03-04-2025 The Sweet Spot

At last, we are in our happy place, soaking up the sun and the silence of the open desert on Ogilby Road north and west of Yuma, Arizona. It is so completely different from our life during the previous week at Catalina Spa.

On Monday morning, we readied the MoHo for travel, filled with anticipation for the next step in this winter journey.  The routine is familiar, yet each time we pull out of the driveway of Catalina Spa for the last time for the winter, the view of the magnificent eastern slope of Mt. San Jacinto takes my breath away.   

The winds were still blowing over 25 mph, and the snow level on the mountain was much lower than it had been during our entire visit.  The arrangement was to meet Phil and Joanne at the Chevron station on the corner of the turnoff to Anza Borrego at Salton City.  However, Joanne was having some serious back issues and finally reached her tolerance limit.  She left the campground early that morning in the car, leaving Philip to follow later in their Unity Leisure Time motorhome.  We kept in touch as best we could via phone calls and text messages on our way south and east through the wide and fertile Imperial Valley toward Westmoreland, where Mo and I filled the vehicles at a fairly new, very nice, spacious Loves station. A little side note here:  we have the Loves app, which allows us to save ten cents a gallon with a swipe of the bar code at the pump.  However, the swipe never works, and I have to go inside, stand in line, get the swipe, and prepay.  The cashier and I laughed together about this process, guessing that Love’s wants to be sure we go inside and buy stuff.  After fueling, we then turned toward Brawley, where Phil was waiting with Joanne at the Valley Immediate Care, hoping for some answers as to what was wrong and what was causing her pain. 

It is hard to be ill when so far from home, seeing doctors you aren’t familiar with and who have no clue about your medical history.  Joanne received a prescription for something or other and let us know they were waiting at Rite-Aid to have it filled. Mo and I found a nice wide side road in Brawley with plenty of open parking for the MoHo and Tracker on the shoulder. It was a perfectly sweet spot for us to relax a bit and for Mo to take Mattie for a nice walk along the grassy path adjacent to the roadway.

Another text message let us know they would be leaving soon, and Mo and I decided to continue east toward Glamis, amid the dunes. It was only about 20 minutes or so before Phil pulled up behind us in their rig, with Joanne following in the car. 

Mo and I like to stop at a historic site along the road before we reach the turn south on Ogilby Road.  I told Phil it would be a good spot for him and Joanne to hook up their car before continuing our quest to find a precious open spot in the wide open desert.

The wind was still blowing so strongly that Mattie looked as though she had stand-up ears.  Even with the wind, the temperatures were warm, almost perfect, and Mo and I changed to lighter clothes. 

Last year when we camped at Ogilby I marked a spot on google maps and planned to use the gps coordinate for that spot to get us back to the same sweet space. I found the spot but it was all different and I couldn’t find the entrance to the level desert pavement location that just didn’t look quite right.  It is a bit disconcerting to be leading our little group to a perfect spot and not being able to find it.  We all turned around at the Tumco Historic Site road and backtracked a bit until I found an entrance to the desert that worked well enough to let us drive far enough off the road to escape too much road noise or for anyone to bother us.  Whew!  After a bit of a long and disjointed morning, it was wonderful to finally be in the silence of an open desert with very few distractions.

Mo and I know exactly what we love about boondocking in a place like Ogilby Road, but we also know that it is an acquired taste. I was a bit nervous about introducing my friends to this kind of camping and hoped they wouldn’t hate it.  There is just no way of knowing if the open empty desert will appeal to someone.

There is less than 3 inched of precipitation per year in this most western and southern portion of California, bounded on the south and the west by the huge an shifting Imperial sand dunes and on the east by the rugged peaks of the Picacho Peak Wilderness Area to the west of the Colorado River and the lush landscape of the Imperial wildlife refuge.

With only 3 inches of rain, there is very little vegetation and the landscape that isn’t mountainous and too rugged for a big motorhome is often dominated by “desert pavement”. Not  being a desert dweller, Phillip wondered aloud if the smooth, evenly sized and shaped rocks that formed the surface of the landscape had been hauled in.  Nope, desert pavement if formed by the repeated cycles of shifting and settling  through wind erosion and rare wetting of finer particles of soil and sand sifting down through the rocks before they become much like cement glueing the rocks together in a solid layer that is much like pavement. Once you have found an extensive level spot, often marked by stone fire rings from previous campers, it is highly likely that leveling the rig will be straightforward and there won’t be any shifting sands beneath your feet

The lack of rain of course make for limited vegetation except of a few small plants in the sinuous draws that divide the upland areas of desert pavement.  Fewer plants also means fewer bugs, and it is rarely necessary to worry about closed screen doors when camping.

For us there is a beauty to this kind of emptiness, a retreat from the sounds of life and civilization at home.  It is a kind of meditation to be in an empty desert that isn’t filled with distraction. The eyes rest on the shifting shades of brown and chocolate that color the rugged mountains around us. A bright  blossom of a struggling ocotillo in the draw is spectacular by its simplicity.  Mo gets out our bright red chairs and when we walk the dog for a bit of distance those red chairs stand out like beacons against the flowing browns and tans of our rig which blend right into the mountains around us.

Phil and Joanne found their own sweet spot just a few hundred feet from us and before long, Phil was climbing a nearby hill to get the lay of the land. Mo and I took Mattie for a long walk and watched Phil from a distance, knowing he would be enjoying the wide open spaces that opened out in all directions from the view on that small hill.

As the sun set and evening settled in, the four of us gathered chairs to visit a bit and talk about our day and our plans for the next day in the desert.  The wind was still rather chilly, and we didn't last long outside before retreating to the warmth of our rigs to settle into a silent and dark sleep.

I slept better during that first night on Ogilby Road than I had slept on the entire trip and woke up easily and gently into the quiet warmth of a desert morning after the wind had died down.

 The next morning, the four of us agreed that it would be a good day for each of us to explore on our own.  Phil was interested in exploring the area around the American Girl Mine, a few miles south of our boondock site.  Mo and I decided it was a good day to explore the meandering dirt roads we could see leading into the hills to the east of us.

Wandering desert roads into hidden canyons has always been something that Mo and I have loved to share since we first knew each other.  Nothing for us is quite as sweet as putting the Tracker into 4-wheel drive and pointing in an unknown direction to see where we end up.

On this sunny and finally windless morning we meandered up the road to discover an old mining site.  Online it is called El Colorado Mine, but the stones said La Colorado Mine.  We didn’t find the shaft that I read about, but Mo found an old dump with cans and broken glass.  

Mo used to travel the deserts of California when she taught there and has a large collection of old bottles.  The treasure is always the bottles with lavender glass that has changed in the desert sunlight.  There were no old bottles at this site, but it was still fun to poke around a bit there.

After exploring as far as we thought was safe in the car, we returned to Ogilby Road and drove south a couple of miles to the entrance to the Tumco Historic Townsite road.  We were stopped at a gate with another mile and a half walk up to the actual townsite.  

The path was rocky and uneven and we decided that it might not be worth the effort to hike up the slope to the town.  From what I could see there aren’t any actual buildings left and the hike would take us to signs with photos of what was once there.

The following text is from the BLM website about the town of Tumco:

“Tumco is an abandoned gold mining town and is also one of the earliest gold mining areas in California. It has a history spanning some 300 years, with several periods of boom and bust. Originally named Hedges, the town was completely abandoned in 1905, victim to speculative over-expansion and increasing debt. Renamed Tumco in 1910 -- after The United Mines Company -- another attempt to go after the gold proved just as costly.

By 1911, the diminishing prospects of the mines forced the miners and their families to return to Yuma, signaling the end of Hedges/Tumco as a community. Gold was first discovered by Spanish colonists as they moved northward from Sonora, Mexico. According to legend, two young boys came into their camp one evening with their shirts filled with gold ore. These muchachos cargados (loaded boys) were the namesake for the Cargo Muchacho Mountains, where the Tumco deposits occur. Following the first discovery of gold, numerous small mines were operated by Mexican settlers for many years.

In 1877, the Southern Pacific Railroad completed the Yuma to Los Angeles line of its transcontinental route. With the presence of the mountains, a gold rush into the area began. This initial rush to stake mining claims soon gave way to mining companies that moved into the area, purchased claims and developed the mines on a large scale. A 12 mile wood pipeline pumped over 100,000 gallons of water from the Colorado River per day, and the railroad carried mine timbers from northern Arizona for use in the expansive underground workings. Ultimately, over 200,000 ounces of gold was taken from the mines in the area. Tumco was a typical mining town of its day.

Historical accounts talk of rich eastern investors, unscrupulous charlatans and colorful characters in the raucous townsite and the mining boom ultimately leading to financial ruin. Although little can be seen of Tumco, during the boom time of the 1890's, it supported a population of at least 500 people and the 40 and 100 stamp mills of the mine produced $1,000 per day in gold.”

 

After wandering a bit we sat on a nice little bench with a bit of a shade shelter and enjoyed our picnic lunch.  Egg salad sandwiches are another tradition for the two of us on back country trips.  Sandwiches, fritos, and diet pepsi are always healthy and nourishing under the desert sun. 

Back on Ogilby Road, we drove south to the intersection of Interstate 8 at the southern end of the road where it ends at the Imperial Sand Dunes.  We were hunting for a place for Mattie to run in the sand, one of her favorite things to do.  She loved the sand, but had to be encouraged a bit to run up the steep dune hills.  Our little sweetheart will be 11 this August and just like us, she is beginning to slow down a little bit.

We arrived back at our campsite in mid-afternoon just a few minutes before our friends returned from their explorations.  Phil had some very interesting photos of the American Girl Mine pit, which I had never seen before. 

I started to research a bit to write about the mine, and my research led right away to a post by Nina Fussing, our friend who now lives in France.  Nina is the one who first taught us about boondocking in this area with this eloquent and informative post about the American Girl Mine.  No one can write quite like Nina, so rather than attempting to come up with something myself, if you are interested, you can read all about it at this link.  https://www.wheelingit.us/2011/12/10/in-search-of-gold-american-girl-mine-ca/

The afternoon was perfect for resting in the warm sunshine and soft breezes.  The four of us agreed to meet at 4pm for happy hour and possibly a card game. Mo decided to skip the game and Phil, Joanne, and I happily played Skip-Bo, the game taught to us so many years ago by John and Carol.

Phil and Joanne went back to their rig for their supper and Mo got out the bbq  so I could make pork chops and baked potatoes with a salad.  We have discovered the hard way that keeping fresh salad greens in the MoHo fridge isn’t very easy and packaged salads that are based on a cabbage and kale base seem to keep best for a week or so.  Dinner was luscious.

While I cooked supper, Mo readied the campfire for our last night on the open desert.  Phil and Joanne brought their chairs over to our place and the fire was incredible.  The wood that I picked up for free at Catalina Spa from a camper who was leaving was dry and burned hot and long.  I think that small fire lasted for several hours.

We got out our phones and tried to figure out how to use the Starwalk app to track what was above us in the desert night sky.  The crescent moon lit the west and Venus looked huge.  We found Jupiter and Mars, Orion and the Great Bear (Big Dipper).  Cassiopea was right  where she was supposed to be.  Stars always remind me of my smallness in the space and time of the Universe.  I love that they always show up no matter what is going on in the world.

The night was perfect, a wonderful sendoff for shared time with our friends until our paths cross again on the route home.