Blythe and Corn Spring, CA (2/25 &26/2020)

My RV park in Blythe, called Hidden Beaches, is located right on the Colorado River.  My campsite was set up so I could pull forward up to the edge of the cliff above the river.  Each site has a patio with table and chairs or a bench so one could sit and enjoy wonderful views of the river and the mountains beyond.  However, with 35-40 MPH winds ripping through, I chose to enjoy the view by staying inside and looking through the windshield.  Still, it was very nice.

The park also has a few birds, such as Mr. & Mrs. Vermilion Flycatcher.

Now I'll tell you why I came to Blythe in the first place.  Several weeks ago, I learned of a different type of ancient art than I had been aware of.  Geoglyphs are images made on the earth itself in one of several methods, such as placing rocks in a pattern.  Oh yeah, I've seen rock circles and medicine wheels, just didn't know the term "geoglyph".  Another method is to form an image by removing dark rocks or soil to expose lighter colored earth underneath.  Images created this way are called intaglios (pronounced in-tal-yos).  The Colorado desert in California has some 200 intaglios, presumably formed by Native Americans but no one knows which tribe(s), or when, or why.

I read about a series of intaglios in the desert near Blythe and wanted to check them out.  They are so large, over 100 feet long, that good views aren't possible from the ground.  I tried to find someone who might take me up in a plane or helicopter so I could get photos from the air, but had no luck.  I had to settle for visiting the site and viewing the images the best I could.  This explains why my photos don't show the entire images.

For each of three images, I'll show you the plaque describing each, as well as my limited coverage photo.  Since their discovery in 1932, some vandalism has occurred.  BLM fenced them in 1982 as a way of protecting against further damage.

The first image is of a male human.  You can see damage caused by tire tracks.

The second is a four-legged animal, and there's also a spiral in the scene.  Some think the animal is a horse, which was introduced here in the 1500s.  Carbon dating suggests the images are older, so the animal could be a mountain lion.  The spiral could be a rattlesnake (lots of those around).

Last, another male human figure.  I turned my photo upside down to give a different perspective.

The most famous geoglyphs in the world are in Peru.  They are so large, many people believe they could only have been made by aliens.

While checking into the RV park, I had asked the folks there if they knew of any rock art in the area.  Another customer overheard my question and volunteered information about a place called Corn Spring.  Having a name, I was able to research it on the internet and learn exactly where to go.  Unfortunately, it was 50 miles from Blythe, but I went anyway.

Corn Spring Canyon is in the Chuckwalla Mountains and has a BLM campground, a deserted old cabin and hundreds of petroglyphs.  I'll limit the number I show to avoid putting you to sleep.

After returning to Blythe, I drove into the Palo Verde Ecological Reserve looking for wildlife.  All I saw were two raptors, an American Kestrel and a juvenile female Bald Eagle, still changing color.

Dateland, AZ (2/24/2020)

Dateland was founded around 1920 as a water stop for trains on their way to San Diego.  Visitors often swam in the irrigation pond to cool off, since the area gets temps at or near 120F for three weeks each summer.  This was once a big farming area, but most of it has long since disappeared.  Solar farms are now the big thing, although dates are still the main attraction.  The Travel Center is also the date farm and advertises date products far and wide, especially date shakes.  The population is said to be around 800, but I have not seen places for that many people unless you count the snowbirds in the two RV parks.

So why am I here?  I don't like dates and the weather isn't hot, recently ranging from 50F to 72F, which is pretty perfect from my point of view.  Also, I'm not a fan of solar farms, which I think are ugly and somewhat inefficient and exist only because taxpayers carry around 30% of their cost.  Two years ago, I breezed right by  this place without even noticing it was here.  However, I later learned of some rock art sites along the Gila River and Dateland has the closest RV park.  So here I am.

The Travel Center, with its date palms, is a true oasis in the desert.

The Oasis RV Park, where I'm staying, is another oasis, and the folks who run it are very nice.  Many of the people who stay here come back year after year.  My neighbors, from Calgary, Alberta, have been coming here for more than thirty years.  Many of the sites are set up to be permanent, with flower gardens, bird feeders, etc.  The park itself presents a great image.

Aside from the Travel Center, most of the local "attractions" involve what used to be.  You can see the old shrimp ponds, or the old brothel now falling down, or the Oatman Massacre site, or any number of abandoned homes and cabins.

I learned of three rock art (petroglyph) sites along the Gila River, now a dry river bed here due to diversion and dams upstream.  Unfortunately, I only had directions to Sears Point, but hoped the locals knew how to get to Quail Point and Hummingbird Point.  No luck there, as no one I spoke to had even heard of those two sites. (I'll probably get something on them soon after I leave here.)

Sears Point is about nine miles up a dirt road that crosses the dry riverbed and is described as "impassable when wet".  An inch of rain two nights earlier might have left it wet, but I went anyway.  Along the way, I passed some signs commemorating General Patton's two training camps in  World War II.

This area was also used for training B-25 pilots in WW II, and the runways can still be seen.  Soldiers also came here to train for the desert conditions found in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I passed a couple of "houses" apparently still in use, and several sites where RVs were parked.  It frequently amazes me how far into the desert some people will go to get privacy.

The road was actually pretty good for three or four miles, then got a little "dipsy-doodle" as it went through several washouts.  No big deal.  The dry riverbed was no problem, but then pools of water/mud started appearing in the road.  There were bypasses in several spots, but then I saw a long bad muddy area up ahead, with trees lining the ruts.  I saw one set of tracks going off into the desert to avoid the mud, so I followed them.  This path also proved to be soft and muddy, so I went into 4Low and found my way back to the main trail just before it ended at Sears Point.

There are several buttes at Sears Point, all formed by huge piles of volcanic boulders.  I started to climb the nearest butte and began seeing petroglyphs right away. 

There was no trail up the steep, rocky hillside, so I just picked my way among boulders large and small, taking photos of the petroglyphs along the way.  At the top there were great views of the buttes and the desert below, all the way to distant mountains.

As usual, going down was trickier than climbing up the rocky slope, and my legs were shot by the time I was down.  I still had enough energy to walk around some of the buttes, but not enough to climb another one.  Consequently, I probably missed hundreds, if not thousands, of petroglyphs.  No matter, I still saw a great many, and some much different than other locations.  Here are a few of the more interesting panels, all shot from ground level with a long lens.

Returning to the interstate, I took the main trail and simply powered through the really muddy spots.  I was a little concerned about the possibility of getting stuck out here, since the trail register showed the last visitor was two days earlier, but the LRJ came through for me again, although some of it was skidding sideways in the bog.  Now it's covered with red mud and looks like a Jeep again.

Bisbee & Portal, AZ (2/19/2020)

While chatting with the manager of my RV park, he asked if I had been to Portal.  I told him I had only read about a scenic drive there and put it on my list of future adventures.  He piqued my interest by telling me it's the most beautiful place he's ever been.  I went there the following day.

Portal is a small community in the extreme southeast corner of Arizona, population 759 (359 men, 400 women).  It is situated at the mouth of Cave Creek Canyon on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains, where marauding Apaches once lived.  More than 100 miles from Sierra Vista, Portal is so remote you have to enter New Mexico and then head west back into Arizona.

My route passed through the town of Bisbee, an historic mining town similar to Tombstone although copper was its primary product, rather than silver.  Turquoise, a byproduct of copper mining, and silver were secondary products.  The Queen Mine was all underground and still gives tours today with former miners as tour guides.  Later, open pit copper mining was employed to meet the demands of World War I.  A huge pit is still present in town with parking for visitors to view the gigantic hole in the ground.  The town itself is very interesting as it sits in a series of canyons and is home to a community of aging hippies and an active arts and cultural society.  Losing population in recent years, the town now has just over 5000 people.

 Also on the way to Portal stands a marker commemorating the location where Geronimo finally surrendered to the U.S. Army in 1886.  He had surrendered several times before, but escaped each time.  He eventually died at Fort Sill, OK in 1909.

The Portal Store and Lodge is a center of community life in Portal, along with the library and Post Office.

Given the nature of Cave Creek Canyon, stone is a very common building material.  

Private land is co-mingled with the Coronado National Forest run by the U.S. Forest Service.  In addition to an Info Center, the USFS maintains a two-room cabin available for rent.  The cabin was built in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

There are two main attractions to this area.  First is the scenery provided by the mountains, the canyon and Cave Creek.  The mountains were formed by volcanic tuff that accumulated miles deep, its own weight compacting and forming rock that has been eroding ever since.  It's a shame my day there was totally overcast, thereby limiting the color that shows in the photos.  The light improved a little in the afternoon, so the rock color is a little more evident.

 I learned that this area is one of the premier birding spots in the country with over 400 bird species having been seen here, many of which are endemic to Mexico.  The season for birds seems to be April through October, so I saw only a few at this time.  Several B & Bs in Portal provide feeders so birders can access a number of birds conveniently.  My plan is to return at some point in the RV and stay a couple weeks during peak birding season.  While USFS campgrounds are lovely, they have no hook-ups, so I'll be staying at a nearby RV park in NM.