Going Back to Arizona

We are heading to Tucson for a couple of reasons. 1) Mari has a gig there Saturday! She is singing at Catalina State Park for their First Saturdays Concert, due to a cancellation. 2) We were going to go sooner, but then decided it would be warmer in California, so delayed our exit, but then a sandstorm was predicted for Sunday and Monday, so we decided to leave, but not go all the way to Tucson. Ahhh, the vagaries of the itinerant life!

As we left California, we drove through El Centro, California. Winter warmth is largely about elevation, so one would expect El Centro to be one of the warmest places in the continental US....

We had lunch in Winterhaven, where we were also able to get some locally-grown dates. At the hispanic-style restaurant at a mom-and-pop rest-stop/grocery store, we had Carne asada quesadillas, which came with a deep-fried jalapeno on the side!!!!

But we had to keep moving....

We learned about this new place on ...You Tube! It is called Mittry Lake Wildlife Area. It is a Lake located just north of Yuma, Arizona, and yes, we have seen some of the wildlife  mainly birds. There was a serious lack of birds at Anza-Borrego. It was wonderful to see a road runner on our first day, a variety of water fowl, and birds in the shrubbery all around us - something else that was lacking at Anza-Borrego.

We immediately, and without any trouble, found a nice hike through the surrounding mountains. Here are some photos:

Hubcap decorating ocotillo at high point on hike

View of Mittry Lake from our camp site

Ocotillo decorated with silver ornaments

Ron on the trail.

Tomorrow we will pack up and go to Tucson. The gig is on Saturday afternoon. Not sure yet where we'll stay on Sunday night......