Buckskin Mountain State Park and the Parker Strip

It was an easy 30 mile drive from Lake Havasu State Park to our next destination, Buckskin Mountain State Park. Located on the Colorado River just downstream from Parker Dam, Buckskin Mountain is a wonderful park with a mix of full hookup and partial hookup sites, tent sites, boat launch and hiking trails.

Just a few miles from our park is the Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge. Bill Williams River is only 40 miles long but is an important wildlife corridor as it cuts across a transition zone between the Mojave and Sonoran deserts before it empties into Lake Havasu just north of Parker Dam. The best way to access the refuge is near the visitor center on highway 95 and by kayaking up river from the lake. 

Not having kayaks, we drove the three mile Planet Ranch Road hoping to find some interesting hiking. It turns out the river goes underground at some points between Alamo Lake and Lake Havasu when water flows are low and only flows its full length above ground when water is released from Alamo Dam or during monsoon season. It was sad to see that years of drought have decimated some of the last stands of natural cottonwood-willow forest along Bill Williams River.

Bill Williams River was flowing for about a mile or so above Lake Havasu.
The cottonwood-willow forest along its banks was healthy and inviting,
but surrounded by a dense thicket of prickly mesquite trees that blocked our access to the river.

Reaching the end of Planet Ranch Road we finally found a place to hike.
That's when we discovered the underground portion of the river had probably not been above ground for years
and the forest was dying.

Dry Bill Williams riverbed, full of dead trees, kind of depressing to hike in.

Heading back towards hwy 95 we climbed a hill for a birds eye view of the river.
Looking west towards Lake Havasu we saw the lovely blue stripe of the Bill Williams River and its wetlands.

Looking east the forest overtakes the wetlands.
This would be a neat place to kayak!

We had better luck hiking the Buckskin Mountain State Park trails. There's a short trail that climbs the hill that separates the park from the highway and affords terrific views of the park.

A view of about half of the developed portion of Buckskin Mountain State park.
We can see part of our rig in the shadows on the right, backed up to the hill we are standing on.

The park has a pedestrian bridge over the highway leading to trails into the hills.

This area is an ecotone; a transition zone between two deserts: the Mojave and Sonoran, thus the presence of saguaros!

We did a loop drive that took us over Parker Dam into California and along the Colorado River down to Parker, AZ where we crossed the river once again and made our way north through the Parker Strip back to our park. Stopping to hike up a wash on the California side we discovered there are wild burros on the CA side of the river!

Parker Dam creates Lake Havasu.

Hiking in the hills on the California side of the Colorado River.

Some cute locals.

No trip to the Parker Strip area would be complete without a drive out to the Desert Bar. Located five miles out a dirt road, the Desert Bar (aka Nellie E. Saloon, named after the mining camp formerly on this site) is a hand built, off grid labor of love that is only open on the weekends in the cooler months. The easy way in is a fairly good dirt road (though I don't think I'd take a new looking Cadillac on it like we saw someone doing), and the hard way in is a rough dirt road used by those with real off road vehicles.

The church was built out of solid steel in the 1990's.
It's a great photo op and weddings have been held there, but no religious services.

The bar is an ever expanding complex, with live music, gift shop, multiple bars and food stands.
Quite the hopping joint and terrific people watching!

We thoroughly enjoyed site #12 at Buckskin Mountain State Park. We backed up to a rocky hillside with a neighbor on only one side, and plenty far away from us. Bird watching was excellent from our sitting area behind our rig. The hillside beyond our rig separates us from the highway so it was really quiet at night. Verizon and AT&T signals were very good with our booster.

Site # 12.

Awesome sitting area.

Rosie liked this park too!

We saw this beautiful roadrunner at least twice a day.

We got to experience a day in the life of a loggerhead shrike. One morning as I surveyed the bird activity in the bushes behind our rig I noticed a bird seemed to be pecking at another bird on the ground. It turns out a loggerhead shrike had killed an inca dove, no wonder it's known as Arizona's butcher bird!

Later I saw the shrike sitting atop the boulders surrounding our site, probably looking for its next victim. Then, while sitting outside watching the bird activity with my binoculars I saw the shrike flitting around in a nearby tree. On closer inspection with the binos I saw bird feet sticking up from the branch of a mesquite. True to form, the shrike had stuck about half of the inca dove onto a mesquite sticker so it could feast on its catch over time...gruesome but fascinating.

Half an inca dove impaled on a mesquite tree.

These quail are taking dust baths in the loose soil under a mesquite tree.

Arizona has the best sunsets!

Next up: a brief stay in Yuma.

Veggies and Birds Galore in El Centro, CA

We first heard about the University of California farm tours a couple of years ago from John and Pam, it immediately went on my list of must-do's whenever we could plan a time to stop in El Centro, CA.

Most of the year the tours are for children, but for a couple of months in the winter Farm Smart holds tours several days a week that are geared towards adults. For $25 you learn all about how the Colorado River was diverted to the Imperial Valley in the early 1900's and current farming practices in the area, You are toured around the property to learn how the University does research on farming practices for the future, plus you get lunch and a chance to pick all you can carry of the current crops in season.

If you love vegetables and have an interest in how crops are produced in the Imperial Valley this is a fun way to spend a day...here's a peak at our day:

The first time we've seen burrowing owls!

They watched the trolleys pass by...so cute!

Me, siphoning water from a canal into a ditch.
Some farms still use this method, apparently the pros can start the water running with one swoop!

Hans picked a scary looking purple carrot!

It was super windy as we filled our big orange produce bags.

Our haul...we may have gotten a little carried away!
Fortunately we'll meet up with some friends at our next stop so we can share the wealth!

We stayed at Sunbeam Lake RV Resort just West of El Centro. This large park is perched on the edge of a man made lake and mostly caters to seasonal visitors from Canada and other cold climates in the Northern US.

We had a perfectly fine gravel site with a concrete patio and picnic table and plenty of room for our truck. Roads are paved. Park wifi was slow but it worked. Verizon signal was excellent. The park is far enough off Interstate 8 that you can barely hear it. Hans played pickleball with a friendly group of people each morning and we both enjoyed the 9 hole disc golf course at the attached county park.

A pleasant surprise at this location was the many birds we saw on our evening walk. Sunbeam Lake is split into two sections, one abuts the RV Park and County Park, the second runs from the edge of the RV park to Interstate 8. Thousands of egrets and hundreds of cormorants and northern shovelers would come to roost in the salt cedar trees along the second lake each evening at sundown!

Salt cedar covered in egrets!
The cormorants liked the tops of the trees and the bare stumps sticking out of the water.

Looking down the lake you can see each tree on the right covered in white egrets.

Golden field adjacent to the lake.

Next stop Yuma, AZ for dental and pickleball!

Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, A High Desert Oasis

Leaving Lake Almanor we drove about 130 miles NE and landed at Sully's RV Park in Alturas, CA for one night. Sully's turned out to be a great place to stop over. Their short term sites are easy access paved pull throughs, lots of green grass and beautiful shade trees. It's quiet too, even though you can see hwy 395 about a quarter mile away, you cannot hear it.

The best part though was the proximity to Modoc National Wildlife Refuge. A one mile drive brought us to the three mile Auto Tour Route through the refuge. We let the day cool down a little bit and arrived there about 6pm and proceeded to walk the Auto Route and a short paved path, maybe four miles total. We saw very few cars or other people during our walk, making it a very pleasant way to wind down a travel day.

Spring and fall are prime time on the refuge, many birds migrate through here and most have moved on by now, but we still saw quite a variety of birds including a few sandhill cranes. This is a beautiful preserve, the colors and views are wonderful. I'd love to return during migration to witness thousands of birds passing through.

The dead end road at the RV park leads you to the edge of the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge.
The views everywhere in this valley are expansive and colorful!

When we arrived at the Refuge the clouds over the Southern mountains were beautiful.

I was excited to see Sandhill Cranes, I figured they would have moved on by now.

Mule deer are abundant around here.
That's a blind behind her, it was full of mosquito's!

Love the pink legs on the Black Necked Stilt!

Those clouds in the second photo above morphed into this in about an hour.

Peek a boo!

We've moved on to Burns, OR for a night. Tomorrow we'll settle for a few days in Sumpter, OR. We'll be happy to have these three driving days out of the way; Rosie is not at her happiest on travel days!

Red Rock Country isn't Free, But it is Priceless

The Red Rock Country around Sedona is so popular that the town is able to charge you to park and visit many of the loveliest sights. Because a lot of the land is interconnecting federal and county land you may use your America the Beautiful Interagency Pass OR a Red Rock Country Pass (available in daily, weekly or annual versions).

There are also a couple of State Parks in this area (Red Rock and Slide Rock) charging the typical State Park entry fee AND there are three local parks charging their own entry fee. It's good to be aware that you could roll up to an entry gate and be faced with a per car or even a per person fee.

We visited Red Rock State Park one day because I had it in my head that it was one of the places included under the America the Beautiful pass umbrella. Not so, as noted above it's $5 per person to enter. We stayed and enjoyed the small visitor center and the riparian landscape of Oak Creek as well as some easy trails, but it's doubtful we'd pay to visit this site again.

From the Eagles Nest trail you get a nice bird's eye view of Red Rock State Park.
Oak Creek flows through the park providing lush riparian habitat,
during our visit in March only the cottonwoods were starting to green up.

Check out those ears!
Lots of mule deer at Red Rock State Park.

We did discover a lush corridor of Oak Creek that would be an excellent birding site and it's FREE: Page Springs Road. The Page Springs Fish Hatchery is located here and has trails among the fish ponds and a small visitor center where you can learn about fishing in AZ. BONUS: there are at least three wineries right near the hatchery visitor center!

This is one of the indoor cold hatcheries...there are also open air ponds for warmer water fish.

Another day we drove several miles North of Sedona to hike the West Fork Oak Creek trail. This is one of the parks that charges an entry fee of $10 per car. It's popular because it's fairly easy and you hike along the creek, making this park a magnet for families in the summer. Don't expect solitude here at any time of the year!

This trail was different from others we've hiked recently because we stayed at the bottom of the canyon and admired the rock formations from below. There's lots of trees in the canyon which were just barely beginning to bud. If all the trees were fully leafed out, the rock views would be pretty limited!

The creek sits at about 5500 feet so we walked through a forest of Ponderosa Pine and mixed deciduous trees.

The trail ends about 3.5 miles in where the canyon narrows considerably.
We watched 3 men don water shoes and continue up stream.

Light plays with rock well in these canyons.
Here, calm water meets curved red rock to create a tunnel effect.

Massive red and white rock walls towered over us.