PADDLING ON THE COLORADO RIVER

We have moved over to the Long Term Visitors Area of the BLM near Senator Wash on the Colorado River.  Will spend a few days here while Connie gets some dental work done the first part of next week down in Mexico.  It is a good place to walk in the mornings, but it is like walking on the moon it seems.  There is not much growing out here and we know why they tested the lunar rover in this area!!  After our walk in the morning, we did some kayaking on the Colorado River today.  Actually we put in at Squaw Lake then paddled over to the river.  It was running a little faster than we had anticipated so only paddle up the river for awhile then back down to Squaw Lake.  Lots of ducks and birds in the area.  It did give us an upper body workout paddling upstream though.

View to the south from our camp.

Our camp.

A pretty sunrise this morning.

And the moon was still up as we started walking.

My walking pardners on the "moonscape" terrain.

Someone had some time on their hands as they spelled out MARIVIC in the gravel.

This is the first Ocatillo that we have seen in full bloom.

A close up of the flower.

Paddling on the Colorado.

YUMA PROVING GROUNDS

We left Quartzsite and headed down to the Yuma area.  We are staying for a couple of nights at the Yuma Proving Grounds Fam Camp.  It is usually full but they have added on to it so there were spots available.  We got full hookup so we could get water, dump the camper holding tanks, and have got groceries at the Commissary.  While here we visited the Proving Ground Museum also.  It was very nice and would recommend it. 

The size of this vehicle is amazing.

The Air Force used this aircraft as a FAC aircraft and pretty sure the Army did also.

The base is well kept up.

One of the tanks on display and you can see part of the FAM Camp in the background.

Puppy taking one of his knaps.

These are pictures taken in the museum.

The Army Harley.

A picture of the train from above all hooked together.

And this is for you Bill - your area of the war.

TEMPLE BAR

21 February 2016:  Left the north end of Lake Meade and drove down to Temple Bar which is near where the Colorado River comes into Lake Meade.  We did some kayaking but not as much as we would have liked.  Our friend the wind came up and we headed back to the marina.   Just spent two nights there and now we are down in Quartzsite, AZ and camped out in the BLM two week free area.  Will only be here a few days and then head on down to Yuma.  

I think this is about 3/4 of a full moon.

View across the Lake.

When we left we drove off the blocks to level the camper and this is what Connie found under one of them.  Looks like a centipede to me.

At Temple Bar, the turkey vultures come into the tall trees in the campground to roost at night.

Zeph is looking back at me as if to say, Are you going to paddle through those rocks?

 Temple Bar over Connie's right shoulder.

WIND AT LAKE MEADE

Connie and I just about got caught out in some wind, but we watched it develop and did not put the kayak out in the water.  And develop it did.  Gusts were over 40mph they said and we were really glad we did not launch the "blue canoe"!  Yesterday evening and all or at least most of the night it blew to where we were concerned about tipping over.  Of course we were parked where it is pretty exposed as is everyone out here.  This morning it was not to bad but NOAA radio said it was going to start up again mid morning and it did.  So today has been a mostly reading day and watch the whitecaps out on the lake.  Did go for a nice walk again this morning before it got to windy. 

Saw the wind start to come up just as we got the kayak unloaded and down to the water.  Watched it for a few minutes and said there was no way we were going to put in.

Waves breaking on the rocks by our camp.

You can see the rocks we have piled up on our mats to help hold them down.  We even dropped the jacks to the ground to help stabilize the camper.

Whitecaps all over.

DOWN SOUTH IN WARMER TEMPERATURES

 We are down at Lake Meade where it is certainly warmer than it was in the Bitterroot, but not hot, HOT.  We are camped towards the north end of the lake close to where we usually camp but that place was already occupied.  Had to do some cleanup when we first got here to this campsite as the previous campers left it pretty messy.

Stopped at Heather and Rob’s place in Ely and spent the night.  They are doing good and Maisy just turned 7 the other day.  They have had lots of snow this year.  We have never seen that much snow at their house when we have stopped there.  I think all of Nevada has a good amount of snow.  It will sure help the grass this year that is for sure. 

Zeph getting his going south haircut.

He does good and just lets Connie cut it off.

Headed up Lost Trail Pass.

At the top of Lost Trail.  Lots of snow this year.

Some fog coming over the top of the hills at Craters of the Moon National Park.

We dropped over the other side of the pass and it was really foggy.

Geese migrating north over Lake Meade.

We could not tell what was making these ripples out in the lake.

Late afternoon sun.

This dog loves to have his picture taken.

Sunset at our campsite.

Lots of airplane traffic going and coming from Las Vegas.

Sunset looking towards the north.

Sunrise looking to the east.

The same.