more information on this “road”.

After viewing the “plank road”, we took the ranger’s advice and drove north on Blythe Ogilby Road. This north-south road skirted the dunes on the east side, until it meets State Route 78 which cuts through the dunes east-west. To the north of 78 is the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area where no OHV’s are allowed. To the south is the massive expanse of sand dunes that are designated for off-roading. Link here for more info on the dunes from my friend Wikipedia.

We took 78 to the Glamis Beach Store. We had traveled about 50 miles from the first ranger station we stopped at along I-8. The over-priced Glamis Beach Store even had a note on the their entrance door explaining why they were so over-priced… citing; distance, the short season, and the high electric bills, etc., You even had to pay $2 there to just use the restroom. Here’s a pic I copied from google images.

There were a few “vendor communities” set up along the highway to cater to the many off-roader’s camped at the designated BLM sites. I forgot to check on prices for camping.

Finally, we reached the “no-permit required” hilltop parking area that the ranger lady told us about. Here’s a couple pics. We’ll have to come back when we can stay awhile.

We continued west on 78, and passed through the dunes until we hit 115 south to the town of Holtville. We skipped a farmers market and small-town fair that was going on in Holtville and continued back to Interstate 8, then home. We had basically circled the entire dune area.

Hopefully, we can come back here with my brother and mom/stepdad sometime in the near future to spend a week. Although, we might have to save up some money to do so 🙂

That’s all for now folks… tomorrow (Monday) we start heading north to get to the Lake Havasu Fireworks Rally we signed up for starting on the 11th. Stay tuned…

Arizona

Yuma Territorial Prison (Yuma, AZ)

2015/02/11 davidhobden@mac.com

I’m still behind in my postings… have a few more days to get you caught up on:

On Saturday we visited the Yuma Territorial prison. Click on this link for more information about this attraction. And here’s another good link that has interesting stories about some of the notable inmates.

We jumped in the Silverado with our little dog Coach and arrived by 10 AM to meet up with Lloyd DeGerald, (the Aqua-Hot Service Rep), as previously planned. I mentioned in a previous post here, that I would meet up with Lloyd and his wife to return the special tools that he lent me to fix the Aqua-Hot last Thursday, and we would tour the prison together. As it turned out – the prison tour doesn’t allow pets, which unfortunately, is the case with almost all federal or state run parks or attractions.

Lloyd and his wife also had their little dog with them, so Lloyd’s wife volunteered to stay with the vehicles and watch the pets while we went ahead and took the tour. That was nice of her.

Here’s a pic of the sign at the parking lot entrance that I swiped from Google images. Click here to see some other more professional images.

And here’s some pics of our tour taken with our iPhones.

The sally port (entrance gate) to the prison.

View inside the courtyard after paying entrance fee. The Yuma coast-to-coast bridge in background.

Water tower with guard tower built on top.

Here’s what the main museum building looked like inside.

A well made diorama of the prison as it looked back in it’s heyday was on display.

Can you imagine being packed in these 6 person cells?

Hmmm… there could be a snappy caption for the photo below… but I better leave it alone 🙂

Here’s the archway leading to the cells.

We almost had the courtyard all to ourselves… I wonder if any of the prisoners ever experienced that?

We posed for a “selfie” in front of a portion of the old cells.

After our tour of the prison, we got back to the parking lot to relieve Lloyd’s wife from her dog-sitting duties. We were able to walk the dogs outside the prison walls and tour the prison cemetery.

Yuma Territorial Prison Cemetery with the prison in the background. Guard tower on top of the water tank is on the right.

Once we had seen all there was to see in the immediate area, we piled back into our respective vehicles and headed over to see a locomotive that is on display a few blocks away from the prison.

We had to compete with a wedding photographer for pics of the 1907 steam locomotive. Click here for more images of this locomotive.

After checking out the nicely restored locomotive, we said our goodbye’s to our new friends and parted ways. We drove through the historic downtown area but didn’t find anything that peaked our interest. So, we hit a fast food restaurant that shall remain unnamed and went back to our Coach for a quiet evening.

It was another good day. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting the area… definitely worth seeing.

Stay tuned for our day trip to the Imperial Sand Dunes in CA that we did on Sunday…

Arizona

Valley of the Names (Yuma, AZ)

2015/02/10 davidhobden@mac.com

I’m still behind on my posts, trying to catch up… here’s what we did on Friday:

While boondocking just south of the Quechan Casino, our nearest neighbors, (Don and Peg), organized a day trip for many of the folks camped on our little hill-top overlooking the wash.

Don & Peg hail from Ohio and are no strangers to the area – they stay here during the winter months, and have done so many times in the past. A couple neat things about Don is that he painted his own Coach. A ’95 American Dream. It looks really nice. He is also an avid wood-carver. He showed us some of his work, ranging from walking sticks, wood stump bowls, wall hangings, and even intricate thread spool carvings. Yes, I said carvings made from old wooden thread spools. I haven’t seen that before – pretty cool Don.

There were six vehicles that took Don up on his offer of 4-wheel drive adventure. We followed Don’s Toyota through many a dry wash with the Silverado as Don took one shortcut after another. I was worried about the front plastic spoiler that dug in to the dirt a few times, but it survived alright. So did the hard plastic mud flaps, I was sure they were going to break off a time or two as the side-bars/steps scraped the ground. But we made it relatively unscathed. Now I have another excuse to detail the truck 🙂

The destination for the day was Valley of the Names. Click on the link for more information. Or here. The following excerpt I copied from YumAZone.com: “An odd site is found in desert north of Yuma. For over 60 years people have been bringing in rocks in order to spell out their names and other messages in the desert. While best viewed from a low flying plane, the site is accessable via 4WD vehicles. Remember that many of these messages date back over 50 years and should not be disturbed. If you want to write your own message, BRING YOUR OWN ROCKS and leave alone the efforts of others.”

Here’s a few pics of our trip to get there… as usual, the pictures don’t do justice to the scale of the holes, dips, twists and hills:

At one point, Don got out his saw to clear some of the brush that would have otherwise scratched the sides of our vehicles.

Some of the road was through a very sandy dry wash.

And there was even some sections that could be considered “super-highway”.

Here’s a view of the surrounding mountains in the area.

And finally, we made it! Here we are enjoying lunch that everyone had brought along.

Here are some samples of the “rock art”. They were everywhere for miles around us. After lunch we all drove around on our own to view the names from different roads which wound in and around the area. Again, the couple pics here don’t do it justice… it was very hilly in most areas… you had to be careful traversing the hilltops.

One gentleman, sorry – I forgot his name, had developed a home-made rack for his pickup complete with swinging lounge-chair. I had to put this picture in the journal. We all got to try out the unique chair – very comfortable 🙂

On our return trip, we stopped for a “Date Shake” at the Imperial Date Gardens. The shake was good. We also bought some cactus candy.

Here’s some members of our group enjoying their date shakes outside the retail store.

After our 4-wheel drive adventure, we peeled off and hit the local WalMart to stock up on a few things. We made it back in time for “Happy Hour” and later on the group had another campfire.

Stay tuned for the next post about our visit to the Yuma Territorial Prison on Saturday. And no, they didn’t keep us there 🙂

Arizona, Mexico

Los Algodones, Baja Mexico (Yuma, AZ)

2015/02/02 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

After enjoying some time at the casino and its’ buffet on Friday, we woke up Saturday to a parking lot full of cars and activity. There was a marathon going on and the Casino was the Start/Finish line. Runners were doing a 26 mile route. Here’s a picture of the main entrance from the day before. Today, it was cordoned off and full of EZ-Up tents and tables, banners, grandstands, etc.,

We watched some of the activities and then wandered over to talk with our Alpine Coach friends. We got the scoop on visiting Los Algodones Baja Mexico from them. They had visited several times. Be sure to click on the name above for some interesting information on this place from Wikipedia.

It was a little less than 20 miles from the casino where we’re parked. Of course, we took the Silverado with the ATV still loaded on the back. Here’s a picture of the border crossing into Los Algodones, taken just before we saw the signs that said “No Pictures”:

And here’s a picture I swiped from the Wikipedia website of the border crossing.

It’s been many years since we visited Mexico. The last time was in Laredo Texas where we crossed into Nuevo Laredo, back in the early ’90s.

We parked the Silverado in the huge parking lot before the crossing and paid our $6 parking fee. Then we simply walked through the fence and around the entrance building into Mexico. Voila! Here we are… didn’t have to show anything or talk to anyone. Makes you wonder how many people forget their passports and then can’t get back in, eh?

We wandered through the crowded sidewalks while trying to avoid most of the vendors attempts to get us to look at their “stuff”. It almost became annoying at times… you couldn’t just look at anything without getting pressured to buy it… and every “no thanks, just looking” was followed up with a lower price offer or the item was pressed into your hands.

We hadn’t eaten lunch yet, so we followed the tip we got from our fellow Alpine Coach friends, and found one of the Taco restaurants.

The tacos were delicious. I tried one of each; a shrimp, a fish, and a beef taco. Stilla had the Chili Relleno. And the margarita was great. So were the prices 🙂

After lunch, I couldn’t say no to a $2 shoe-shine. Especially since the guy followed us for a block.

Here’s Stilla checking out some wares. Notice the vendors in the background waiting along the sidewalk to “pounce” on you as you pass by. Just kidding, of course. All the vendors were very friendly, but persistent. One guy called his store the “Mexican WalMart”.

We even broke down and bought some of the cute kid’s little bobble-head toys. Many of the children there were selling trinkets of some sort or another. They’ve got their marketing technique down. We couldn’t resist.

Now where are we going to put these in the Coach? Oh well, maybe we can gift them…

Here’s a few more pictures of some of the items for sale along the sidewalks and alleyways of Los Algodones:

We made it out of there with a few shirts, a new hat for Stilla, some sleepwear, and I couldn’t say no to a $20 silver & turquoise Harley-Davidson belt buckle. And, oh yeah – a shoe-shine.

We found another open-air restaurant/bar of sorts, complete with tiki hut and palm trees, to enjoy some more refreshments.

We walked back through the border crossing without incident, luckily Stilla remembered her “green card” 🙂

On the way back to the Cocopah Casino where we parked the Coach, we stopped to check out the Quechan Casino that is located at the Interstate 8 exit to Los Algodones. It’s just a few miles up the road from the border. We noticed a huge amount of RV’s either parked in their lot or surrounding area(s). And it looked like there were lots of ATV trails in and around the parking area(s). We drove through the Casino RV parking area to check it out. We were flagged down by a group of people sitting outside their RVs enjoying adult beverages. They noticed our Colorado license plate. They were also from Colorado and invited us to come park near them if we decided to bring the Coach over. Hmmm, we might just have to do that…

We had tentatively reserved a spot at the Military Fam-Camp in Yuma Proving Grounds for a week beginning on 1 February, but that still left us an open week before we go back North to Lake Havasu for the Fireworks Rally on the 11th. So we might just revise our near-term plan and stay South for a while longer. Stay tuned…

Arizona

Cocopah Casino (Yuma, AZ)

2015/02/01 davidhobden@mac.com

After our trip out to the Yuma Proving Grounds and Castle Dome City Ghost Town on Wednesday, we got back to the Fortuna De Oro RV Resort just in time for steak dinner.

The Resort has a restaurant that was having T-bone night and we had made plans earlier to meet our friends from the Alpine Coach group that got here a day or two ahead of us. We met our friends on the extensive deck area of the resort’s restaurant/bar. Included in our arrival packet was a $5 dollar “cactus cash” coupon and a couple free drink coupons, so dinner was very reasonably priced (after using the coupons). We lit the propane heaters on the deck and enjoyed our friend’s company for a while and then retired to the Coach.

Thursday was a stay-at-home day while we caught up on laundry. The Splendide washer/dryer combo in the Coach takes longer than traditional washers and dryers. We also took advantage of one of the local RV mobile wash businesses. The prices were relatively good compared to what I’ve experienced at other parks. Probably due to the large amount of competition. I saw several different company logos on trucks and vans cruising around the park and washing and/or waxing rigs.

The Coach hasn’t been washed for at least a couple months, probably three. So I bit-the-bullet and shelled out $40 for a power wash. It was $45 after tip. Now I can get bad to waxing the Urban Escape Vehicle… one section at a time. It will take me several (or more) wax sessions before I can get it all to my satisfaction.

We also checked on the rates to stay another day or so at this nice resort, but they don’t offer the Passport America 50% discount until after March. So, at $40 dollars a day, we decided to move on. Our Alpine Coach friends that we’ve been following since Quartzsite told us about the Cocopah Casino located just South of Yuma. They left to go there on Thursday. Therefore, on Friday we followed them again, albeit a day later…

On Friday, after pulling in the slides, raising the jacks, and hooking up the Silverado, we made the short drive to the Cocopah Casino and RV Park. When we arrived, we saw our Alpine friends again but the RV park was full. We decided to join a few other rigs in the adjacent parking lot. Actually, all the parking here is “dry”, meaning no electrical or water hook-ups, so it wasn’t any different in the parking lot as opposed to the designated RV lot. And we actually came out better for it because we parked right next to the open grass area between the two parking lots. Little Coach likes that 🙂

This Casino offers three nights for $10 at the RV parking lot, but it clearly isn’t following up on this very closely. Many rigs in the parking lot didn’t have the tags in the windshields and after talking to some folks, they’ve been there for a week or more. We checked inside and were told not to worry… just park in the lot and come inside to spend money. And Stilla did just that…

Tomorrow, (Saturday), we plan on going across the border to visit Los Algodones. Stay tuned…

Arizona

Fortuna De Oro & Castle Dome City (Yuma, AZ)

2015/01/31 davidhobden@mac.com 3 Comments

[(Warning! – lots of pics) Go to the website for easier viewing.]

On one of our visits to the “big tent” in Quartzsite we got a promotional coupon from one of the vendors, Fortuna De Oro RV Resort. They were offering a free 4 day, 3 night stay at their resort in Yuma.

Their website claims; “A place to call home! Discover Fortuna De Oro under an open sky. With over 1,200 sites, a 9-hole golf course, full-size softball field, brand new sports complex featuring tennis, pickleball, bocce ball, shuffleboard, and horseshoes, two pools with spas, and an on-site restaurant, you will love what this 5-Star resort has to offer.”

Several other Alpine Coach Owners expressed interest in taking advantage of this offer, so we decided to head South to join them. They departed on Monday. We left our desert campsite on Tuesday morning after it dried out. It had been raining a little overnight, just enough to make it muddy in spots.

We passed the Quartzsite “big tent” on our way through town. The show was over on Sunday. It sure looks different already with all the RVs and outside vendors gone.

The Quartzsite “big tent” after the show.

We got to the RV Park without any trouble, thanks to the Rand-McNally GPS. We checked in, presented our coupon for the 3 free nights, and were directed to a site. There was someone in that site. So we disconnected the truck and drove back to the office to get another site. Our new site was much better. It was near the end of the row instead of the middle and closer to the dog park. This park has some long streets, er, rows.

Here’s our spot. It sure was nice to plug in for a change and not worry about draining the batteries too much with the Keurig coffee maker or microwave, etc., We also performed a much-needed sewer dump after our > weeklong boondocking stay in the desert.

The resort is really nice. But at $40 a night, a little too pricey for us if we want to stay on budget. Thank goodness for the free promo. The weekly or monthly rate is a little more palatable, maybe sometime in the future.

On Thursday, we jumped in the Silverado and drove back up I-95 for 20-30 miles to visit the Yuma Proving Grounds that we passed on the way down here. The Military Fam Camp there has an opening on the 1st of February, their weekly rate was reasonable, so we checked it out and reserved a spot. After gassing up the truck on base and visiting the tank display near the entrance gate, we decided to head over to Castle Dome City that was nearby.

This place had a $10 per person entrance fee. It was a nice way to spend the day. Check out the different links here, or here. The youtube video is really well done. Enjoy the pics:

Here was a room full of handwritten messages in the “veteran building”.

I added my “2-cents” to a blank spot on the wall.

Here’s another room that was full of business cards.

We added our card to the wall here as well.

Stepping up to the bar.

Isn’t this the title to a movie?

There was even an old service station with lots of cool memorabilia.

They even had golf carts back in the day.

There was a separate portion of the tour across the main dirt road from the city “museum” proper. Here’s the entrance sign.

And this is the result if you don’t pay the entrance fee at the museum 🙂

Another fun day!

Stay tuned… we head over to the Cocopah Casino & RV Park after our stay here at the Fortuna De Oro .

Arizona

More Desert Fun – Vendors and ATVs (Quartzsite, AZ)

2015/01/30 davidhobden@mac.com

As mentioned in my last post, my brother Steve and his longtime girlfriend Cheryl as well as my Mom and Stepdad Jim arrived Friday evening from Casa Grande to camp out with us for the weekend.

On Saturday, we drove into Quartzsite to check out all the vendors. This was their first time here. We literally spent all day walking through the “big tent” and adjoining vendor areas. I didn’t take many pics – so, if a couple of the following look familiar, it’s because I reutilized the same ones from the last time we were here. Trust me – it didn’t change much… just as crowded as ever 🙂

Quartzsite vendor area near the “big tent”

Vendor area near the “big tent” in Quartzsite. Notice the Beer Belly Adult Day Care bar area 🙂

We found a vendor that sold the same dog pack that Stilla and I purchased when we were in Oregon. It’s really handy for those times when it’s crowded and you can’t use a leash. So my brother and mom each purchased one of the packs called; “Outward Hound“. Too bad we didn’t see the cheaper price on Amazon.com. Oh well, someone has to support those local vendors or else we wouldn’t have any shows to go to, right?

I also found a decent deal on an ATV flag which I am carrying in the picture above. I guess I felt that I was missing something because the last time we rode with a group, because everyone had one of these flags except me. I understand it is a requirement if we go to the sand dunes near here.

After we completed our Saturday shopping day, on Sunday we took the ATVs into the hills just East of our campsite. Cheryl didn’t feel up to it so she stayed at the campsite and watched the dogs.

We primarily stuck to the major trails and found a few abandoned mine shafts that we briefly explored.

After a while we came across one of the many dry river beds, aka “washes” and followed it until we lost any evidence of a trail. We ended up using the GPS to “bushwhack” cross country to get back to a road. Good times… loads of fun!

Brother Steve only knows one speed – Fast!

Here we are taking a snack and refreshment break.

And all good things have to come to an end 🙁

Here they are packed up again and ready to roll back to Casa Grande on Monday.

It was great that they were able to come out here for the weekend. This was the first time in ages that they got out on the ATVs. They just get too busy at the “dirt farm”. I wish they could have stayed longer. We’re not sure when we’ll get back to Casa Grande. We signed up for the Fireworks show in Lake Havasu starting February 11th. So we plan on just killing time in the Yuma area until then… maybe we’ll head back to Casa Grande after the fireworks.

For my next post, we headed on down to Yuma because; 1) we’ve never been, and 2) we got 3 free nights at the Fortuna de Oro RV Resort. A few of our fellow Alpiner’s are already down there taking advantage of that, so stay tuned…

Arizona

Eating Some Dust, ATVing (Quartzsite, AZ)

2015/01/30 davidhobden@mac.com 3 Comments

On Thursday we got a call from fellow Alpine Coach Association member (Tom Polk). He had left the Rally Site the previous day to join some other friends at a RV Resort in the town of Quartzsite. He invited us to go on an ATV ride with himself and some other friends that were at the resort. So, on Friday, we got an early start around 8:30, and rode the ATV into town to meet the group.

For those of you that haven’t spent any time in the desert before, trust me – It can get really cold at night and in the early morning! We rode the ATV about 10 miles to the designated start point, and it felt like our fingers had frozen, even with our gloves on! Of course, we were doing about 45 mph or faster at times in order to get there on time.

Once we were in town, I noticed that one of my front tires was really low on air. I could feel it wallowing around when we took corners on the asphalt streets. It wasn’t so noticeable when we were still on the dirt and rock trails. Luckily, one of the riding group members had an air compressor in his casita/garage. The mini-compressor that I have been carrying around in the back of the ATV all these years didn’t work when I plugged it into the cigarette lighter-type outlet on the dash of the Can-Am ATV. 🙂 Good thing I found out it didn’t work while we were still in civilization – instead of when we were out in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, we hit the trails with the group without further delay. Stilla was able to take some pics while we were riding throughout the day:

This portion of our trail was like a super-highway… not entirely typical of the trails that we rode that day.

We had four ATVs in our group for the day.

We had to keep a little distance between vehicles to keep from eating too much dust.

Here we are traveling through a scenic wash. We did that several times throughout the day. Good thing it wasn’t raining, eh?

We even did a little boulder hopping.

Here are our ATV’s in a circle, during one of our breaks throughout the day.

The town of Quartzsite is in the background behind that hill in the middle.

Everyone had a side-by-side ATV except for us. It seems that most folks are trending towards these type of off road vehicles (OHVs) nowadays. I still like to have the ability to “jump off” the ATV when you get into big trouble… you can’t do that with a side-by-side. Those side-by-sides are sure cool though… almost makes you wonder why anyone would buy a Jeep anymore. I said “almost”.

One of our “breaks” during the day was at a lonesome “cabin” in the middle of nowhere. It even had a name – I believe I was told it’s called “Moe’s Cabin”. We took time to eat the lunch we had packed with us. There was even a picnic table and a couple lounge chairs outside the cabin. Fellow Alpine Coach driver “Steve” is on the left and “Tom Polk” is on the right.

Undergarments hanging on the porch at “Moe’s Cabin”

This cabin had all sort of bric-a-brac and memorabilia inside. It seems that folks leave odd items all the time. Someone said that there used to be a couple mannequins there, but they probably got swiped. I added one of our non-business “business cards” to the collection on one of the walls.

Strange and unique items left inside “Moe’s Cabin”

The cabin even had a satellite dish 🙂

We ate a lot of dust but had a lot of fun… what a fun day! Thanks for inviting us along Tom Polk!

We made it back to the starting point in town by 3 PM. It was about a 45 mile trail ride, but when we add the distance traveled to and from our campsite out in the desert North of town – we had put on 65 miles for the day!

After we said our goodbyes to the group, we headed back out to our campsite in the desert. We made it back by 4 PM and let our little dog “Coach” out of the Coach. Boy was he happy to see us! He did just fine during the day.

By 4:30 or 5 PM, we heard from my brother Steve, his long-time girlfriend Cheryl, along with my Mom and Stepdad, Jim… they were enroute to join us for the weekend! They had left Casa Grande earlier in the afternoon with their pickup camper towing a trailer full of ATV’s. They found us without much trouble and we had a happy reunion.

We all piled into my pickup after I emptied the back seat and drove to the Grubstake Restaurant in Quartzsite for dinner. Almost a big mistake… it was great food, especially the fish dinner. But it was so crowded that we had to sit outside in the chilly evening air and we waited about 2 hours to get our meals! We didn’t even get the meals at the same time, they brought them out piece-meal. Oh well, it was still great to have them join us here in the desert 🙂

We made plans to visit the “big vendor tent” in the morning (Saturday) and decided to save an ATV ride for Sunday… but I’ll put that in my next post. Stay tuned for more desert fun…

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Tag Archives: Arizona

Alamo Lake State Park – continued (AZ)

VFW (Yuma, AZ)

Imperial Sand Dunes (Winterhaven, CA)

Yuma Territorial Prison (Yuma, AZ)

Valley of the Names (Yuma, AZ)

Los Algodones, Baja Mexico (Yuma, AZ)

Cocopah Casino (Yuma, AZ)

Fortuna De Oro & Castle Dome City (Yuma, AZ)

More Desert Fun – Vendors and ATVs (Quartzsite, AZ)

Eating Some Dust, ATVing (Quartzsite, AZ)

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