It was so windy in the desert we decided to head to town hoping the wind would lessen. It did, so we enjoyed several hikes in the Yuma East Wetlands where Mavrik could run and even swim in the Colorado river. We were camped across the river at the Quechan Indian Casino and were able to walk across the Ocean to Ocean Bridge to the wetlands area and even into town. We toured Main Street in the historic old town and even picked a mandarin orange to enjoy from a tree in a parking lot!

A picture of a picture of the Ocean to Ocean Bridge!

Detail of the interior of the restored Yuma Post Office, now a commercial building.

The sunrise this morning was gorgeous. We are only about 5 miles from the Mexico border, the city lights we see at night are in Mexico!

Mavrik turned 4 today and got a special treat, a beef neck bone, to chew on while we enjoyed a campfire.

When we returned from a hike on Friday, Jan. 6 we were pleased to see our neighbors the desert tortoises. The reason we named this site we’ve camped at before is because we met these two, probably the same, tortoises we saw 2 years ago. They were busy grazing on the sprouts growing in the wash between our campsite and the hill.

The male eventually wandered off down the wash, grazing between spurts of rather quick hiking.

While the female finally had her fill and hiked up the hill to the same hole she retired into when we saw her last.

For some reason I bake double chocolate biscotti only when we are out camping for an extended period of time. It is a great accompaniment to a beautiful sunrise viewed from our ‘deck’.