February 1, 2021 Another Road Less Traveled
Oxbow Campground Palo Verde, California Day 2
I began my day with a walk. This is the view from our front door.
The heron in this picture is eating something…maybe a fish…
Our campsite.
I walked from California, across the Colorado River and into Arizona.
I saw this loggerhead shrike in the top of a tree. This little bird is a fierce predator. They have been known to kill animals larger than themselves by stabbing prey with their beak and twisting very quickly to cause whiplash. They are quite aggressive and are also known as butcherbirds.
Later this morning we packed the car for a Jeep adventure. We spent the day exploring Trigo Mountain Wilderness. This is a stark, severe environment. There isn’t much vegetation and there is very little water. The rocks are sharp and jagged. The austerity though is also very lovely. The first pass was up into a mining region.
We drove further south, crossing the desert and then descending into a deep wash, Clip Wash.
We climbed out of the wash and had lunch. There was burro poop everywhere! Tim decided to use it as firestarter and so we enjoyed a small fire as we ate.
We climbed up out of the wash and into the mountains. The road was very rough. In some spots the gravel bed in the wash was very deep, causing the Jeep to rock and pitch as we drove. Later the road got even more interesting.
Enjoy this video…though it truly doesn’t show how bumpy and rocky the road was!
There was some water pooled in the crevices of some of the boulders.
Big craggy mountains.
We never made it to the end of the trail. After we turned to go back, Tim drove the toughest part and then I took over and drove the rest of the way.
Tim spotted this trio of burros.
