A Day in the Desert

Saturday we went with our friends, Henry and Anne for a ride to the Imperial Dam, Lake Martinez and the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge all of which are located along the Colorado River and border the the Yuma Proving Grounds and are in the desert.

After exploring the dam, we drove into Hidden Shores Village, a really nice RV Park with some great views. It is definitely in the middle of nowhere, but they seemed to be pretty self sustained there since they had a store, fuel, propane, ATM, laundromat and restaurant. You would only have to drive to town for a major supply run. Many of the lots have views overlooking Imperial Dam and the lake/river along with mountain views that were breathtaking. If we should come back this direction, we may consider spending a month there - no less as their rates are cheaper by the month. Daily rates were $60.00, weekly rates $300.00 and monthly rates started at $330. I guess they don't want short term tenants.

We stopped in the restaurant for a cool drink and had the nicest, craziest waitress. She walked up and said, oops, I need to get my name tag, went back to the counter, pinned it on and came back wearing a badge that said "IMA MORON". Well, Anne read it out loud and she laughed and said I'm a Moron also, glad to meet you! That was the beginning of the one liners from her up till the time we left! What a nice, funny lady she is.

Martinez Lake on the other hand is not a place I would go. It was very dirty, trashy and old looking. There seemed to be a lot of boondocking in the area, but down by the lake, there was just about any kind of structure you could think of, most of which I would not choose to stay in. We did a quick drive through and decided to move on.

At the wildlife refuge, we thought that we may see some wild burros, but, as my luck goes, nothing! I'm beginning to think that these wildlife refuges are just a way to justify more government employees!

I took a lot of pictures of the areas except for the RV park. Here are a few of the better ones.

This shows the dam along with the irrigation gates....



These are the gates, one open, one closed.....



Two of the irrigation gates are open sending water to the valley for field irrigation....



These two were closed......



Anne, Henry and Bandit......



This is a "mock" Iraqi village on the Proving Grounds used for training by our troops.....

A view from the Wildlife Refuge observation deck.......

Almost same view, later at sunset.........



A beautiful desert sunset.....



This is our last week in Yuma. We are leaving on Friday going to Ajo to visit the Organ Pipe Cactus Natl Monument. After two nights in there we will be attending the Gypsy Journal Rally in Casa Grande, AZ until the following Friday. From there, well.......check back.