On the Road, Gila Bend, AZ - 8/21/2016

This morning we left La Jolla and drove east starting our way home but we have all of the country to cross before we get there.  La Jolla is north of San Diego, so it didn't take us long to clear the city and get out into the countryside. We picked up I-8 and will take that to Gila Bend, AZ, were we will spend the night.  Once we got away from the coast we were basically in dessert country.  In this area if you don't water it, it is brown.

We passed thru the Cuyamaca and Laguna Mountains which are part of the Peninsula Range of mountains that run north-south in southern California.  This area is in the Cleveland Nation Forest in an area called the Pine Creek Wilderness.  As we left the mountains, the interstate descends about 4,000 ft., passes thru several Indian reservations and then thru the Anza-Borrego Dessert State Park.  Talk about desolate.

We then passed thru the Imperial Valley and the town of El Centro.  We did see lots of irrigation canals in this area that are taking water from the Colorado River to irrigate the fields.  They need these canals otherwise this would be nothing but dessert.  We then crossed the Colorado River into Arizona and the city of Yuma, and gas prices plummeted reaching as low as $1.85/gallon.

From Yuma we continued east.  One of the towns we passed was Dateland where believe it or not they grow dates.  Eventually we came to the city of Gila Bend right on the edge of the Sonoran Dessert National Monument where we will be spending the night.  Not very many customers in the campground as this is their off season as it is too bloody hot this time of year.  Here is a photo I was able to download that shows the campground and the dessert around it.

In the winter, this is a very popular area for northerners to escape the winters.  Tomorrow we head north to Flagstaff where we will spend a couple of days playing tourist.