Saturday, January 4, 2020

Nothing but Quad Rides

I am going to just post some pictures of some of the quad runs I have been on. The first one is a run to the Deere Run Resort. Deep in the heart of the Dome Mountains. We gathered at Earl and Allison's camper. I think there was a group of eight of us. Me being the only American. Everyone else is from Canada and they are such a nice group to be running around in the desert with. We started heading over to the dome mountains but as we were crossing a housing development called Rainbow Acres, Earl spotted a desert Christmas tree.
As we all stopped for a photo op, Boscoe, Jim and Cec's black lab decided to leave his own gift under the tree, er, cactus.
Jim quickly took care of it as I was having a good laugh about it. Back in the quads we headed into the mountains. The trail became very rocky and washed out due to some past rains. Since my co-pilot has abandoned me, I can not getting any trail pictures as I drive. We made it to the resort.

It wasn't the nicest resort I have been to. In fact it is just a concrete slab with junk on it. People haul out stuff like recliners and tables and other things to decorate it. It is just mainly a destination to go to. We had lunch and then someone spotted the Goodyear Blimp as it did a flyby.
I took the opportunity take a few photos of the giants of the desert. The Saguaro cactus.

These were easily 25-30 feet tall.We loaded up and made our way back to our campers. It was a fun ride and there were some challenging areas which I like. I am gaining confidence in the Ranger as I drive it more over rougher terrain.

The next ride was going to be to Lazarus Tank. A watering hole out in the desert for wildlife. We again met at Earl's for the ride.Once gathered we headed out into the desert. This was going to be a longer ride. We stopped to stretch our legs and I took some pictures of a forest of Cholla (Teddy Bear) cactus's.

You don't want to get too close to these little cactus. They look furry but they will stick to anything. In fact some say that the little tops jump off at you. I had one stuck in my tire. To get it off, Steve said the best way was to use a comb. Then you need a pliers to remove the barbs. On the way to Lazarus tank we went by Guadalupe Mountain. It is a tall mountain near Quartzsite with an array of radio and cell towers on it. 
It doesn't look that bad from the bottom and from miles away. As you get closer it gets bigger. The road to the top is full of switchbacks and drop offs. Again no pictures going up.
Here we are at the top. The views were spectacular.
This is part of the road near the top. It was a little nerve wracking with just the Ranger but they actually drive propane trucks up here to run the generators or something. 


What goes up must come down. The drive down was a little nerve wracking also. I was hoping the brakes would make it to the bottom because of all of the switchbacks. You would go right over the edge is you missed the turn. We then crossed the interstate and headed to Lazarus tank.

The tank is a natural watering hole set in the mountains. I guess in the summer the DNR will pump water into it for the wildlife. There are many tanks and watering holes set up in the desert for all of the little critters.
I was hiking to the tank and turned around to take a picture of the group. There is a pipeline on the ground where they pump water from trucks up into the tank. For some reason I forgot to take a picture of the tank. My bad. Here is a picture of the Lone Ranger though.

On a more personal note. I borrowed a picture from Jim and Barb. He sent his drone up and took a picture of our neighborhood.
If you could take a picture from a high flying plane, you would see 1000's of campers out here and more and more are coming in each day. January is the busiest month here. We are looking forward to the big show.

6 comments:

  1. It looks more like Jim is about to leave a gift beside the Saguaro! 🤣

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  2. Looks like some fun rides, why don't you ever invite me to come with you?!?!?!

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    1. I have. But Barb won't let us play together unsupervised.

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