Beginning, Middle, and End of a Wonderful Day Spent with Friends

(Clicking on the pictures will open them larger.)

Friday, January 3, 2019

Today was a beautiful day. Starting with a beautiful sunset, then a ride in the beauty and ruggedness of the Picacho Peak Wilderness, and ending with a sunset that filled the sky with color.

When we rode over here to check out the area and find a place to park we had a short visit with Deb and Riley. In the course of the conversation Deb mentioned that she was going to be going on the same ride she had taken with Jerry before Christmas; as he was going to be leading Doug and Yuma on the same ride. Well we had seen the  pictures Deb had posted so after leaving to head home we made a quick stop to see if we could gain an invitation to follow along. From the overload of pictures in this blog post you can probably tell Jerry said, no problem.
By way of explanation of who led us on this ride today. We met Elva and Jerry last year when we were parked out in the Pilot Knob BLM with  Shirley and Ken, Seeing America with Ken and Shirley, Shirley and Elva had worked together. Elva does not blog but we became friends on Facebook and have chatted back and forth on messenger. Elva very generously let Jerry use her Jeep to take us on the ride today. Thank you, Elva and Jerry for a great ride.

 
The Beginning

The sun peeking up over the Cargo Muchacho Mountains.

Looking west towards the dunes in the distance.

The Middle

We had planned on following along in our Jeep, which is a trail rated Trailhawk, but when we got there Jerry suggested we get in with him and Deb. He was not sure our Jeep had the front clearance to make it out of the wash we would be in towards the end of the ride. After seeing it and driving through Tom agreed we would have had to turn back at that point and  retrace the route we had come in on.

We met up with Doug and Yuma in Winterhaven and at this point Tom got in with Doug which worked out well, at some point they switched drivers. Tom got to drive a Wrangler and Doug was able to take pictures. (Doug has posted some wonderful pictures of the ride, Miss Adventure Travels) Jerry was then lucky enough to have the two Deb's with him. (Deb's beautiful pictures can be found here, .On a long and lonesome highway)

I am not going to say a lot about the various pictures I took. The beauty and the ruggedness  of the Picacho Peak Wilderness does not need to be narrated.

Our first stop, in the distance Picacho Peak.

Yuma in his "Dad's " shadow checking out the view.

Jerry drove just in a short ways into Noname Wash.
He said not far ahead it would be to narrow for either
 Jeep to get through.

Looking up at Unnamed Wash.

Doug either checking out the view or telling Yuma to come back.
Yuma could not help himself he just bound out of the jeep
each time we stopped and ran for the pure joy of running.

Deb a little farther up the hill and Jerry looking for
that perfect shot.

I think I mentioned there is beauty and ruggedness

at every turn.

There may be some duplicates of views

because with the different angles I kept seeing new things.

Then off in the distance we could see a lone burro.

I know I mentioned the rugged beauty but it is worth repeating.

I just liked how that large boulder was balancing.

Then we turned down another road and in the distance

we could see the blue, blue of the Colorado River.

If you look very carefully you will see Tom
in the middle of  the road at the top of the hill.

Jerry our tour guide.

If you know Tom then you know he is fascinated by caves
and this one he could easily walk up to.
That is Jerry behind him.

We are stopped at a picnic area.

Looking up through the leaves and branches
of the Aspen to the pure blue of the sky.

Our next stop the Picacho Cemetery.
Some of Elva's relatives are buried here.

I always thought people enhanced their pictures of the
Colorado River but this is the color we could see.

Then Deb spotted something up the hill in the distance.
This time we could see three burros.

We are heading down into the wash.

Doug, Tom and Yuma are making there way down
just behind us.

Not snow but salt.

Out of the wash and headed back towards Ogilby Road.

The End

When we got back we decided to go ahead and move again this time just across the road. Our door is now facing east versus west. Deb had mentioned that most of the wind they had been experiencing since they have been parked out here has come more from the westerly direction. Plus, we are slightly closer to our neighbors.
(Side note: as I am finally finishing up this blog post this morning, January 6th, the wind is with us and it is coming out of the Northwest. Glad we took Deb's advice and turned around.)

The sun making its descent towards the dunes in the west.

Looking towards the Cargo Muchacho Mountains in
the east with a Ocotillo in the foreground.  

The sun may be gone from our sight but
the glow of light can still be seen.

Then we could see beautiful color

all around us.

After a last burst of  color the darkness of
the desert night descended on us and all was quite.
Except for the occasional distant trains.

It was a wonderful day. We welcomed the day with a lovely sunrise, spent time with friends driving through some of the beauty and ruggedness of this area, and we said goodbye to the day as colors filled the sky.

We are glad you stopped by!

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.