Tag Archives: Quechan Casino Resort

Arizona, California

Imperial Sand Dunes (Winterhaven, CA)

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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.

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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.

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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”.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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…

 

 

California

ATVing & Los Algodones, Baja Mexico (Winterhaven, CA)

On Tuesday morning, we jumped on the ATV to check out some of the trails behind our campsite.  Stilla carried our dog, Coach along for the ride.

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We ran into a lot of “dead end” trails:

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At one point, we rode down through the “wash” below our camp site.  You can see our Coach on the hilltop.

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The Urban Escape Vehicle is 2nd from the left.

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We found a lot of hidden campsites… some occupied, some not.

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We even found a Pet Cemetery.  We stopped to look around and pay our respects.  It was rather unexpected to find this as we were riding along one of the more improved roads.  Some folks put a lot of work into their pets’ final resting place.

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There were even a couple gravesites marked “Unknown” that some caring folks took the time and effort to do.  I thought that was nice.

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One of the trails we followed ended abruptly at a cliff-edge overlooking the canal.

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After backtracking a ways… we got on a trail that went as far as the border which you can see in the pictures below.  The parking lot is the one we paid our $6 to park in when we visited Los Algodones last Saturday.

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We had worked up an appetite, so we decided to spend the afternoon on another trip into Los Algodones, Mexico for a late lunch.  We left little Coach in the big Coach with some windows and vents open for cool air circulation, and took the Silverado to the $6 dollar parking lot, which is just a couple minutes down the road from our campsite.

It wasn’t long before we were sitting in the shade at one of the restaurants in Los Algodones, Mexico.

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I took pictures of the menu in case any of you “blog-readers” want to place an order for delivery… might take a while tho 🙂

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I ordered a Pacifico beer with my meal expecting to get a normal size one… this guy was huge, but it was OK, Stilla helped me finish it.

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Stilla ordered one of the combo plates – burrito, enchilada, and tostada.

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Stilla also ordered the tortilla soup that we shared.

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I had the fish tacos, they were delicious.  I’m becoming a fan of these.

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After, lunch we ran the gauntlet of vendors again… I couldn’t count the number of times we heard; “look here – almost free”.

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I was thinking of Cheryl and my brother Steve when I saw this horse sculpture:

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I was thinking of myself when I took a picture of these neat stained glass items:

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When we had enough of the vendors and peddler’s, we headed back to the border crossing, which to our surprise and amazement, had a line that stretched for blocks… it wasn’t at all like this last Saturday!  We walked right out as quickly as we walked in the last time we were here.  We overheard some folks say that they hadn’t seen it this busy since 2008… it was like some sort of weird star alignment and everyone decided to come visit at once on this Tuesday.

Here’s a picture of the front of the line.  The border crossing building  is at the end of this covered walkway and to the right where there is still more covered walkway up to the checkpoint.

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Here’s a picture of the middle of the line.  You can see more vendors and peddlers trying to get everyone’s last dollar up to the last minute.

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And here’s a picture of the end of the line… way back in the distance is the end of the line.  As you can probably tell from these pictures… Stilla and I sat at the outside bar section of one of the restaurants, took pictures, and waited until the line became more reasonable.  We sat there for almost two hours while we nursed a margarita.  Sometimes, you just have to do, what you got to do 🙂

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It was almost dusk again by the time we got back to little Coach.  He was just fine again.  What a good guard dog.  Sadly, we missed “Happy Hour” with our neighbors today since it took so long to get back out of Mexico.

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And that’s all for now… it’s late morning on Wednesday as I finish up this journal entry.  We’ll probably hang around the Coach today and maybe go check out the casino at some point later this evening.

Stay tuned…

 

California

Moving Day Monday (Winterhaven, CA)

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On Monday we decided to head over to the Quechan Casino Resort. It is located on the south side of Interstate 8, about 8 miles west of Yuma and 2 miles north of Los Algodones, Mexico.  This is the place we reconnoitered last Saturday when we visited Los Algodones for the first time.

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View of the Quechan Casino after exiting I-8

We settled on a boondocking spot just south of the main RV parking lot at the casino.  The spots here are more open than at the casino and we backed up to a dry river bed, aka “wash”, that is about 20 feet below the back of the Coach.

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I wonder if I can take the ATV down this embankment into the wash?  Hmmm?

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Before we headed over here in the early afternoon, I spent a little time getting some more waxing done on the Coach, which as I mentioned before, is a multi-day chore.  It’s best to tackle a little at a time until I get it done… and then when I’m finally finished… it’s probably time to start again, right?

We said our goodbyes to our friends from the Alpine Coach group.  They are going to stay at the Cocopah Casino for a while longer.  And then we followed their advice, and found the Union 76 service station that allowed us to dump and take on water.

When we arrived here and picked out a spot, we had just backed in and started to put down the pads to keep the jacks from sinking into the sand, when the neighbor came over and introduced himself and his wife.  They invited us to come over for “Happy Hour” – they (and other’s) were grilling up some shrimp and had made some jalapeño poppers stuffed with smoked salmon to share.

It’s amazing the number of nice people you meet out here RVing 🙂  After we extended the jacks, put the slides out, and staked down the patio mat, we pulled our chairs over and enjoyed an hour or two with our new “neighbors”.

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After “Happy Hour” we fell back into our usual routine – Stilla had made a stew earlier, so we had dinner and then watched TV.  And also, as usual when boondocking, we ran the generator for an hour or so to top off the batteries for the night.

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Stay tuned…  I wonder what we’ll do tomorrow?

BTW – Have I ever mentioned that Monday is my new “favorite” day of the week now?  Since I retired – when I wake up on a Monday morning and realize I don’t have to go in to work – I feel good.  Life is good 🙂

 

 

Arizona

Super Bowl Sunday, Cocopah Casino (Yuma, AZ)

On Super Bowl Sunday, we just hung around the Coach until game time at the Cocopah Casino.  I used the morning to get a little waxing done on the Urban Escape Vehicle.  Stilla took a picture for your amusement:

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I called the Military Fam-Camp at Yuma Proving Grounds to tell them we wouldn’t make it in today as previously planned.  Naturally, no one was in the RV park office, so I had to leave a message.  It’s a little over 30 miles to the North on I-95 from here and we’re going North anyway eventually, so why not stay down here in the Yuma area for a while longer we thought… there’s so much to see and do right here.  I’ll call again to be sure we can get in later this week.

We think we’ll follow through on our idea to go over to the other casino in the area that we checked out on Saturday.  It’s called the Quechan Casino Resort.  And it’s closer to the Imperial Sand Dunes that I hope to check out with the ATV.  A link to the Wikipedia site for the sand dunes is here, or click here for images.

But first, we have to fill the water tank and dump.  I didn’t want to travel with a full water tank (100 gallons) when we left the Fortuna De Oro Resort, so I only put in a half-tank.  We’re already on a quarter-tank now.  So if we’re going to do some more boondocking, then I better fill it up.  Our Alpine friends gave us the scoop on a service station near us here, that allows RV’ers to take on water and dump.  We’ll plan on doing that enroute.

At super bowl time we took advantage of the Cocopah Casino Super Bowl Party that they held in one of their conference rooms with big screen projection TVs.  Our Alpine friends decided to hang around their Coach(s) to watch the game because of the crowd.  We were pleasantly surprised.. it wasn’t entirely too crowded, they had free food, (hot dogs, wings, chips/salsa, little burgers, veggies/dip, etc.,), and they had door prizes.  Unfortunately, we did’t win anything… we just enjoyed the game and company around us.  They also had $2 beers and $3.50 margaritas.

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Stilla took a break during the game to give little Coach (our dog) a pottie-break.  She took this nice picture of the evening sunset and the casino’s lighted palm trees.

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That’s all for now.  Until next time…