After leaving the Sonoran Desert National Monument later than expected. I headed into Yuma, thinking I might stay at an RV park. The RV parks there are massive affairs. They are designed for snowbirds, and it’s just row after row of huge RVs.
I stopped at Walmart to do a little bit of shopping and realized that there was a real invasion here at the Mexican border. And no, I hardly saw any Mexicans. What I did see were hundreds of cranky, angry, entitled old white people. It was one of the worst trips I’ve had to a Walmart.
I decided I just wanted to get out of the city and headed to my next camping destination near the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. About 20 miles before hitting the BLM road that I was going to turn on, the rain began, so I set up in the rain.
As the rain began to come down harder, I discovered something annoying. It seemed rather fitting that after such a frustrating and long day, I would choose a low spot to park the camper, and the lowest spot was right outside the door. Oh well, sometimes you gotta learn the hard way.
The sun did eventually come out and it was a decent space as long as it wasn’t raining.
I did check out into the space between the mountains and my camper to check out what I could see.
I’m really fascinated with the saguaro cactuses. The resilience and toughness in such a harsh climate is rather fascinating.
Of course, they don’t live forever, and sometimes nature takes them out. They’re interesting plants that are similar to trees in some ways with insides that are like wood and a very tough skin rather than bark.
I like this one. It looks like a popsicle!
It was interesting how the Teddy Bear Cholla cactus has new growth in the middle of the winter. Or at least what looks like new growth to me.
Baby saguaro cactus have attractive, red spines when they are babies.
As I wondered around, I did find the boundary to the national wildlife refuge snapped a picture and headed back to camp.
This is what it looked like where I was camping from the highest point I reached, while I was out wandering in the desert.
Unfortunately, with a pineapple express hitting California, the wind picked up here and provided a few challenges. Specifically, my privacy shelter that goes over my privy didn’t like getting battered constantly by the strong winds!
When I woke up to leave on Monday morning, I was greeted by a spectacular sunrise.
It quickly faded, and I quickly hooked up the trailer and headed toward Quartzsite for breakfast and, more importantly, coffee.