After a few days of fun in the sun and many long walks with Blue (notice his new walking attire) in the desert, we have made the Senator Wash BLM land 20 miles north of Yuma home for a week or more. After a few stops along the way we found Senator Wash just as the sun was setting. We dumped our tanks and filled with fresh water and started looking for a site. After driving the entire place we ended up back at the entrance to park because it was so dark we could not see well enough to venture off the main road. We ended up in a good place however with several nice people to talk with. One couple from the Czech Republic hiked with us this morning to the top of the near hill to get a birds eye view of the area. They gave us some freshly baked cake from a solar oven and the local host stopped by with huge bags of lettuce to share from the nearby Imperial Valley. Very unexpected given the 1400 rigs scattered about the landscape.
We are actually on the California side looking over the Imperial Dam and Colorado river. The area is the hot spot of the US and one look tells the story, it is one burned out mountain after another with very little vegetation. But the valley below is filled with field after field of vegetables, citrus and date palms to feed the folks back home. The scale of the farming here is hard to imagine, nothing I've seen before in the midwest.
As we were parking the rig I heard some shuffling behind me and turned to find a very pregnant Burrow and her yearling staring at me. After we settled in and had the slides out we opened the door and the two burrows came up to the door to beg. Blue was not happy and hid for much of the evening and into the night. There is a very steep fine for feeding the burrows so I'm not feeding them even though they have very sad faces. Burrows have been in this area for over a hundred years so it is clear they know how to survive this place.
Notes to others planning a camping venture to the area, consider parking down near the water. The cost is just $75 for two weeks. There is a dump site, fresh water and two sets of bathrooms with cold water showers on the outside if you are so inclined. The cost up top is $40 for two weeks.
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