A week in the desert

February 23 - March 1

This week we headed back to the desert. Peace, quiet, space and nature, and it was free.

You can camp on certain BLM land for 14 days without charge. There are no services of course so we had to be self-contained.

One of our desert sites. The sun is starting to get intense so we used our sun shade a bit.

Another of our sites this week.

Our plans were to just relax and enjoy the area. I had the metal detector out in the washes looking for treasure. Sorry to report that I am still poor but the good news is there is less metal garbage out in the desert.

There's been enough rain in the area over the past few weeks that the desert is beginning to bloom. Lots of pretty little flowers in white, yellow, and purple.

So tiny. Most of these flowers here, and below, are no more than a half inch (10 mm) across.

The Ocotillo Cactus are beginning to bloom. Beautiful!

Ocotillo

The Cholla cactus are not yet blooming.....but soon.

We took a couple of road trips during the week. We drove out to Erdman Mine to have a look around. We'd been here two years ago. It has a lot of old artifacts to view but you will want to pay attention to the warning signs.

Lots of old mine shafts that need to be left alone.

Note the Miners Code - S&W 357. That's enough warning to keep me away!

I love this old miners cabin. Mr Erdman lived here while he mined his claims.

Lots of old relics.

Old headframe over a mine shaft.

The famous 'potty lane'.

This is still an active mining site.

We also drove over to the small town of Bouse. The old Camp Bouse is a few miles out of town and was the home to an Army training base in World War Two. The displays are in town as there isn't much left to see out at the old camp.

We met dozens of bikers out for a cruise.

Lots of dips.

Lots of old WW2 relics commemorating Camp Bouse that tested war equipment not far from here. General Patton trained some of his fighters here.

Huge numbers of these pretty flowers in the yards around Bouse.

We stopped at Quinn Pass on Plamosa Road to see what we could see. A bit rugged.....and no gold was found.

Nice views from here.

Lots of cactii.

We found some Ironwood trees in our travels. They grow in some odd shapes and can have some huge burls on their trunks and branches.

See the face?

Other than a few walks around the desert, some quality book reading time, and watch the clouds drift by we didn't do a whole lot.

Of course we did get a couple of nice sunsets over the desert!

Sunday, March 1 we packed up and reluctantly left the desert for a short trip to Bullhead City, just across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada. We'll be there for a week before we head further north.

…..and that was Our View From Here!