We liked Gila Box so much we returned to stay there to relax before starting our trek back to Ontario.
This should take us to February 22nd…in the catch up scheme of things.
From Yuma the drive to Gila Box is too long and we stopped when we tired. This was the Journey KOA … looks beautiful doesn’t it…it was cold and rainy and this was the pretty sight…note the definite article. 🙂
Love it when we see this sign…that means that we’re almost there. This camp has a wonderful couple, Walt and Kathy, as camp hosts and is the cleanest BLM camp we know. The roads are well maintained, there is no garbage around, and that makes it a very pleasant place to camp. They are so knowledgeable and good company.
The campground at sunset is beautiful.
Puck is familiar enough to wander…except he really didn’t want his photo taken.
Linda wakes earlier than me, so she gets to go out and take beautiful morning photos.
I get to take evening photos.
We put up the screen tent to give us extra space…this time we didn’t use it much as the weather at night was too chilly.
With the rains, the Gila River was muddier than usual.
Puck keeps getting more adventurous and has started to follow us around the nearby trails. The Riverview Campground has mini-trails between the campsites.
Pierre is enjoying the light show.
Sometimes it’s just afire.
Puck comes to us sometimes with affections…very un-catlike.
We bought wood…humph…but it did give us a lovely fire.
I like the Coleman lantern in the tent; it keeps it a little warmer than the outside. This night, the fire was keeping us warm.
There really isn’t consistent Internet at the campsite…but up the hill…a place we call “Telephone Rock” there is good signal. At this time the road was dried up mud…when we first drove in…it wasn’t dry and all the tires were a PEI red from the dirt.
Puck has started to venture off the trail now and that worries us sometimes.
The river is not only muddy but higher than usual.
The mountains before sunset are just glowing.
This was so cool…a bee had drowned in our dishwater…I had flicked it out and onto the ground. I noticed that this solitary ant was dragging this huge bee to the anthill…amazing. It was challenging for the ant and it would rest…somewhere after about 20 feet, a second ant came to assist. Amazing!
We saw on the map a place called Hotwell Dunes. We asked Walt and Kathy and they said we should see it.
It was a cold day, but the tub was at 106º F. So very relaxing.
You can tell it’s cold as Linda is wearing a winter hat.
The nice thing about cold weather was that we had the tubs to ourselves…I had just slipped into the tub as the photo timer went off…I think it looks funny.
There are also some wonderful dunes and we went for a very fun ride in the truck.
A lot of tracks in the sand.
Bowie didn’t have much and we found this fun restaurant Rafer G Restaurant. It was new and it was $1.49 taco day…yippee….
When we returned to Gila Box…there was a Bonita Creek Rd. that we’d not taken before…so we tried…maybe even got some of the sand and mud off the truck.
A nice relaxing read in the tent.
Walt and Kathy also suggested Clifton and the Morenci mine. This is the Jail rock.
Linda didn’t like it much inside either.
That’s the outer wall of the Jail they’d blasted out.
The narrow gauge train they had initially used for the mine.
Pierre standing behind the little train.
The old train station is now used as a tourist centre.
The massive expanse of the Morenci mine…unbelievable.
The tire is big…but not as big as the ones at Crow’s Nest Pass.
Strange how the colours of the mine are so beautiful and yet sad that it’s a strip mine.
We also visited Indian Bread rocks as we’d heard good things.
Amazing rocks and easy camps.
And cows of course.
If we can get it…this is going to be one of next year’s camp.
A last hike and an overview of the Gila Box camp.
A cool rainbow to our next adventure….