Yuma

We had never been to Yuma, Arizona and didn't know much about it.  I had low expectations, and for the most part that was appropriate.  But Yuma had its interesting aspects and I'll try to cover a few on this post.

First of all, I wasn't aware of the historical importance of Yuma to the settlement of the West.  Perched right on the border with Mexico and on the banks of the Colorado River, Yuma was a vital supply link for much of the West.  The Colorado 150 years ago was subject to huge floods.  At times the river was a mile wide.  Yuma was built on the site of the narrowest crossing point for hundreds of miles.  Ferries operated to take settlers and supplies across.  Yuma is also just 100 miles from the Gulf of California, and before it was so heavily dammed, the Colorado flowed right to the Gulf. Today it peters out in Mexico and never reaches the sea.  So in 1880, If one wanted to ship gold from Colorado to San Francisco, one could put it on wagons and send it across the Rockies and Sierras and the Nevada desert and maybe it would get there in a few months.  OR, one could put it on a steamship on the Colorado River to the Gulf of California and a sailing ship could get it to San Francisco in a week or two.

Today, Yuma's biggest attraction is its territorial prison.  We visited that and it was very interesting.  It was a weird combination of enlightened management--they had a library and tried to educate and train the prisoners in a trade, they had electricity and running water when the town of Yuma had neither--and cruel, inhuman punishments.  Most visitors' favorite part of the prison is the so-called "dark cell" where prisoners where punished by being chained in a 5-foot-high cage inside a stone room with no light for days or even weeks at a time. It is hard to imagine how they kept their sanity.

Gate to the main cell block at the Yuma prison

Each 8 x 10 foot cell housed five prisoners

While in Yuma, we also took a ride out to the desert to see a ghost town and mine museum.  When the BLM created the 655,000 acre Kofa Wildlife Refuge into a wilderness area, many old buildings were going to be destroyed.  One man decided to save them and install them at the site of an old mining area (and fairly large town) called Castle Dome.  Today, there are over 40 period buildings, many filled with artifacts from the mining era, and several mine shafts, mine structures and mining artifacts all scattered over a large area.  We spent several hours there exploring and then photographed the sunset from the desert.

This mine shaft was over 200 feet deep, but it was safely closed with a grate

The desert scenery around Castle Dome Mines was spectacular

Full moon rising

The Imperial Dunes of California

After spending a year plus touring California, we were finally poised to move east to spend months in Arizona, Utah, Nevada and eventually Colorado.  Our last few days in California were spent in Winterhaven, just across the Colorado River from Yuma, Arizona.  More on Yuma in the next post.

The coolest thing about Winterhaven, besides being near Yuma, was it's proximity to California's largest dunes complex.  Roughly 40 miles long by about 20 miles wide, the Imperial dunes are an amaazing phenomenon of nature.  The early settlers on their way to California by the southern route had to traverse this incredible sea of sand, and, having traversed about 200 feet of it myself, I am absolutely astonished that they were able to get across it.  In the early 20th century, a wooden road was built that floated on the sand and cars and wagons used that to get across.  Incredibly tedious and dangerous it was, and often cars drove off the road to their peril. Today Interstate 8 crosses the dunes and cars traverse them in 20 minutes. Here is a picture of a small segment of this wooden road still preserved:

Another interesting aspect of the dunes is that they extend south into Mexico and Winterhaven is right on the border.  The 12-foot-high border fence that has been constructed to control illegal immigration is quite close to the road that passes through the dunes.  Here are a couple of shots of the dunes with the border fence running through.

The dunes are a real wonder of nature.  Several hundred feet high and almost devoid of vegetation, they are incredibly beautiful, especially at sunrise and sunset.  We caught them at sunset with the almost full moon rising and I think the pictures speak for themselves!

One minor problem.  The Bureau of Land Management, who controls this stretch of land, has seen fit to only preserve a quarter or so as wilderness.  So instead of a quiet place to feel small and contemplate this miraculous natural phenomenon, every weekend it turns into a huge Nascar track for off-road vehicles.  Luckily we were there during the off season on a weekday, so we only saw a couple.

Salton Sea Revisited

After exploring East Jesus for a while, we headed over to the Salton Sea to hang out and wait for the sunset.  The birds were amazing again, with huge flocks rising from the water and circling in columns hundreds of feet high.  The sunset was one of the most unusual and beautiful I have ever seen. We also visited the once-booming resort town of Bombay Beach, which is now just a desolate ruin of a place.  Some cool buildings to photograph, though!

Out in East Jesus (aka Slab City, California)

The Salton Sea area is one of extremes--sublime beauty, scenery and life, but also decay, poverty and desolation.  Having spent a day there a few weeks ago, we just had to go back, not knowing when we might be in this area again.  I showed some pictures last time of Salvation Mountain, the several-hundred-foot-high hill of painted devotion to a god of love.  The creator of that monument, Leonard Knight, lived in Slab City just a few miles up the road.  A marine base during WWII, now it is the home of some 2,000+ snowbirds, squatters, dropouts and artists living off the grid. The Salton Sea state park brochure talks about visiting Salvation Mountain, and as an aside says you can continue on to visit Slab City "if you dare"!  It is essentially a huge homeless encampment with an assortment of the most dilapidated RV's, shacks and improvised housing I've seen anywhere (anywhere in the U.S. anyway).

Deep inside Slab City is East Jesus, which was described to me by a friend as "basically a junk yard inside a huge homeless camp".  To the creators of East Jesus, it is a place where art can flourish and where the guiding principal is to reuse what others call garbage and make it an artistic expression. So we dared to drive through Slab City and visit East Jesus.  We got a short tour and enjoyed it all very much.  Pictures describe it best:

This is a genuine Manhattan city bus, half-buried in the desert sand and painted in one night by a woman who dropped in to East Jesus for a short stay.

The title of this was something like "Trophy Wife with an Incredible Rack"

Finally, the memorial to the founder of East Jesus, Charles Russell, who died of a heart attack in Slab City in 2011.  Many people continue to develop and support East Jesus today and have set up a foundation to purchase the land under East Jesus from the state of California.  Negotiations are underway.

Joshua Tree (revisited)

In our 3 years of travel, we have not often visited the same place twice.  San Diego and Palm Springs were two big exceptions and another is Joshua Tree National Park.  Last February, we spent a week camping in the park and loved it.  While in Palm Springs, we decided to take a day trip there just to experience the place again and (now that I am more serious about photography) and take some pictures.  We targeted the setting crescent moon as a great night to shoot and spent all day hiking and exploring.

We started out hiking to the Lost Horse mine, closed down in the 30's when the park was created. This 4-mile round trip brought us through some rugged desert with great views.  The mine itself was fenced off for safety reasons, but still looked cool.

After the mine hike, we ate our lunch and did a short walk to an old adobe dwelling that once housed the mine owners.  Only the walls still stand but they seem to blend with the colorful rocks all around them.

It was getting to be late afternoon, so we headed over to another area of the park, scouting for a place to watch and photograph the sunset with crescent moon.  Kind of silly, because Joshua Tree NP is a place where you could literally be air-dropped anywhere and it would be a scenic spot for pictures because of the rock formations and Joshua trees everywhere.  We landed at Hidden Valley, where the cattle rustlers of old used to hide their stolen goods.

Finally, the sunset with crescent moon and Venus did NOT disappoint!

To see all the Joshua Tree photos, go HERE