Author: Mary Ann

Today we left Portland, Oregon heading toward The Grand Canyon (we have reservations in Trailer Village starting Friday for a week).  We travelled down the Columbia River Gorge (aka “The Gorge”) on route 84 toward Eastern Oregon and eventually Idaho.

 

 

Good-bye Mount Hood (as seen in rear-view mirror)

 

 

Some sights along the way

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we arrived in Idaho

 

 

My daughter Kathy, a graduate student at Portland State University, has spring break this week and we decided to change plans and drive to Oregon to visit with her for a few days. We picked her up in Portland and headed out the Boardman, OR on the Columbia River. We are staying in a beautiful little park, Boardman Marina & RV Park (note Kathy’s tent next to the fence).

 

 

 

 

It rained most of the day yesterday so went to visit Kennewick, WA – had lunch at Ice Harbor Brewing Company.

 

 

Weather was nice enough at the end of the day to give us a beautiful sunset.

 

 

Sun is out today and I took a long walk in the park.

 

 

 

Enjoying life!!

This post is a bit late but just wanted to keep things in chronological order.

Last week we visited Sky Valley Resort in Desert Hot Springs, CA. Their claim to fame is natural hot springs and they offer numerous swimming pools and spas with naturally heated clear mineral rich water.

It was really more of a mobile home park with a very small number of RV sites. The first site they gave us was on a busy corner next to a construction area. But we asked for a better site and they accommodated. The site we ended up with was pretty nice but it was still a mobile home park and not really a campground.

We visited Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve just a few miles down the road from the ‘campground’. We had a nice nature walk and what we discovered was that the reason there are hot springs in that location is that it is smack on top of the San Andreas fault. The hot water in the swimming pools and spas are is coming up through a giant crack in the earth. We looked at a map and figured if California sunk into the ocean while we were there that we were on the surviving side 🙂

Back to Joshua Tree National Park today. We took a hike on ‘Split Rock’ trail, a 2 mile loop.  The picture below explains the name.

We hiked in the morning while it was still cool. It was starting to warm up by the time we finished. I cannot imagine what it must be like to visit in the summer.

We saw a few rocks that looked like other things.

 

 

 

I love seeing the plants in the desert. I think it’s because they are so different from what we have in New England.

 

 

 

 

And a critter.  We have seen very few animals during our national park visits so far. Hopefully we’ll see more in the future.

 

All in all a good hike and a very nice day!

This morning there  was fog in the campground and on the river. Quite unusual and very pretty.

This afternoon we headed out in the kayaks. Went further we have before. Saw some sights.

Burros visiting a house nearby. I suppose they just wander around hoping for a handout. It is illegal to feed them but I think lots of people ignore that rule.

A sunken boat.

And lots of beautiful scenery.

On one of our kayak trips Bill saw some hummingbird feeders hung in people’s yards. So yesterday he dug out our feeders, filled them, and hung them outside on our cabana. Almost immediately a tiny friend came to visit and there has been one or two there almost all the time since. The pics below are from inside the motorhome through the windshield.

So we have been at Sundance RV park in Earp, CA for a little over a week now. We have met some nice people, the view of the river is beautiful. The weather is generally cool at night, and warm & sunny during the day. The past few days have been pretty windy, however, blowing around lots of dust (even when it’s not windy there is dust on everything).  On the non-windy days we kayak upstream towards the parker dam and have an easy paddle back to the campground. It is very peaceful this time of year. We have been told that in spring and summer the area gets very busy and there are lots of speedboats on the river – but now it is pretty quiet.

 

We made a couple trips down the Quartzite, AZ this week. Quartzite is a crazy desert town where millions of RVs migrate every winter. There a some commercial campgrounds where you pay for a site but thousands of RVs just pull off the road and dry camp in the desert. Additionally there is a huge area where vendors have booths in a flea market style. We had fun but also very dusty!!

In the 1930s, while the aqueducts and dams were being built on the river, this town was known as Cross Roads with a population of several thousand. Below is what remains of the Cross Roads Mercantile Company.

Yesterday we walked across the street from the campground and took a hike in the hills. There is no civilization there. Only desert, hills, and dirt roads. There is an interesting rock structure that looks (to me) like a finger pointing to the sky. It can be seen for miles.

We can see sunsets and sunrises here.

We are at Sundance RV Resort now until March, but spent a few days at Lake Havasu State Park this past week before moving on to Sundance.

There is a 9 hole disk golf course on the London Bridge Island. We did not play that well but had a lot of fun. It’s been a while since we had the disks out.

And of course we took the kayaks out on the lake. Just a beautiful place. We are lucky to have the chance to experience it.

And the sunsets are spectacular!!

We departed Lake Havasu the day before the annual balloon fest. But a few of the participants were getting an early start.

We are back on the Colorado River in Lake Havasu City, AZ. Next week we’ll be moving to Sundance RV Resort in Earp, CA for two months. Today we went to have a look at our new site (the place was still under construction when we made reservations in December).

The campground is in an area where wild burros are frequently seen wandering around.

We stayed in Death Valley National Park for a few days. Awesome!!

We stayed in the park at Furnace Creek Campground. Thought we would be dry camping (no electric, water or sewer) but were pleasantly surprised when they offered us a full hookup.

First day we visited man-made wonder – Scotty’s Castle.  Scotty’s Castle is a mansion built by millionaire Albert Johnson in the 1920’s.  Johnson was a creative engineer/inventor who designed and built this lavish and extremely comfortable winter vacation home in the middle of the extreme dessert.

This guy was sneaking around as we were leaving Scotty’s Castle. We were going to have lunch at some picnic tables near the parking lot but he was a bit too close and interested in our food – so we ate in the car.

The next day we visited Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level.

Natural Bridge Canyon.

The Devil’s Golf Course

And my favorite – Artists Drive. I had no idea rocks and mountains could have so much variety and color.

Finally some shots of the mountains from our campsite.