After 7 days and 7 nights, we have come out of the desert and are
connected again to civilization. Our first Alpine
Desert Rat Rally XV was a fun experience as was our first real dry camping
adventure. I can certainly understand and
appreciate what draws folks into the wilderness, away from the hub-bub of city
life, to commune with nature.
Every morning, I watched the sun rising over the mountains, and
every evening, the sunsets tinted the dimming sky in reds and purples. The
night sky was a clear indigo speckled with bright twinkling stars. During the
night, I heard no sound other than occasional screeches of wild coyotes (once the generators stopped running, that is!).
This is of course hardly roughing it, and we were quite self-contained and comfortable in our Alpine, with a full water tank and empty waste tanks. The solar panels kept the batteries charged during the day and if we needed to, we fired up the generator to use the microwave/convection oven, though we relied on the gas stove if we needed to cook. Dry camping is not at all bad, and now we know that we can do this again quite comfortably in Alpine.
Imagine
a flat desert plain, dotted with various cactuses and desert shrubs, encircled
by distant mountain ranges. This is the
Sonoran Arizona Desert, basically a gigantic sand box, a vast wilderness area
that is dusty, rock-strewn, and deserted.
However,
for the past week thousands of RV’s congregated and parked in clusters on BLM
land (Bureau of Land Management) in this normally quiet, vast nothingness. The tiny
town of Quartzsite and its outskirts swelled with the arrival of thousands of
retirees who came to play and to shop. It
was winter camp for the seniors who were here to hang out in the desert
sunshine, socialize with other RV-ing friends and groups, scoot around in their
all-terrain vehicles, and shop in the Big Tent where dozens of vendors ply all
sorts of wares that RV-ers simply have to have.
Just
as children love to play in a sandbox with their toys, we did too.
We met in the white tent for breakfasts, social
hours, "gearhead" meetings, a couple of educational seminars, dinners, a swap meet, entertainment, and even for dancing one night.
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| our Alpine group, coaches neatly lined up |
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| Mac the fire safety guy |
We played down town, walking through the Big Tent, looking at all the RV-related goods and services.
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| inside the big tent, jam-packed with gray-haired shoppers |
We
played in the desert. One day we hiked to see the palms growing in Palm Canyon in the Kofa Wildlife Refuge with new Alpine friends, Steve and Sue. The scenery was spectacular and the stillness surrounding us peaceful and
awesome.
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| Californian fan palms clinging to the canyon crevice |
This is a link to more information about how these palms appeared here: http://www.americantrails.org/nationalrecreationtrails/trailNRT/PalmCanyon-AZ.html
Here is what else we saw in the Kofa Wildlife Refuge:
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| a plein air artist with his dog (which reminds me of our Alsatian, Mira, we had at home in South Africa) |
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| saguaro, ocotillo, and cholla cactus |
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| this ocotillo is in bloom |
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| a typical landscape scene in these parts |
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| peaks lit up by the late afternoon sun |
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| twilight in the desert |
On
another day, we went off in search of the Quartzsite Rock Alignment. The area north of Quartzsite was used as a training ground for General Patton’s troops during WWII, and rocks were laid out spelling QUARTZSITE and
forming an arrow pointing the way.
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| give me a "Q" |
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| give me a "U" |
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give me an "A"....... put them together and you have - |
A
little further down the same road we went in search of the Fisherman Intaglio,
the outline of a fisherman drawn on the desert floor by ancient Indians. The Bouse
Fisherman is a 30-foot long geoglyph of a person spearing a fish and though we
were able to make out the shapes, it would be best seen from the air.
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| looking at the fisherman from the side, the large patch is his body, his head on the right, legs on the left, and the spear head made of white stones in the foreground |
Another
day, we took Jeep on our first off-road trip to Desert Bar, an experience that
still leaves me amused.
Someone had the brilliant idea to create a bar and
restaurant in the middle of nowhere, open only on weekends, and the folks
continue to arrive in droves to check it out.
It's a shuddering 4.5 mile drive along a primitive road to get there, with a fair amount of jostling and bouncing through rutted
rocky terrain.
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| bouncing along with the others who took the "good" primitive road |
The gray hairs with serious off-road vehicles come in
through a more primitive route, climbing over rocks and dunes. One of the Alpiner's Jeeps, while negotiating around a large rock, slipped off the edge of the road and had to be pulled back up by two others.
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| the Alpine group lining up for their challenging off-road drive to Desert Bar |
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| some folks have weddings here |
At the end of the road is
a dusty, rocky, cactus- strewn and stark venue. There is a church façade for weddings, and an outdoor terrace with a
couple of bars and fast-food areas to eat. It was noisy, crowded, and the food would not win any awards. Yet the folks continued to pour in by the
dozens, the parking spots snapped up as soon as anyone left.
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| overlooking the lower restaurant section |
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| Michael waiting in line for our burgers |
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| a band playing for our enjoyment |
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| the serious off-road vehicles that arrived here cross country |
And yes, it took
4.5 miles of bouncing, jarring and jostling along the same primitive road to get back
to the highway. I left wondering
“why?”…, laughing at how very
gullible folks are. Someone discovered a gold mine when they came up with the
idea for Desert Bar. They must have asked themselves what would entertain the thousands of retirees who call this area home during the winter months while they hang out in the their RV’s
in the desert. And they hit gold!
Quartzsite is located 17 miles from the California border, and started out as a water-stop in the desert. There is a lot of history in the area, from pioneers and settlers who came here and settled the town that is now Quartzsite, to prospectors and ranchers, whose descendants still live in the town. During the winter months, this becomes a retiree hang out, with abundant sunshine and mild winter temperatures. Over 60 RV parks and 11,000 acres of BLM land cater to those who enjoy coming to the desert. No wonder Quartzsite has become a popular winter destination, even if only for a few months in the year. It would be rather uncomfortable to have to endure the summer temperatures of over 120F!