February 14, 2021 Valentine Adventure

BLM 633 on S34 Winterhaven, California Day 2

During the night we had some wicked, whipping, northwesterly winds.  Tim got up before sunrise to pull the slideouts in. 

This morning, the winds were at 18 mph with a forecast for gusty winds through 3:00.  Claudia and I gamely tried our morning walk.  The winds pushed us out to the road.  For a short distance, we walked with a crosswind and that was okay.  When we turned to face the wind, it was brutal.  I thought to myself that if Claudia was okay, I was okay too!  I felt the crunchy little grits of sand between my teeth.  All at once, Claudia said: “This is no fun!”  We gratefully turned around with our backs to the wind and hiked back to the RVs. 

We had a plan to ride across the desert on Indian Pass Road and into Picacho State Park.  It was so windy that we were in a quandary.  We tossed ideas back and forth.  We even thought about packing everything up and driving to Yuma.  In the end, we decided to give our Jeep adventure a go. 

We enjoyed our 4WD ride into the park.  We stopped at intervals to get out and admire the pretty scenery.

We traveled along the Colorado River.

We saw a group of kayakers.  Because the wind and current were so strong, they were not having to paddle except to steer.  The river carried them along.

Last time Tim and I were here, we missed the turn to Bear Canyon Falls.  Today, I was on a mission to find it.  This turned out to be a neat little place for lunch.

We made it as far as the Upper Docks and decided to call it a day.  It took us about 4 hours (with lots of stops) to get to this point.  It was going to take about 3 hours to get back.  Claudia voted to go back on Picacho Road.  This is a 2WD passable rough gravel road.  We then had to take the highway and S34 back to the RV.  This proved to be a good decision.  Our return trip only took 1 ½ hours.  I did the driving.  I wouldn’t have been able to help too much if we had gone back the other way.

This evening, we enjoyed a Valentines’ feast.  We had asparagus and tortellini with shrimp and peas in a lemon butter and garlic sauce.  We grilled some garlic bread. 

Another day well spent with adventuresome buddies!  It is really wonderful to share this part of our lives with two people that always “get us!” Thanks Lee and Claudia for a great weekend!