THE DESERT GETS A GOOD DRINK

Boy, we've had a wet weekend here.   The desert will be very appreciative of it and perhaps there will be some nice wildflowers soon.  The desert was greening up very nicely from the previous rains we had but it doesn't take too long a dry spell before the plants start retreating again so this will prolong the spell.  The forecast is calling for showers again next weekend.  The people who work during the week and have weekends off probably aren't too pleased with the wet weekends and the only sunshine happening during the week.  Oh well, I remember going through years of that when I worked.
We keep pretty busy here.  I lead a couple rides and we play cards several times a week, ATV happy hour once a week and tomorrow is the ATV club's monthly potluck.  Then of course there is my photography that takes up lots of time both with the current photos and scanning and editing of old ones.
We are moving over to Quartzsite for a few weeks, probably leaving here January 24 then spending a few days in Yuma connecting with RV friends from Vancouver Island.  From there we will try to make it to the annual bloggerfest at Quartzsite that happens on January 28.  My aunt and uncle, Jacquie and Jim, will be in the area to visit with and I will be leading ATV rides February 7, 8 & 9.  Then it will be back here for less than six weeks before we go to Tucson for the Escapees RV Rally.  We'll probably have a couple of days back here after that then it will be time to head north to the border.

The Meyers Tow'd.  It was pretty surprising how well this little buggy did going up to the Top of the World.  Manual transmission and street tires, long wheelbase and low clearance.

On the way back down

Looking out over the hills to the flat lands from near the junction of the Martinez Mine Rd and the Top of the World trail.  If you click on the image to enlarge, you can see a canal wandering past Florence just left of center.  Box Canyon is beyond the first ridge. Three photos down you will see a closer image of that first ridge.

This is the trail leading up to top of the World.  That tiny speck you see peeking over the ridge just to the right of the left peak, is the left rock upthrust in the photo below.  We call it the Thumb and it is visible from the entrance to our park. 

At the junction of Martinez Mine Rd and Top of the World trail

Here's that ridge we were looking down on and over

Box Canyon

A male American Kestrel shot from my ATV seat

We stopped to play a bit on one of our rides

I climbed up for a view of the group having a rest break

We were lucky to have these Javelinas wander away slowly instead of running flat out like they often do

We happened on this Turkey Vulture on a recent ride