Robert took a ten mile hike looking for this artifact. Our friends Glen and Barb told us about this boiler sitting alone up a remote road in the mountains. There seems to be a nearby mine that this serviced, but no indication of what its service was! A big mystery in the history of the Cargo Muchacho mountains!
I caught a cold on our last resupply trip to Yuma. I confined myself to the camper for a week until I finally felt good enough to get outside. I took a short walk about a half mile from the camper and found a hillside with white quartz rocks spilling down the side. A closer look revealed beautiful purple flowers blooming among the rocks. Spring is in full swing!
I’ve mentioned the helicopters and jets that we see flying over almost everyday. We’ve also seen some smaller aircraft and a few days ago we finally saw them up close as they flew right over our campsite. These colorful Ultralights were bobbing around in the breeze, but they must have had great views!
Our present campsite is at the base of a little hill. Between the camper and the side of the hill is a small dry wash with some blooming ocotillo, a dead tree and a half live tree under which are some blooming bushes. In this little setting we’ve discovered a true jem, a male Costa’s hummingbird makes this his home.
He’s only about the size of my thumb and hard to see in the center of this picture. He won’t let us get close enough to get a good picture. He’s usually on this branch by 7:30 am and is busy flitting all over the place all day. Even on windy days when he clutches the branch and leans into the wind. We can spot him by the bright emerald green of his back, a very vibrant color against the backdrop of gray-green desert colors.
This closeup is fuzzy, but shows the white eyebrow and the feathered violet colored “gorget” of his chin, extending across and beyond his cheeks. Depending on the lighting the gorget is black to a beautiful bright fuschia pink. For more (better) pictures of Costa’s Hummingbirds click here.
Geocaching has been great so far, it’s gotten us off the beaten path, and there are plenty of paths beaten through these mountains! A lot of the caches seem to be up in high places, which gives us great views of the area.
You must stop in order to look around and take in the view, because the terrain is so rocky your eyes are on the ground while you’re moving! But that can give you great views also.
This old spider web is probably a tarantula nest site judging from the 2 inch size of the opening. Robert wasn’t as enthusiastic about getting close up shots of it after I told him that!