Quartzsite–Getting ready to hitch up!

I can hardly believe that I was in Quartzsite before the big show, and I am still here and it is all over. Not Quartzsite, there are always shows on during the winter, and many of the businesses and vendors are here for several months. But I think the RV show is the biggest of the shows, and I expect many of us will be hitching up and heading on down the road somewhere.

The big GM was getting a tad dusty from hanging around in the desert, and driving on a lot of dirt roads.  I haven’t seen a car wash in town, and would not have bothered washing it anyway as long as it was getting dusty right away anyhow.  But when the rain started to come down, I went outside several times with my big squeegee and wiped it down.  That got most of the dust off it, but I also put a couple of empty pails under the rainspouts on the rig and I had almost 10 gallons of ‘free’ water to use to wash the rest of it (no soap).  I think it looks a lot better now, and since the rains, the dust has not really recovered yet, so the wash job might just last.

I had been meaning to check out the drive and hike to Palm Canyon in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, about 20 miles south of Quartzsite, so I had a free day (!), and decided what the heck.

It is a 7 mile gravel road off highway 95 with some washboard as you would expect, but overall, a pretty decent road, and quite scenic.

I saw a strange sight along the way.  Anywhere else, this would not be strange at all, but in the deserts of Arizona, you hardly ever see a culvert on a secondary (or worse) road.  Well, for some reason, there are a few along this road.

At the parking area, I was surprised to see a tour van from the coast of New Brunswick.  Not many east coast plates in these parts, and even less from Canada’s east coast.

This one is from Campobello Island off the coast, close to Maine.

Hiking up into the canyon, there are good views back out across the valley to the west, including two blimps that were both on the ground at their bases.  Too far away to see in these photos, I’m sure.

I kept my eyes peeled for some Bighorn sheep, without success, but in this terrain you would be lucky to spot them unless they were on the move.

All I saw was these rare palm trees high up in a side canyon.

Headed north again on the highway, there was an unmarked road heading off to the west, in the general direction of the blimp bases, so I thought I would give it a go.  Unfortunately the pavement ended after 100 yards, and the ‘unwelcome’ sign deterred me from further exploration.

Need I say more.  You can’t make this stuff up – seen on the side of a propane tank!