The past ten days have found us looking to the skies even more than usual. This is due in part to the lack of metropolitan light poisoning where we have been camping and in part to the fact that a lot has been going on up there lately, and I'm not just talking about the usual gorgeous sunsets!Watching last Wednesday's total lunar eclipse/blue moon/red moon was a totally new experience for us. We have missed many past eclipses, meteor showers and other night-time events due to commonly occurring fog in our hometown on the Monterey Bay. Seen from our boondocking spot along American Girl Mine Rd (or "AMG") in the far southeastern corner of California the moon was sharp and clear, even with a slight glow on the horizon from the lights of Yuma some 20 miles away. The surrounding stars were bright and distinct despite some sporadic cloud cover. This amazing experience was rendered even more special by the fact that it was
We pulled out of the AGM on Thursday morning, sad to leave the people and place we had enjoyed so much, but still eager to track down our next adventure. After a long day of laundry and grocery shopping in Yuma we headed north on AZ95 towards the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, where we planned to spend a few days camped near Palm Canyon. It was already dusk when we turned off the highway onto a road that soon turned to dirt, which was not unexpected. We had been warned that the road could be pretty rough and had thought ourselves prepared, but this washboarded goat track was in a category all it's own when it came to roughness! Drawers bounced open, silverware rattled and at least one cat climbed up on the bed to take advantage of the cushioning (she had never done it before and hasn't since; they prefer to hide under the couch or on the floor beneath the bottom edge of the comforter when we travel). With our 35' class A motorhome, we were limited to about 5 MPH, and we soon realized it was going to take us about 90 minutes just to get to the dispersed camping area, after which we would still have to select a site and set up camp by just the light of the (almost) full moon. Unfortunately, we had to go about 3.5 miles in before we could turn around, as previous to that we were travelling through the bombing range of the Yuma Proving Grounds military installation. We both agreed that leaving the road to turn around where there were signs warning of unexploded ordinance was pretty high up on the list of things we didn't want to do on this or any other night, so we had to wait until we reached the entrance to the wildlife refuge. Lesson learned; always assume the road is even worse than people tell you it is!
Having failed to reach our original destination, we immediately turned to Plan B (which we hurriedly made up on the spot, while listening to military radar interfere with our radio and who knows what else) and slowly crept back to the highway to head north to Quartzsite, AZ. The one bright spot (pun intended) on the remaining hour-long journey was witnessing an incredible orange moonrise from behind the Livingston Hills to the east of us. After what seemed an eternity we wearily pulled into a spot on Plomosa Rd. north of Quartzsite, near where we had stayed a couple of weeks earlier. We didn't position the coach for best solar or on the flattest section of ground; we were level enough to eat and sleep and that was all we cared about at that moment.
We spent a couple of nights near The "Q" (as Quartzsite is known to rockhounds and full-time RV'ers) marvelling once again at how the stars overhead and the nearby lights of town both sparkle with their own brand of beauty. Unlike our previous stay, our campsite was visited this time by a pack of five or six yipping, snapping coyotes. Although I couldn't see them I certainly could hear them as they yapped their rowdy way past the back end of the coach, and so could the cats; they were extremely nervous for several minutes after the chaotic crowd passed out of hearing. We heard a pack very close by and heading toward us the following night as well, but they changed direction when they heard us outside putting the awning away.
The next day our eyes were drawn upward again as the Goodyear Blimp made it's way over Quartzsite and disappeared over the Plomosa Mountains to the east. It was kind of a strange sight out here in the middle of the desert!
After a brief stay at The "Q", cell phone issues forced us westward to Blythe, CA. After solving our recharging issues there, we drove a few miles east across the Colorado River to an expansive and uncrowded boondocking area across I-10 from Ehrenberg, AZ. To access this incredible area, you exit the intesrtate at AZ exit 1 and take the East Frontage Rd past the end of the pavement for around 2.5 miles and you will see all kinds of campsites on both sides of the road. We are camped just above the Ehrenberg Wash, with a view down to Blythe that is quite lovely at night, but smoky during the day due to the burning off of fields right now. There are mountains visible both near and far for a full 360 degrees from our site. The laundromat in Ehrenberg specifically caters to boon-dockers and has dump and fill, garbage and shower facilities as well as wi-fi available. There is also a Dollar General there, as well as all types of shopping seven miles west in Blythe. For those of you who appreciate interesting military planes and helicopters, this is your spot.We have seen Apache helicopters, numerous jets and cargo planes, and a stealth bomber flying low enough I could probably pick the pilot out of a crowd!
On our first night at Ehrenberg we were treated to another incredible moonrise, this time over the Dome Rock Mountains (I think...it might be Sawtooth Mountain; we are surrounded by overlapping ranges here and it can be hard to tell where one ends and the next begins). This time we were able to enjoy it from a stationary viewpoint and let me tell you, it was pretty spectacular! The moon reflected a golden-orange glow that extended to the hazy clouds surrounding it, making a soft black silhouette of the mountain in front of it (whichever one it is...). The next day I looked up to see... the Goodyear Blimp passing almost directly overhead on it's way back west. Two sightings in a couple of days; what a treat! It brought back memories of a long ago family vacation in Northern California where the Goodyear Blimp paralleled our journey for almost a week. We would outpace it during the day and it would catch up to us in the evening; the next day we would catch up to it in the morning and once again leave it behind, only to have it reappear later in the day when we stopped somewhere. As a child this was kind of a magical experience and to this day the sight of a blimp makes me smile and feel like a kid again.The days may have jets and blimps, but the nights out here have stars; oh, my goodness, do they have stars! The sky is black velvet above and blue suede below, and the stars are so bright they don't look real. They look like the ceiling in a planetarium; too perfect to actually exist. It took me two nights of star-gazing to accept that these are actually the same stars I saw from the yard in my stick-and-bricks home on the coast. It really feels like I'm seeing them for the first time, and it makes me hyper-aware of the fact that we have to find a way to keep living this lifestyle for the rest of our lives!
Stay tuned, My Friends, as we chase the stars across the Great American Southwest!
- Peace to All! -Lynn
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