Exploring Quartzsite and the surrounding area by Jeep Feb 28

Feb. 28... Pam got wild and crazy today and decided that she wanted to go Jeeping out in the desert, so I figured that I better go along for the ride and keep her out of trouble. She headed out into the desert from our campground, swerving around cactus and creosote bushes like they were traffic cones,  and diving into gullies and through washes, throwing stones and putting a cloud of dust in the air. Then, before I could control her, she shot right down the middle of a golf course, and right past a 'keep out' sign, right into a federal gold mine claim.

All of the above is true, but this is a prime example of how facts can tell a different story than what really happened. We headed out, on BLM campground property, on previously formed dry, dusty roads, and Pam went around a few plants, at about five mph, hooting and giggling. We went through two washes, after she got out of the Jeep and scouted them out. Then we started noticing red and yellow flags, on both sides of us,  inside of small 'greens', whose boundaries were dug out with a shovel. There were red and yellow stones marking men's and ladies 'tees,' and little signs with par information and distances. There were also a few benches near the tees. All this was laid out in the middle of the desert with all natural cactus and shrubs and rocks undisturbed, washes and roads and ruts unlandscaped. There was actually three people out there who looked like they were playing a game of golf. We just drove right through it, right on the dirt road. A little further out, we came to two gold mine claims that someone has been working, one very small, the other pretty big, with metal grate covered holes that I couldn't see the bottom of. There were some holes with wooden ladders in them, and there were some old structures that led us to believe that it was an old mine that was being reworked. There was also an active, more modern looking mine in the vicinity. None of them looked like it was very profitable, or very fun, digging with a pick axe and lugging rocks up wooden ladders in the 100 degree desert. Just sayin. And it was my idea to explore. The sign would have stopped Pam dead in her tracks. I wanted to go down in one of the holes, but Pam started to drive away, so I couldn't. There was no one to be found at either site.

After all that excitement, we went into town and had lunch at a restaurant/laundromat/public showers, and walked around a very 'unique' outdoor collectors store, which was more like a junkyard with some neat things mixed in with the garbage. It was up to us to decide what was 'neat' and what was junk. We bought nothing.

Then it was off to a solar store to see about getting solar panels for our RV so we could dry camp more often, therefore saving money to buy insurance in our old age and leave more of inheritance for our offspring. HAHA! Then it was back out into the desert to get home, in the 39 mph winds that the weather front was pushing through the area. By the end of the night, we had about twenty drops of rain. This is the same front that will dump 6-12 inches of snow on Pittsburgh in two days!

Yes, this is the "hole" on the desert golf course.  We think you just get the ball near the flag - there is no hole, the ground is as hard as a rock.

See?  We aren't lying about this!!!!

I wanted Mike to take a video of me dropping into the wash, instead he took a picture of me in the bottom!  Go figure!

Heading up out of the wash

This is the first and smallest mine that we stumbled upon.  This area was once a big gold mining area

This is Jackie's Hope

Signs at a trail intersection

Of course this sign wouldn't be able to keep Mike out!

We aren't sure what those columns were

Every town in Arizona that has a mountain, puts its initial on the mountain.  This is Q for Quartzsite

Old adobe building that they are trying to keep from falling down.