It’s been HOT! It isn’t even cooling much at night and the refrigerator can’t keep up so we have to find a new campsite! We headed away from the Tumco area of the Cargo Muchacho mountains and turned the camper towards the palm oasis near the Salton Sea. We’ve visited Dos Palmas Oasis many times over the years and it is always a welcoming, cool rest stop.

The palm groves appear to be an impenetrable forest!

Occasionally an opening has been made, allowing us a glimpse of the idyllic scenes under the palm fronds.

Streams meander through the groves and tender grass covers the shaded ground.

Mavrik couldn’t resist romping through the little meadows and splashing in the clear water!

A look back at the palm oasis as we hiked into the heat of the desert gave us a view of this lone palm with it’s ‘grass hula skirt’ waving goodbye to us.

For a great history of Dos Palmas Oasis click HERE.

We braved the threat of 90+ degrees today and took a ride in the Jeepster. We paired up with some friends and drove around one end of the Cargo Muchacho mountains and into a valley on the back side of the range. I had been looking on the internet for routes that pass through the mountains and found only one map that showed BLM route 715 traversed the mountains on the south end of the range. We ended up on that route as we penetrated deeper into the valley. We came to an area where we had found pools of water several years ago, they were bone dry today!

The road sign indicated that route 715 continued over the hill and down this canyon. No it DIDN’T!

The difference in environment from the desert on the east side of the Colorado River to the desert on the west side of the river is comparable to the Frying Pan to the Fire effect! The Sonoran desert looked veritably lush to us in hindsight! The different colors of green awed us, from the huge saguaro and the variety of cholla cacti, palo verde and mesquite trees, to the light fuzz of the sprouts of forbs and grasses that carpeted the sandy, pebbly desert surface. Fall rains must have been adequate this year! The Colorado desert by comparison looks parched! The ocotillo bushes east of the river were covered with tiny emerald leaves on their spiny branches. Here on the west side of the river the ocotillo are blooming already, with the crimson flowers perched on the tips of tan, dead looking sticks.

We’ve seen only 2 fully leafed out ocotillo around here!

A more typical ocotillo, bright red blooms on dead sticks!