Yuma Before

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It’s a short drive from Gila Bend to Foothills Village RV park in Yuma. We had booked this place when we were in Quartzsite at the big RV show this past January. The Encore parks in Yuma had a couple of specials. The one we picked was to stay for a month for $259. That’s an exceptionally low price. Like most monthly rates, the electric is metered so we will owe a bit more when we leave at the end of March, but it’s still cheap. We were coming in on a Sunday but there is still staff working and they get us situated in our assigned site. The park isn’t very full with at least a third of the sites open. Even though we had requested a 50 amp site, we were put in a 30 amp. When we asked about changing to an alternative site, the weekend crew at the resort told us they couldn’t make that change but the normal weekly crew might be able to help on Monday.

The sites are not huge but large enough for the rig and the car. We had picked this campground because it is in the Foothills section of Yuma and we figured it would be more convenient to lots of hiking nearby. What we hadn’t payed attention to was just how close the park is to Interstate 8. Being about 250 feet away with an off ramp and access road as well. This park is NOT quiet. We found the need for ear plugs to sleep at night. The next morning our neighbor pulled out and I realized their site was 50 amp. I was half tempted to just run my electric cord to that pedestal but we went thru the proper channels and moved all of 50 feet or so to a site that was kitty corner to our first one. It was possibly our shortest travel day ever.

During the early part of March, the concern about Covid 19 was pretty minimal. It sounded like the area just outside of Seattle was the only real concern, so we went on with our lives just like normal. We had stayed in Yuma for a week back in 2017 in order to attend a big Geocaching event held each year. So we knew a little bit about the area, but with a month to spend, we knew we could do some more in depth exploration. We spent one day just driving around town doing some of the more popular geocaches. One of them did a pretty good job of touring us all over the area with descriptions of the places we were led to. It took us to some off the beaten path sights like a miniature chapel with nothing but farming fields surrounding it. There was also the large bridge that was built to go over the former path of a stream but now is closed and goes over a dried up ditch.

Miniature Chapel

Bridge to Nowhere

Yuma Farmers Market

Two of the stops were at commercial businesses. One was at a place we had been to three years ago - Martha’s Gardens. They make really good date shakes. I know that many of you will turn up your noses at even the thought of one. We were the same way in 2017 until we tried one. Now date shakes are a must do when we happen to be in the right area of the country. The other business was the Peanut Patch. A family run business with a cute little store with a wide area of peanut products. We wandered around and got some fresh made peanut butter (made only with peanuts) as well as a couple of spicy peanut options. The tour took us to the cute little Robert J Moody Garden. We enjoy places like this that have a wide variety of the plants found in this region all with labels so we know what they are called. The last stop was at the Colorado River State Historic Park. We arrived 30 minutes before it closed for the day but looked like a good place to check out later in our trip (but with Covid 19 never happened).

Yum - Date Shakes

Colorful Cactus

Old John Deere

There are also some pretty nice paved bicycling trails in the Yuma area. One day we got in a 15 mile ride following the paths along the many miles of canals in the area. Yuma has a huge agricultural presence - mostly produce. But this is an area that doesn’t get a whole lot of rainfall. The solution is to bring water in from the nearby Colorado River thru a huge array of canals and irrigation ditches. It’s an impressive system and was neat to see some of it up close during our ride. There were lots of ducks and other waterfowl hanging out as well. We even spotted a few guys fishing in the channels which admittedly looked a bit strange.

Fast Moving Irrigation Canal

Ducks Along the Way

Paved Path Next to Canal

When the first full weekend of March rolled around, we had a special event to attend. On Friday thru Sunday, one of the parks in town was hosting the Midnight at the Oasis Event. It’s a vintage car show with several bands performing on Friday and Saturday nights. We headed over to the Ray Kroc Complex on Friday to check it out. It’s a very big event. I was expecting something much smaller. There were already hundreds of classic cars in the fields of the complex and more kept rolling in as we wandered around the grounds. Mid afternoon was a drive thru town so many of the participants were heading out to cruise. Over five hundred cars were registered and had I realized the magnitude of the show, I probably would have purchased the advance passport that allows entry for all three days. Sorry for all the car pictures, but there were so many nice cars. I've done my best to identify each one.

'68 Camaro SS to be Auctioned Off

'64 Chevy Pickup

1950's Chevy

Pantera Engine

Pantera

Citroen 2CV

Chevy Lowrider

1950's Studebaker

Custom Interior

AC Cobra

Circa 1950 Chevy 5700 Truck Needs Work

1958 Desoto Sportsman

Bright Chevy Truck

Vintage Coupe

1950's Chevy Bel Air Wagon

Blue Chevy

Rat Mobile???

Ford Pickup

Beautiful '63 Corvette Stingray

Custom Rod

1950 Mercury Hardtop

Red Hot Rod

1960's Jaguar MK 2

1960 Ford Ranchero

1961 Chevy Impala

Another Cobra

Flaming Paint Job

More Flames

And More Flames

1958 Cadillac Coupe Deville

There was a rather decent crowd of spectators but not so crowded to be annoying. I suspect that the crowds on Saturday were substantially larger. Around dinner time we headed back to the car for the dinner we had brought along before heading in to enjoy the concerts. 

Chris Tests Out 1959 Ford Fairlane Skyliner

Not Many Kids Playing

Food Tents

Cars Starting to Fill Fields

1960 Chevy El Camino

Hot Rods

Another Ford Fairlane Retractable Hardtop

1948 Jeepster

Elaborate Hood Mural

1960' Jaguar XKE Convertible

A Classic Under the Lights

Gorgeous Corvette

The first group was a local Yuma band - Checker’d Past. They performed hits from the 1980’s. Almost all the songs were ones we recognized and could sing along to. The band was quite impressive and definitely dressed the part. The one guitarist was wearing the classic Devo hat. The second band, China Grove, is a Doobie Brothers tribute band. Another good set with lots of familiar songs. The night wrapped up with Heartbeat City - a Cars tribute band. A rather fitting group for a car show. This group did a really good set with so many memorable songs that had us singing along.

Checker'd Past Starts the Concerts

China Grove Up Next

Heartbeat City Wraps the Night Up with a Ric Ocasek Doppelganger

The next morning we had another special outing. A geocaching event at the restaurant right next to the RV park. We don’t know any of the local caching community but we have always found geocachers to be a welcoming group. We had a great breakfast and got to meet several of the 30 or so people that had come. Turns out the people we sat next to are heading to the big GeoWoodStock event this summer in British Columbia and are going to be staying at the same campground we are planning to stay at. Small world!

We headed over to the Muggins Mountains Wilderness Area for a hike and some geocaching. It’s a pretty area in the mountains to the northeast of town. The road back to parking isn’t the greatest but is passable. We stopped at what turned out to be the first parking area. About a third of a mile further up the road were several other cars parked in another area. While the Jeep could have easily made it to the second lot, it wasn’t clear if driving vehicles beyond where we parked was legal or at least needed a special off road permit - better safe than sorry.

Entering Muggins Mountains Wilderness Area

Rugged Terrain

The 6 mile loop took us through a mix of trail conditions. Some of the trail is up a rather coarse sand wash that was slow going while the majority of it was on more conventional single track trail up, over or around the various hills. There were a few lizards out and about and there were some spring wildflowers blooming as well. At one point I spotted a lizard that was much larger than the normal ones we were seeing - about 14" long. It had an orange mid-body with excessive wrinkles, a long yellow tail and a dark head. It allowed us to get fairly close but at the time we had no clue what it was. Turns out to have been a Chuckwalla. We had heard about these but never come across one in the wild.

Heading Up a Wash

Go Towards the Hills

Lizard Checks Us Out

Lots of Wildflowers

Continuing Up

Chuckwalla Poses

It was a great day for a hike with pleasant temperatures and mostly blue skies with just a few harmless puffy clouds. We located a nice spot near a saddle point along the trail that offered great views to have our lunch. Even though there had been a handful of vehicles parked, we only came upon one other couple along the hike. It was quite a nice hike.

View at Our Lunch Stop

A Lone Saguaro

Looking Back Up the Trail

We ended the our first 10 days in Yuma with a fair amount of rain. There were flash flood warnings for the area and the back side of the campground actually formed a pretty good sized pond. Glad our site wasn’t over there. When the rain let up, we headed over to a produce stand not too far way. It was then that we could see how easily this area floods, the fields that normally need to be irrigated were rather wet. The crews were still out working the fields but the tractors used to help moving the produce from the fields to the trucks were in some of the muddiest conditions I have ever seen.