Yuma, Arizona is a great place to spend a winter. There are plenty of things to do around Yuma including activities along the Colorado River, lakes, the beautiful Sonoran Desert, several mountain ranges, sand dunes, and historic sites. All of this makes Yuma a good base from which to explore the southwest.
On The Road Again
The holidays are over, it’s winter and it’s snowing in Syracuse. After 2 months in one place, we’re hitting the road again, ready for our Southwest Snowbird Adventure, destination Yuma, Arizona. We’ll be staying there for at least 3 months or until the snow is gone. On the way, we stopped in Effingham, Il. for fuel. Feel free to come up with your best Effingham joke in the comments. The best one wins a T-shirt.
We made it as far as Tulsa and it’s still below freezing and we have yet to see any sunshine. I thought it was supposed to be getting warmer the further south we got! Nonetheless, we press on.
There’s a whole lot of nothing except desert and wind farms along I-40 between Tulsa and Albuquerque. It’s a bit of a boring drive but traffic is generally light (compared to the Northeast) and you can move right along.
El Malpais National Monument
The trip to Yuma started to get a little more interesting after Albuquerque. We got off of I-40 at exit 89 and headed south on NM Rte. 117 to get to US Rte. 60. If you find yourself traveling on I-40 through NM on your way to somewhere else, get off and take a short drive through the fascinating rock formations that is El Malpais National Monument. It’s well worth a detour.
Cedar and Salt River Canyons
After leaving El Malpais, NM 117 takes you through grasslands and ranches where the cows outnumber people by at least 1000 to 1. We reached US 60, which runs through Cedar Canyon and Salt River Canyon in Arizona. These nice twisty roads through the canyons made me wish I had my motorcycle. In addition, the scenery was spectacular.
Saguaro National Park
We made a brief stop at Saguaro National Park. The saguaro cactus is native to the Sonoran Desert and does not grow naturally anywhere else. They grow at an exceptionally slow rate with the first arm of a saguaro typically starting to grow sometime between 50 and 70 years old though it may be closer to 100 years in locations where precipitation is very low. There are an estimated 1.8 million saguaros in the park.
Getting to Yuma
We finally arrive at our winter home in Yuma after several days on the road. We’re now ready to explore, relax (relax? Our whole life since retiring has been a vacation) and enjoy the warm temperatures and sunshine.
Yuma Territorial Prison
The first order of business is to check out the Yuma Territorial Prison, made famous by the movie 3:10 to Yuma. On July 1, 1876, the first seven inmates entered the Territorial Prison at Yuma and were locked into the new cells they had built themselves. A total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived within the walls during the prison’s 33 years of operation. It was closed in 1909 due to overcrowding and the prisoners were sent to Florence, Az. The Yuma High School met at the prison from 1910 to 1914, giving birth to their nickname, the Yuma Criminals.
Imperial Sand Dunes
Just over the border in California is the Imperial Sand Dunes, formed by windblown sands of ancient Lake Cahuilla. The dunes are approximately 45 miles long by 6 miles wide and extends along a northwest-southeast line that correlates to the prevailing northerly and westerly wind directions. The winds cause the dunes to migrate southeast by approximately one foot per year. Dunes often reach heights of 300 feet above the desert floor, providing outstanding opportunities for recreation.
The dunes are a favorite place for off-highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts. If you don’t have your own, there are several places to rent one. I thought that would be fun but at $150 an hour (minimum of 2 hours), $140 for insurance and a $2500 deposit, I deided it best just watch others do it.
The dunes also offer fabulous scenery, opportunities for solitude, and a home to rare plants and animals. The North Algodones Dunes Wilderness encompasses more than 26,000 acres, with the largest and tallest dunes located in the central area. We didn’t see any wildlife but it made for an interesting hike. Bring your horse along, if you have one, because you can ride it here. No vehicles are allowed.
Yuma – The Salad Bowl of the US
We had some preconceived notions about what we would find when we got to Yuma. We were in for a few surprises. One assumption in coming to the desert southwest was the expectation we would find a lot of flat, dusty, arid land surrounded by some mountains. While there is a lot of that, we are very surprised at the amount of agriculture in the area. As a matter of fact, it’s the number one industry. With the longest growing season in the country, Yuma is known as the winter vegetable capital of the world (according to the Yuma Chamber of Commerce web site).
And with only 3 inches of rainfall each year, Yuma has developed one of the most efficient irrigation systems in the world (again, according to the Yuma Chamber of Commerce) – a series of canals and ditches feeding a multitude of fields.
Yuma has nine salad plants that produce over 2 million pounds of salad every day during peak season. They can harvest the lettuce in the morning and have it packaged in bags and in Phoenix that afternoon or the east coast in 2 or 3 days. So if you were out to dinner this winter and enjoyed a nice salad, thank a Yuma farmer.
Telegraph Pass
Nearby in the Foothills area of Yuma is a popular hiking destination called Telegraph Pass in the Gila Mountains. Supposedly, The telegraph lines from San Diego to Yuma and points east ran through here. We didn’t see any big horned sheep or rattle snakes but the cactus and mountains were interesting. Also, On June 28, 1944 a B-17 crashed in these mountains while on a training flight from the nearby Yuma Army Airfield. The wreckage is said to still be there but I imagine 6 decades of rock slides and erosion have covered most of it up.
An ocotillo cactus 
Silver Spur Rodeo
The Silver Spur Rodeo is held during the second week in February in Yuma every year since 1946. It is a stop on the pro rodeo circuit sanctioned by the Pro Rodeo Cowboy Association . We’ve never been to a rodeo so we thought. ‘what the heck’.
There was bronco riding, both without and with a saddle;
Steer wrestling;
Calf roping;
Fancy rope twirlin’;
Barrel racing;
Mutton busting;
Although, sometimes the mutton refuses to be busted;
And bull riding.
For a couple of city slickers, the rodeo turned out to be very entertaining way to spend a day.
Martinez Lake
A local told us we should check out nearby Martinez Lake. In 1938 the Imperial Dam was completed on the Colorado River just north of Yuma. The waters stored behind the dam formed numerous backwaters and marsh areas along the edges of the river, one of which is Martinez Lake. It’s a very popular bass fishing spot with several varieties here. The lake also attracts waterfowl and wildlife traveling down river from the southern boundary of the bordering Imperial National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge immediately north of Martinez Lake encompasses 15,000 acres and fronts both banks of the Colorado River for 30 miles. The haven is a stopover for migratory birds and more than 200 species have been logged by avid birders over the years. There are also some interesting trails to explore.
Mittry Lake Wildlife Area
Mittry Lake Wildlife Area is near Yuma, as well. There is a lake that covers about 600 acres with about 2400 more acres of marsh or upland. There are several waterways that connect to the main lake which makes this a cool place to explore by boat or kayak. We found several more species of migrating ducks and other birds. There are also numerous hiking trails. All of this is surrounded by a scenic backdrop of three mountain ranges. There’s a lot to see here and one day isn’t enough. We came back a few times.
A rare phainopepla 
Picacho State Recreation Area
Today we checked out Picacho State Recreation Area in California. Picacho means ‘pointed, solitary mountain or peak’ and the park gets its name from the mountain that dominates the skyline. Although it’s only about 30 miles away, it took almost 2 hours to get there because we had to drive on 18 miles of rough, gravel roads, making for very slow going. A 4×4 vehicle would’ve made the drive easier. It was a bit uninteresting at first, but the landscape got more interesting as we neared the park.
About 100 years ago Picacho was a gold mining town with a population that reached 2500 citizens along the Colorado River. The mines weren’t very succesful and the town soon disapeared. The old town is found at the end of the Stamp Mill Trail, one of several throughout the recreation area.
Along the trail we found the remains of the town jail, where criminals were held temporarily until they could be transported to San Diego. I’m innocent, I swear!! Cathy may not agree.
Site of the old gold mininng town 
Ruins of the old stamp mill
The Red Rock Canyon Trail is another short, easy hike. Guess how it got it’s name.
Ferral donkeys roam the park freely.
Picacho is well worth the slow trip in and out on the gravel road. Don’t pass it up.
Midnight at the Oasis
The first weekend in March is the annual Midnight at the Oasis, the Southwest’s premier classic car and nostalgia festival. People bring their pre-1972 cars from all over the western US and listen and dance to music from the 50’s and 60’s. Held at the former spring training site of the San diego Padres, attendance is in the neighborhood of 1,000 cars and 50,000 people.
There was a wealth of ’50s Chevys and muscle cars;
All years of ‘Vettes, ‘Stangs and T-birds;
And a few oddities.
And, of course, there were plenty of hot rods.
El Centro Air Show
The Blue Angels is the Navy’s precision flying team. During the air show season, they are stationed in Pensacola, Florida. During the winter months, they are stationed in El Centro, California. Every year the Naval Air Facility in El Centro holds an air show, headlined by the Blue Angels before they head back to Florida in mid-March to start their show season. We’ve watched a couple practices in Pensacola so we thought we’d take in the show out here.
The air show is about more than just the Blue Angels. There are all kinds of military planes on display, both past and present.
There were also some aerial acrobatics;
Parachute jumps by the Navy Seals and the Army Golden Knights;
And flight demonstrations of the older military planes.
There was a simulated dog fight between a Japanese Zero and a P-51 Mustang that gave me images of what it might have been like in the skies over the South Pacific.
Another simulated dog fight featured an F-86 and a MIG-15.
But, of course, the highlight of the day was the precision flying of the Blue Angels. Watching these guys flying their F/A-18s after seeing the WW II era planes fly makes you realize how far aeronautics has come. Solo Blue Angel pilots can reach 700 miles per hour during their shows. The Wright brothers would be flabbergasted. It’s an absolutely incredible demonstration.
This was a sensational experience and well worth the effort. The Blue Angels (or even the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds) have shows all across the country so if there’s one in your neck of the woods, definitely check them out. You won’t be disappointed.
The Yuma Air Show
The weekend after the El Centro show, the local Marine air base in Yuma hosted an air show, showing off the fighters stationed here. We didn’t go inside the gates for this show, mostly because it was 103 degrees and we needed to be close to our car’s air conditioning. It’s a dry heat but 103 is still hot.
It wasn’t as big as the show in El Centro but it was still quite interesting as the Marines have some fighters the Navy didn’t have in El Centro.
AV-8B Harrier 
F5 Tiger 
F35 Lightning 
V-22 Osprey
It’s amazing the progress planes have made over the last 100 years. The technology and performance of today’s fighters is unbelievable. If the Russians or Chinese have anything that compares to the speed and maneuverability of the FA-18 and F-35, I’d like to see it.
There were some vintage aircraft:
And some stunt planes:
Yes, that’s a wing walker up there
The show closed with the Patriots Jet Team, a civilian aerobatic formation team that performs in air shows across the western United States of America. The team operates as a six-ship team, flying the Czech-built Aero L-39 Albatros. They’re not quite the Blue Angels but they’re pretty entertaining, nonetheless.
Los Algodones, Baja California, Mexico
About 7 miles from Yuma is the unusual little border town of Los Algodones. It’s so close and easy to get to that we were compelled to make several visits. Park on the American side of the border in the large parking lot and walk over the border. Finding a place to park in Algodones is challenging, to say the least. Ask me how I know.
As soon as you cross the border, you are ‘welcomed’ – accosted might be a better word – by men handing out business cards and asking if you need dental care, optical services or prescription drugs. The town is only about four blocks but within that radius are probably more pharmacies, opticians and dentists than anywhere else. All this attracts thousands of Canadian and American snowbirds weekly for the heavily discounted – dare I say cheap – services. I’m more than a little skeptical about the quality of these services but if you ask those that are here to take advantage of them, they’ll tell you they are as good as any you will find in the states or Canada.
Of course, there are other reasons to visit Algodones. Walk into any of the multitude of liquor stores and you can sample several brands of tequila you can’t get in the US. Yes we did and we brought some back. The establishments that sell liquor are all purple for some reason, so they’re easy to find.
And then there’s the shopping. Plenty of vendors line the street trying to get you to stop and buy. Beware of the cheap imitation knock-off merchandise. I got suckered into buying a pair of Faux-kley sunglasses. I can be such an idiot sometimes. I’d blame the margaritas but I hadn’t had one yet.
The trips wouldn’t be complete without sampling the local fare. There are numerous venues to eat at in town, from taco trucks, sidewalk cafes, and regular dine-in restaurants. We gave it our best effort to sample them all.
Our favorite is Paraiso Restaurant and Bar, which has been in operation since 1947. With it’s open air courtyard, tiki bar and live music, the atmosphere can’t be beat. The food was quite good, as well. Just be careful when ordering a margarita. They don’t water them down like in the US. Again, ask me how I know.
Quartzite
At the suggestion of a seasoned snowbird, we cruised on up to Quartzsite, about a 90 minute drive north of Yuma. Quartzsite bills itself as the ‘destination of choice’ for vacationers and vendors who bring treasures from all over the world to sell during the winter months. Unfortunately, we chose late March to visit and most of the shops and vendors are gone for the season. We’re told that January and February is the time to be here. Quartzsite is the place to be for both visitors and exhibitors for the gem show and swap meet during these two months as merchants hawk rocks, gems, mineral specimens and fossils. We checked out a couple rock and gem dealers that were still open and they have some pretty nifty stuff. We probably would’ve bought something if we had an actual home to put it in.
While in Quartzite, our seasoned snowbird informant wanted us to check out Reader’s Oasis Books, run by Paul Winer. Mr. Winer is a boogie and blues artist that has become a nudist, settling in Quartzsite to run his bookstore. Fortunately (unfortunately?) the shop was closed and we didn’t get to meet the proprietor. You can check him out on YouTube here, if you’re so inclined. Update: Paul Winer passed away on May 7, 2019.
We kept seeing signs for the Hi Jolly monument so we checked it out. It’s an interesting story. in 1856, the US Army experimented with camels to pack freight across the desert southwest. They acquired 33 camels but having no experience with the animals, the army hired Hadji Ali who was a camel breeder and trainer in Syria to be the lead camel driver. His name was difficult for the soldiers to pronounce so they resorted to calling him Hi Jolly. The Army’s camel experiment failed but Hi Jolly became a living legend throughout the southwest until his death in 1902 and was buried in Quartzsite. That explains the camels on the town sign.
Quartzsite also bills itself as the Snowbird Capital of the World and the RV Boondocking Capital of the World. Every winter, hundreds of thousands of RVers from all over the US and Canada descend on Quartzsite looking for sunshine, warm weather and free camping. Boondocking is camping in the midst of nature without the use of commercial campgrounds and hookups. Supposedly, as you approach Quartzsite from any direction, from about 20 miles out, you begin seeing clumps, groups, and temporary communities of RVs circled around common campfire rings like wagon trains of old. Many solo units are also scattered among the sagebrush. There weren’t many there during our visit, but we got a good idea of what it might look like. We did see a couple $400,000 RVs pulling a $70,000 SUV looking for free camping. Curious.
The Desert in Bloom
The desert is pretty colorful right now since the west has had more than the average amount of rainfall this winter. We took our time heading back to Yuma to take in the scenery. Fortunately, there are plenty of places to stop for Cathy to get some shots.
Imperial Date Gardens
Just over the California border from Yuma is the small community of Bard, home to the Imperial Date Gardens. Dates were considered a delicacy and served by royalty for countless generations in the Middle East and North Africa. The date was introduced to the western hemisphere by Spanish missionaries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Medjool dates are the gourmet variety, and the only variety of date that is picked fresh and eaten fresh.
Medjool are the most labor intensive date to grow and harvest, especially since they are mostly pollinated manually in a farm setting, either on a ladder or by a wind machine. Date pollinator is a job that might raise eyebrows on a resume. The palms are either male or female and live in a “harem” setting. Date farmers usually have only one male palm and many females, since only the female palms will yield any dates. More medjool dates are grown in and around Yuma than anywhere else in the US because of the ideal climate. That’s probably not the type of ‘dating’ advice you were looking for. Yep, I went there.
Ever since we got to Yuma, we’ve seen signs advertising date shakes and were told that the Imperial Date Gardens has the best so we headed over to give one a try. I was pretty skeptical about the palatableness of a date shake at first but, I gotta tell ya, they’re pretty darn good! I can see another one in my future. But Imperial Date Gardens is more than just date shakes. They have chocolate covered date, walnut and pecan stuffed dates, date nut bread, date nuggets and everything date related. We became huge medjool date fans after visiting.
Take the Long Way Home
Our apologies to Supertramp and Peter, Paul, and Mary but our bags are packed, we’re ready to go. We’re standin’ here… never mind. We didn’t have to wake anyone up to say good-bye and we’re not leaving on a jet plane but after saying ‘adios’ to our new friends, we headed out for a leisurely trip home. First stop is Joshua Tree National Park for a few days. You can read all about our time there here.
The Road East
We left Joshua tree heading toward the Grand Canyon via the Mother Road, Rte 66. Heading east on CA62, we ran into the annual migration of the Monarch butterfly heading from Mexico back to Canada. We thinned the herd quite a bit after driving through about 20 miles of that.
Getting Our Kicks on Route 66
We picked up Rte 66 in Topock, Az and followed it east. The first 30 – 40 miles were twisting through canyons and over mountains. I could feel the ghosts of Tom, Ma and Pa Joad making their way west as we drove.
Oatman
Our first stop was in Oatman, a ghost town in the 60’s, but with the resurgence of public interest in the highway, it now caters to the Rte 66 tourists. This tiny town (population 135) is in a rugged area carved out of the wilderness by determined miners and now populated by more wild burros than people. The burros roam the streets freely and you can even buy food at local establishments to feed them.
The town is named after Olive Oatman, who was kidnapped by an Indian tribe, then sold to a friendly local tribe before being freed to her family near here. The town has a Wild West feel, down to the wooden sidewalks, staged shootouts and shops. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard allegedly honeymooned at the 1902 two-story adobe Oatman Hotel after marrying in nearby Kingman. The hotel remains open as a museum and restaurant.
We hit a road block on the way out of town.
We passed other reminders of a bygone era on our way to Williams, Az. which we will use as our base for the next few days.
A Brief Respite
Williams Arizona is a good place along Route 66 to take a break. Williams is the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, and Sedona isn’t too far away, either. We stopped for a few days to check them both out. You can read about our interlude here.
Winslow
Back on the road. There isn’t much left of the old Rte. 66, but many towns have preserved and restored some features along the route. The next stop – Winslow, Arizona, is famous because of that one line in the song ‘Take It Easy’ by the Eagles. Winslow has always been an important stop on Route 66, first popular with railroad travelers, and now with motorists and motorcyclists.
Winslow is home to La Posada, one of the finest trackside hotels. Designed and built for the Santa Fe Railroad in 1930, it was fully restored in 1997. You feel like a visitor to a bygone era as soon as you walk in. Past guests include Amelia Earhart, Clark Gable, Will Rogers, Albert Einstein, FDR, John Wayne, and Jane Russel.
And, of course, there’s the iconic Standin’ On a Corner Park. The park contains a two-story mural by, a bronze statue of a life-sized man who is standing on a corner with a guitar by his side, and parked nearby is a flat-bed Ford.
You can decide for yourselves if I’m such a fine sight to see… 
If you’re doing more than just passing through, you might want to head to Homolovi State Park, where you can walk the trails around archaeological sites and take in the petroglyphs of the Hopi ancestors that lived in the region until AD 1400.
New Mexico
Unfortunately, Cathy came down with whatever this year’s spring illness is so we didn’t make any stops in New Mexico. That was a major disappointment but it just gives me an excuse to plan a future trip on the Mother Road, probably on the motorcycle. Tucumcari here we come!
Cadillac Ranch
One of the most famous stops along Route 66 is the Cadillac ranch just outside of Amarillo, Tx. In 1974, a group of art-hippies from San Francisco, calling themselves The Ant Farm, came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies are half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza) in one of Stanley Marsh’s fields, facing west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high.
The Cadillacs have now been in the ground longer than they were on the road. They are stripped to their battered frames and splattered in spray paint, barely recognizable as automobiles. It has become a ritual to stop with some spray paint and participate in the art. The smell of spray paint hits you from a hundred yards away as you pass through the entrance and spray cans litter the ground, despite there being 2 dumpsters nearby. C’mon people!!! Pick up after yourselves!!!
I had to add my own artwork 
McLean, Texas
McLean is one of those towns whose economy was supported by all those that traveled on Rte. 66 but is now decimated since I-40 has passed it by. During the Golden Age of Route 66, McLean boasted 16 service stations, six motels, and numerous cafes. In the late 1970’s Interstate 40 began to bypass many of the small towns of the Texas Panhandle. McLean business owners fought hard to stop, or at least, slow the eventual building of Interstate to no avail. Today, McLean is called home to just over 800 citizens.
We saw a guy standing in the road filming something so I decided to stop and find out what. He was doing a story for a regional PBS TV station about local guy known as the ‘Cowboy Artist’ named Steve Boaldin. You can check out his work here. He’s quite good. He also informed us that the town’s founder, Alfred Rowe, was killed when the Titanic sank in 1912. Legend has it that rescuers found him hugging his briefcase, frozen to death atop an ice floe, with his gold watch still ticking. You never know what you might learn from the locals.
Shamrock, Texas
The next stop was Shamrock, Tx. home of the Conoco Tower. Shamrock catered to the many travelers of Route 66 and Highway 83 in the 1930’s. Garages, filling stations, restaurants, and tourist courts lined the main avenue. Among these were the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Restaurant. The U-Drop Inn, where “Delicious Food Courteously Served” became the standard, was a welcoming sight to highway travelers and the many buses that pulled in at the diner. After some 50 years of operating successfully, the diner and gas station finally closed in the mid-1990s and sat abandoned for the next two decades. The building took quite a beating over the years, but is now fully restored. And in a case of the old world crashing into the new, Tesla charging stations are in the back. Quite a juxtaposition.
Oklahoma
There are dozens of great stops along Route 66 in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop at any of them. The Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton is one but that was closed when we passed by. This is where we got off Rte. 66 to stay on Interstate 40 visit family in North Carolina and Maryland. Again, it’s an excuse to plan another road trip.
Home at last
We finally made it home at the end of April. Now it’s time to catch up on a few things and plan our next adventure. It won’t be long before we’re on the road again. Stay tuned.
This was a good read, thank you. Very happy for you both and envious at the same time!
You guys will get your chance to make your kids envious!