Earp, CA/Parker, AZ (02-10-14)

We say we are staying in Parker Arizona, even though technically we are in Earp California, across the Colorado River from Parker.  There’s not much in the town of Earp, so even the RV park uses Parker TIme.  The problem is that there’s a time difference between the two towns. CA is in the  Pacific time zone and Arizona is Mountain TIme.  To complicate matters, I really have to use my watch to tell time, because our cell phones keep bouncing back between the two time zones, so we never know if they are accurate for what we need.


The town of Parker is a small desert town of about 3000 people.  There is one Wal-Mart and one grocery store that we could find.   Although the average temperature right now is a wonderful 74 degrees, I’d hate to be here in July, when that number skyrockets to 110. Once you leave the downtown area, the view quickly becomes a desert landscape, with blowing dust a daily occurrence.





What Parker does have, is the Colorado River.  The river water is crystal clear, beautiful, and unfortunately…frigid.  The temperature right now is somewhere in the 50s- definitely not warm enough for swimming!

As soon as we got here, Paul and I put the boat together, just to make sure we’d take advantage of the river.

 Our friends Carol and Steve also have a dinghy similar to ours, so the 4 of us took off down the river in search of adventure and….lunch.

There are several restaurants on the water-we chose the Roadrunner Bar, where we ate lunch on the dock overlooking the water.

There was enough activity on the water to keep our interest while we munched on lunch.  Whoever was towing this Para sailor kept teasing her by bringing her down close to the water. 

The scenery along the river is beautiful.  Strange to see the desert and the river meet.

The Colorado has several dams along its length, and the area we are in is about 15-18 miles long, from one dam to the next.  Our goal the first day was to see the dam upriver.

We came close, but had to “pull over” so Paul could do  some urgent automobile diagnosis for our daughter.  She’s having coolant issues with her car, so Paul checked it out with her on the phone. Aren't cell phones wonderful?!! 

Picacho State Recreation Area, CA (Not to be confused with Picacho Peak, AZ)

   What do Hueco Tanks (State Park) and Picacho Peak (State Park) have in common?  Hueco means Tank, and Picacho means Peak.  Interesting redundency in the names.





18 mile road into Picacho Rec. Area, CA

 Anyway, Picacho State Rec Area has nothing to do with Picacho Peak State Park, except they both were named for the "picachos" within the park.  To access Picacho Recreation Area, we had to drive down an 18 mile, twisty, gravel road.  It was kind of like driving in snow for 18 miles.  Luckily we didn't need 4 wheel drive, because we don't have it!  Obviously this park is very remote, and had the typical "self-registration" booth where you put the money in an envelope to pay the park access fee. 



Colorado River from the trail

    In the 1800s there was a small town located here, and a lot of gold has been taken out of these hills.  Access was by way of the Colorado River which runs through the park.  Once the river was dammed, there was no more access for large vessels, and the town slowly dwindled away, like so many others.
   We did two hikes here-The Stewart Lake trail, and the Stamp Mill Trail, for a total of about 5 miles.





wild burros



Coyote along the trail



 The Stamp Mill trail was a dissapointment to Paul, since the ruins have not been cared for and are pretty much gone, including all of the remains of the small town.    We did see a fair amount of wildlife, including hawks, jackrabbits, several coyotes, and some wild burros.  In between hikes we came back to the truck to have lunch, and found a note on our windshield.  When I saw it I thought we had parked somewhere we weren't supposed to, but it was actually a thank you note from the ranger, thanking us for paying the entrance fee, and helping to support the state parks. 







     Once we had skated back down the 18 mile road, we headed home for dinner.

The RV Park we are staying in this week is pretty amazing- but I'll save that information for another day.