Sometimes you hear people talk about how bad things happen in 3's. Or celebrities die in 3's. Well this trip was anything but bad. It was quite the opposite. This was our 3rd time to venture to Picacho deep in the southeast of California/Arizona/Mexico border. We like Picacho because it's a place to get away where you have your own beach camp, river and donkey show. Now im not talking about Tijuana.. im talking about real burrows. Along with real big horn sheep and real scorpions, all of which we saw. This location takes over an hour off road to get to and it's not for the ill prepared. Don't let the solar bathrooms, bbq grills and patio covers fool you. Coming unprepared to 4-S camp deep in the imperial desert can leave you dead without you even knowing. In the summer months like when we head out it can easily reach 110F during the day. You need to go prepared and over-prepared is my motto. You can easily become dehydrated even though 150,000 gallons of fresh mtn water runs past your camp all day. You can get bit by snakes, mosquitos and even racoons. And on top of all that your hours from the closest hospital. But enough of the remote talk, lets get to the trip report.
Friday we headed out with the office phone forwarded to my cellphone, taking orders as we go is the name of the game. Well at least until we run out of cell coverage which is usually around Glamis, CA or so. After that, customers will just have to wait till the weekend is over. Its funny, the phone never rings until you decide to do something. Usually when we leave for a trip we get the most orders. Funny how that works. Maybe we should just stay on the road full time?
Somewhere around the mid afternoon blistering heat we arrived at the trail head for Indian Pass Rd and aired down for the rough wash board road into camp. The road seemed the worse it's ever been. No matter what PSI i tried it was still rough.
The scenery is amazing in these parts. Not a place you want to break down or become stranded.
The burrows were in full force blocking the trail then walking off to check us out from a distance. We also saw two big horn sheep, but they were too fast for our camera.
Arriving at camp we found Pete and Missy relaxing at camp. It wasn't too hot and we actually had the river to keep us cool.
Relaxing at Picacho is what it's all about. Usually when we head to this location we just lounge in the river, swim, play horseshoes and be lazy. The more of it the better. 4 days is never enough!
Pete looking like he's going to cry because someone might take his NATO can. Don't worry, this can was used for water only, not fuel.
Of course you have to fish while you are there.. even if the only thing you catch is a seadoo!
At the end of the day it's all about the view and the peacefulness of the area. Even if a freak storm rolls in and practically wipes us off the map.
This storm hit us in a matter of minutes. We could literally see it coming. It lasted maybe 30 minutes and then the weather cleared up. While it hit us winds increased and we had to batten down the hatches and secure our belongings. Yosh and Dixie took cover inside the roof top tent where i was surprised at how well it handled 50mph winds.
After the storm passed and the sun set the water was like glass. It was stunning.
This is the moon, not the sun. Beautiful sky.
It was time to prep dinner for the night. Sitting around the campfire we found this little guy.
Not exactly little, he was the size of an adults hand. He could do some damage to Dixie if he wanted too. I carry a LED blacklight for this exact reason. He lit up like a christmas tree.
The following days were filled with more lounging and just plain doing nothing. We didn't explore, we didn't hike, we just relaxed. Shoot Pete didn't even sit around and sharpen his knife collection! Even Dixie just did nothing. After all it was 110 degrees during the day in the sun. What else would we do?
Speaking of heat.. Dixie finally accepted water as her new friend.
She's more spoiled than most people, i swear. In all fairness, Boston Bulldogs do get real hot in the sun.
Usually when we come to Picacho there's no boats. We might see one or two, but that's it. This time we lost count because it was a holiday weekend. The noise wasn't favorable but the waves were nice.
One boater had this crazy towable on the back of his boat where he would tow his kids around. He was putting on quite a show.
We knew at some point the kids would fly off. We were right. After this photo they launched off the corner. I felt bad for the person on the bottom!
Our final day, we took our time packing up and headed out through Picacho Rd into Yuma AZ.
Shot of Taylor Lake while traveling south.
We stopped at the old Picacho mining placard. It reminds us of what people went through to live in this area and just how many people were in the area at one time.
Very cool one way bridge on the way into Yuma crossing near highway I-8.
After airing up and grabbing lunch at Cracker Barrel in the triple digit heat we headed for the long drive home. Picacho was another good trip and a success.
Thanks to everyone that joined us. It was a good time for sure.
Photos by: Missy Howard, Dave Schmidt and Dave Druck