938 March 31, 2023 Beauty, Burros, Birds, and Blossoms

Overnight the burros sang to us…or probably to each other! 

This is an awesome place to take a walk.  I went down to the high boat ramp.  There were lots of boats going out.  This is supposedly a great lake for fishing. 

The other lower ramps are closed due to flooding.

I hiked the Wild Burro Trail.  The trail mascots were on the hill watching me as I moved across the ridge and into the wash.  As I moved forward, I realized that the trail was very close to the herd of burros.  I turned around and walked back the way I had come. 

I hiked to the top of the hill where I had 2 bars of phone service.  I stopped to call Mom.

I walked the campground loops and then it was time to go in for breakfast.

Tim and I passed one another and I encouraged him to hike the trail.  Enjoy his video from the summit.

We took the Jeep out to Wickenburg Road and down to the water. 

The scenery was incredible.

The wildflowers are even more lush and abundant today after yesterday’s rain and in today’s warm sunshine.

The road disappears into the water!

We saw 2 pairs of white pelicans. The bump on this bill is called a nuptial tubercle. It will fall off after the bird beeds and raises its young.

And ducks and songbirds.

We saw more burros.

We walked a lava flow.

Volcano cone in the distance.

This was an amazing ride.  We found several pretty campsites.  We decided we wanted to do another overnight roof top tent adventure.  We went to the park office when we got back and extended our stay for another two nights.  It means we will have to change sites in the morning but then we can travel back into the outback and find a place to sleep.

Gambel quail at our site.  They have such an odd call.

We took walks after dinner and then drove over to the Bill Williams Overlook.  The sun was already behind a mountain but we stayed and watched the sky color.

937 March 30, 2023 Alamo Lake State Park

More laps in the campground.   I don’t know why it’s so much harder to walk when I’m walking in circles!

We were packed and ready to roll early this morning.  Tim thought we might be able to stop in a small town on the way and pass a couple of hours but each town; Vicksburg, Hope, Harcuvar, Salome, and Wenden; was just a blink! 

We turned onto Alamo Road and the scenery started to be really spectacular.  This was such an amazing ride.

Though we arrived before 2pm, we were allowed to check-in. 

Tim heard braying and climbed the ridge across from our site to look.  A chocolate-colored burro was walking in the wash below.

We grabbed some lunch and then took the Jeep for a ride.  We went to the Bill Williams Overlook at Alamo Dam.

Bill Williams was a guy who did a lot of beaver trapping.  He didn’t like people too much and preferred remote places and solitude.  This river was part of his territory and is aptly named for him.

The dam is an earth filled dam.  It is used to control flooding.  With all the recent rain and wind, Alamo Lake is very high and muddy.  The flooding lake waters can rise as much as 3 feet per hour and 20 feet in 24 hours.  The water is released into the Bill Williams River and it flows out to the Colorado River just above Parker. 

We explored the park and saw this herd of burros.  The burros here are descendants of the burros used by miners and railroad workers in the early 1900’s.  The burros are protected by Federal law.  The herd here becomes quite large.  There is water and ample food supply here.  When the numbers become too high to sustain a healthy herd and environment for other wildlife, the burros are moved placed in a Federal Adopt-A-Burro program.

We took a 4WD trail out of Campground C.  We passed a bunch of OHV’s .  We got to this particularly steep slope and Tim went to check.  It was doable.  It gave him an opportunity to engage the locking hubs, a feature of the new Rubicon. 

The wildflowers are plentiful and stunning!

We had short bursts of rain in late afternoon.

This evening while I was grilling, I could hear burros in the wash.  There was a herd of 7 gathered.

I went after dinner to find the dumpster and heard thunder.  As I returned to the RV, I saw these storm clouds.

All at once a rainbow covered the entire sky.  I had trouble taking a picture of the whole thing because I was on a ridge and couldn’t back up at all.

The rainbow brightened though no longer full.  Then there was a double rainbow for a few minutes.

I dragged Tim outside in the chilly, raw rain to look at the pretty rainbow before it disappeared.