A FEW FLOWERS

We had seven machines out on Blue's ride yesterday and we had a leisurely time exploring the desert.  There were a few flowers here and there so we stopped and admired them.  It is so nice to ride with a group that is fine with me stopping for photos.  Tomorrow the club does our annual desert cleanup so we get to go and pick up all the trash we have been seeing out on the trails.  The majority of the garbage seems to be put there by the city dwellers who come out to target shoot.  They bring out TVs and other electronic gadgets as well as larger appliances, shoot hell out of them then just leave all the crap lay.  It would sure be nice to be able pick up their leavings and dump them in their driveway.   Just over three weeks until we start heading north once again.  Where did the winter go?

A Rock Squirrel on the bank above us

Desert Globe Mallow

Rough White Aster

Wild Heliotrope

Rough White Aster

Foxtail Chess

Mexican Gold Poppy

Desert Globe Mallow

Common Fiddleneck

Parry's Penstemon

Parry's Penstemon

And here's the cowpoke cooking lunch

Our lunch stop

Ocotillo in bloom

I was able to get closer to this Ocotillo

More poppies

A very patient Red-tailed Hawk who sat there as all seven machines rolled to a stop

THAT'S ALL FOR QUARTZSITE

We ended up staying longer than planned in Quartzsite as we wanted to get our solar checked out by Discount Solar, the people who made it work so well a few years ago.  We added two more panels to help us recharge faster as the house fridge is using more energy with this warmer weather.  We intend to return to our lot in Florence, AZ tomorrow.  Then it is only about four weeks until we begin our trek north once again.  We hope to make a more leisurely trip north this year, stopping off a bit here and there before we get to the cold country where it just makes more sense to keep on driving and get it over with.

The country around Quartzsite has a barren look but if one takes the time to look and appreciate, there is a wealth of texture and subtle colour.

While geocaching I found some nicely weathered boards on a corral loading chute

This was one of the loading chute posts

This was taken this morning from where we are parked looking north.  Thunder was rumbling but no drops made it to us.  We did have just a few yesterday morning but it had no effect on settling the dust which is pretty bad now. 

A couple hours later this morning while out geocaching, I found this pretty Brittlebush in flower.

A few minutes later I found this Fairy Duster blooming.

PREACHER'S PASS RIDE

On Saturday when just us and Jerry and Donna were left here in camp, Jerry called over wanting to go for another ride. I thought that was a great opportunity to check out whether I could make a group circle ride utilizing Preacher's Pass.  We had a great ride with just two machines and w didn't meet many others all day either which made it nice and peaceful.  Following my nose for the most part, I only took one dead end road but that was some of the best scenery of the day.  Too bad it didn't go through.  Eventually we found our way to some country I recognized and then I knew just which trails to take.  I was very impressed that Aileen was able to make four days in a row of riding. 

Some beautiful Arizona desert scenery

Rock Daisy growing in a wash

Looking back from partway up to the pass

Jerry and Donna in one of the lumpy areas

Looking north from the pass where we had come from

Looking east from the pass to where we were heading

We found a Crested Saguaro

I'll let you come up with the title of this one

Brittlebush

We came upon some large boulders with nice vibrant Lichen

There were lots of these little arches 

The last four images were taken up the dead end road we took

Much of the rock up in the end of this valley was patterned thusly

ATV RIDE MARATHON

As planned for the last several weeks, a group of friends from the Recycles Quad Club in Florence, AZ joined Aileen and I for several days of riding.  We had met a nice couple in the campground here who are from Alberta and invited them to join us.  Day one had eight machines riding on Wednesday, day 1 then fifteen on Thursday, day 2 and twelve yesterday.  We went mostly different directions every day and each day had quite different terrain.  I think most riders went away quite pleased with their experience.  John and Micky brought their Class A and parked near us and rode all three days.  Jerry and Donna came later on Wednesday and parked close by in their B+ motor home.  Since they only rode Thursday and Friday, they came along with Aileen and I today on an exploratory ride looking for ideas for next year.  I was very impressed that Aileen was able to ride four days in a row.  I kept the ride lengths down so we had lots of time to stop and look at things as well as socialize and I think most people were fine with that.  Today's ride was longer and somewhat faster than I would take a larger group but it seemed to work fine with just the two of us.

We are staying over in the Quartzsite area for a few more days before heading back to Florence for the rest of our time down south.  We are planning on leaving shortly after the middle of March and hope to do some exploring on the way north before we get to the cold climate.

We were fortunate to see three nice Bighorn rams on day 1 and they did a pretty good job of posing

This was our day 1 lunch stop

This was the end of the road for day 1

This was a good spot to rest while some of the others explored the area

On day 2, we went south, the opposite direction.  We went along those hills to the right and around the end through Boyer Gap then through Diablo Pass which took us behind those hills making a nice circle route.

Looking back as we approach the hills

We had some beautiful ridges to ride

As well as some gnarlies

In my scouting, I had stumbled on these out of sight of the road, thus mostly undisturbed, diggings, which yielded some nice coloured rocks

Our afternoon stop was at another mine with some more very interesting rocks

We started day 3 playing in some small dunes.  Sandi was having a great time.

Our friend Dave used my camera to take some photos of me so I could get some images to share

Yes, I am having fun!

After the dunes, we carried on along the west side of the mountains until we were able to pass through them this side of the Four Peaks, this being the dominant peak with the others strung out behind it.

We had an afternoon stop at these red rocks

This is looking north along the eastern side of the hills

At the end of day 3 Micky, Aileen and Donna contributed supper for all of us.  Our motor home is barely visible through the tree behind Dave in the orange shirt.  This is our big patio!