12/10/01:
Heavy clouds this morning and some wind here at Lake Mead. Time to move on anyway. Went to Boulder City to do some chores and then headed back to Hoover Dam and over to the Arizona side of Lake Mead. Spotted two big horn sheep just past the road block, this time presumably a female and a small kid. The kid had tiny spiked horns. The female, if that's what it was, had horns 18-20 inches sweeping up and back over her head. She had a big horn body so I don't think they were mountain goats. (12/31/01: Female desert big horn sheep do have horns).
Stopped off at Willow Beach on the Colorado River. No apparent current so looks like maybe a day each, north and south. Very heavy winds drove me into the truck to have lunch. Checked out Temple Bar after driving in along 30 miles of paved road. Looks good. Rest of Lake Mead may well be attractive but put ins required 50-60 mile each to drive in. Since it was so cold, I bypassed them and headed south.
12/18/01:
Been hanging out in Quartzsite in southwest Arizona off I10 and the California border. Tons of free, 14 day camping and tons more long term camping for a small fee ($20/week $100/season). Mountains in the background break up the monotony of continuousness of the Mojave Desert. I may be in this area till the end of the year though.
I dunno why Quartzsite is here. Mainly because of the winter weather I guess. Lower 40's/upper 30's at night and 50's/60's during the day. Wind varies from 5-50mph most days. Cloudy half the time and had one moderate rain for 30-40 minutes.
The town of Quartzsite is mostly RV's and commercial tents. They rent spaces and people come and sell crafts and whatever. There's hundreds of them and they seem to be here full time. Also somewhere around 1000 RV's.
There's not much (for me) in southwest Arizona except desert. Nothing much over in southern California either. The coast is all populated except for Camp Pendleton. The Salton Sea is there but that is probably all flatlands around it. Parts of it are also below sea level.
I'm weighing the pros and cons of going into Baja, Mexico this winter. Cons: banditos, policia, language, condition of truck, condition of me, expense (I've been camping free). Pros: not much else to do where its warm.
12/28/01:
Still at Quartzsite. Waiting for mail to be forwarded... sometime next week. Just been hanging out. Doing a lot of reading and walking. Starting to jog a little during the walks. With all the flatlands I think I'm going to try to build that up to an hour 3-4 times a week.
Started for Organ Pipe National Park but decided it was too far. After driving for 100 plus miles south through the Mojave Desert I was shocked to find Yuma, Arizona is an agricultural community. I saw lots of fields under cultivation. They're bringing water in from the Colorado River or somewhere via canals.
Went over to California via I-10 for medications. Stopped off at Joshua Tree National Park. Was hoping for some free camping but nada, just a couple of for pay campgrounds within the park. The park map didn't show much besides a couple of oasis so I didn't stay.
I caught a glimpse of a dozen American egrets in a small wetland off the highway. No kidding, egrets in the desert. Also saw more crops and canals.