On a long and lonesome highway....: ride along

Our Location: Near American Girl Mine Road, BLM, CA

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone!! May this holiday season find you doing whatever it is that makes you happiest, whether it is with family and/or friends, enjoying some good times, laughter, food and good cheer, or alone with a good book or movie enjoying the peace and quiet. Which works best for you, I bid you a Merry Christmas Eve.

Yep, we drove in there.

Very pretty over here near the Valley of the Names.

We are just at the very edge of the 'Writing'. A very small sample of how it looks. Some folks have painted rock, others use what's around, and some bring rocks with them.

Today I spent a number of hours with Jerry Shannon as my tour guide. I cannot tell you how much fun I had, the wonders that I witnessed nor the amazing sights we shared. Truly it was an educational day for me. Jerry is very knowledgeable about the area and seemed happy to share it with me. Elva, you are truly a gem to share Jerry with me for these hours. Jerry, any time you want a ride along or a hiking partner I'll be more than happy to fill the spot.

I think that may be Picacho Peak over there. I could be mistaken though. All of these photos were taken with my Nikon camera and as you can tell we had sun and cloud all day.

We travelled along on this for a while. Pretty good, a bit bumpy but nothing too bad.

Now isn't this a view? All of those colours, all of those jagged peaks seemed to just go on and on.

Elva sent me a text saying Jerry was just leaving home and so I walked out to Ogilby Road to meet him. We won't say that he AGAIN missed the road but he had to turn around before I could climb into the Jeep right around 9 am. Riley opted not to come with us, and I think in the end it was probably best, I don't think she would have enjoyed the twists and turns nor the bumpy ride. For her that wouldn't have been fun.

I only realized I didn't get a photo of Jerry when I started editing the photos I snapped today. I'm sorry Jerry, I just never thought. I will get one for sure next time. However my driver Jerry is in this pretty silver Jeep that Miss Elva owns. How wonderful of her to loan me both the Jeep and the driver for today.

The colours are truly amazing. The views are jaw dropping.

Jerry stopped each time I wanted to snap a picture. I tried to limit myself and still came away with over 250 of them. How could you resist with views like this?

We circled the Cargo Muchachos (thanks Elva for the correction) in Elva's Jeep. We started on Sidewinder Road right here close to the Igloo and in the course of about 5 hours we ended up on Indian Pass Road, which links up with Ogilby Road, which of course is the main road near the Igloo.

We traveled along in places like this for a while. I can imagine this running full of water and the crashing of waves as it makes it way through.

If you look closely you can see the Colorado River.

Does this one help you to see it better?

We traversed washes, old rail way lines, semi road like paths, we climbed a few steep spots, twisted and turned, back and forth, up and down, over, around and through places were made for an adventurer. I can honestly say I was not once nervous or worried, Jerry is an excellent driver with a hearty sense of adventure.

We still need to travel a bit before we get there. The road is there on the left side of the photo.

The colours are truly amazing. The views are stunning.

We stopped in at the edge of The Valley of the Names and I think that may be a place Riley and I would visit on our own sometime. It is an interesting place to visit and certainly something to see. It seems amazing that someone would think to do such a thing and of course others have followed suit over the years ending up in an amazing display of 'I was here'.

Do you believe we are in the desert? The Colorado River has produced it's own little oasis here. The greens, yellows, browns, and blue all back dropped by the surrounding mountains. It's amazing to see.

One wonders about all those different colours, textures and formations.

We traveled through here which was a single track rail road bed at one time. In some places it looked a bit on the skinny side but we fit with room to spare.

From here we ended up at a sight overlooking the Colorado River. The views were stunning. We spent some time following the edge of the River for a while. It was an amazing sight, so much greenery and water right here in the middle of the desert. A boat ramp, complete with boats and a few signs that were quite interesting, such as NO DIVING and 'CANOES'. Truly a ride worth the effort.

We stopped and did a short hike to see a bit more.

In the middle of the desert there is this lush green surprise when you top over a mountain top.

Standing at the end of our little hike. There are no words to describe what I see before me.

For the first time ever I was able to see 4 wild burros. We popped around a corner and there they were, standing in the middle of the path. They didn't seem too impressed that we were there but moved off to let us pass.

Yep, it's a boat here in the desert.

There are even fish here in the water of the Colorado River not far from the boat above.

That is the top of yet another boat in this little boat ramp area.

We spent some time in a few washes that were truly awesome, high steep sides, amazing formations that jutted out into the wash, deep course sand with a few bigger rocks tossed in for good measure. How Jerry found his way through is a mystery but he didn't hesitate at any point.

There is a fair current here in this river.

A magazine photo? No, it's mine, I snapped this one.

Doesn't this photo shout CANOE?

We were a bit later than anticipated but without cell service we couldn't do much about it. Soon we were once again on good roads and homeward bound with Jerry dropping me off before 2:30 pm.

We are leaving the edge of the river but we are not quite finished with the river yet.

I could look at this view for a long time. Wouldn't a little cabin here be nice?

We are actually almost down in the river bed now.

I took a great many photos but have selected my favourites for this post. I will post more in the future but for today, I hope you enjoy this amazing ride.