March 20-21, 2009 - Spring in the Desert

Happy Spring to all.

Friday (20th)

Our first stop this morning was Memorial Park at North Ranch. The entrance is right down the block from here and although we were here last week, I had to go back to take pictures.

This park is maintained by volunteers and they have done an incredible job with pathways, dedications, and identifications of the various plants and cacti.

Of course, I took LOTS of pictures and will share a few.

Some of the cactus in bloom:

How about this Saguaro - it’s birthday was in 1600 - can you imagine?

And the birds living in it:

What a neat place!

A picture of our site:

I spent the afternoon with the beaders and learned more stitches. It is sad to leave them but we will be back. Once I have finished some of the bracelets, I will take pictures and put on the blog.
The rest of the evening was spent relaxing.

Saturday (21st)

Today was road trip day. We packed a lunch and off we went to check out some of the BLM lands in the area (future camping spots - :-)).

Our first stop was the road to Stanton. There were some nice areas but it may be rough getting to a sight due to the dirt road. The valley, however, is beautiful:

We went all the way to Stanton for a look around. Many people have claims near here and spend a lot of time prospecting. We have met a few people here in the park that go out that way daily.

From there, we went to Ghost Town Road by Congress and found some really nice BLM camping areas. We decided to stop and have lunch at this spot:

This little bird was flying in and out feeding her babies:

Our last stop was rest stop near a grove of Joshua Trees. Nice little area for overnight but too close to the road for us to spend longer than that. Some pictures:

Back home, we spent some time talking with our neighbors, Mary and Ray. They checked on me and Andy during and after his hospital stay. Mary is also in the beaders group and will be teaching at Beaders Week next month.

They showed us some gold that they found - and showed us some techniques in sluicing… Thanks!

We had dinner in town and got caught up with emails tonight. Tomorrow will be laundry, clean up, and start packing up day.. We are still on track to leave on Monday.

Until then.