The Southwestern Sojourn - Day 47: Painted Rock Petroglyph Campground, Day 2

Decided to hang out another day at the campground after all.  It promised to be a sunny and warm day with some clouds.

Dawn came and while started clear, a low layer of fog moved through the valley as I waited for the sun to show itself.  It made for some nice lighting in spite of the lack of clouds overhead:

As the fog grew thicker, it made the nearby hills and distant peaks appear to be afloat on clouds.

 Oatman Mountain 

The fog got higher and partially blocked the sun as it finally peaked from behind the nearby unnamed hill/mountain.

After working in the morning, took a long lunch and rode out on a dirt road headed south of the campground, to see what I could see.

Turned out to be not much that couldn't already be seen nearer to the camp!  :)

Desert, sage brush, saguaro cacti, some small rocky hills....went as far as a dry river bed and then turned around.  The road got much rockier and steep going up a low flat hill and I wasn't feeling the urge to charge up the incline.

 Looking north back towards the campground, perhaps

a mile or so away.

 Looking south towards the low flat hills, the 

Gila River flows through the area...or rather, it's 

dry river bed shows where it flowed.

Back in the campground, I stopped by Group Area B (or was it A?) and found the "Golf Course".  

The campground provides you with assorted clubs and there's a small plastic bag with golf balls for you to hit.

I did not, partake but did take a picture.  After all, do you realize how hard it is to swing a club with a riding jacket on?  ;)

Got some lunch on my return, monitored things at work but it was Friday so things were quiet.

Puttered about the RV, installed the easy fill water kit onto the new house battery that I had replaced a few months ago.  It took a bit of water too so glad I did it.

Mostly, relaxed in the warm temperatures, staying in the shade at times, watching the amount of sun exposure even though I am developing a pretty good tan anyways.

Undecided whether to move on tomorrow or remain, I'll decide in the morning...at $8/night, it's not like its expensive to stay here.

And so far, the sunsets have proved to be quite nice.  Here's tonight's sunset:

The Southwestern Sojourn - Day 46: Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Campground

Left the Cottonwood Canyon Road BLM campsite today and found a spot at the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site and Campground about 15 miles west of Gila Bend, AZ.

It's a BLM campground, featuring nice big spots with space between the sites and pretty level as well.  For the $8 camping fee, there's pit toilets and a garbage dumpster along with a camp host.  Not bad.  It wasn't crowded, perhaps slightly less than half full.

It's right next to the Painted Rock Petroglyph site itself.

From wikipedia:  LINK

The Painted Rock Petroglyph Site is a collection of hundreds of ancient petroglyphs near the town of Theba, Arizona, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The site is operated and maintained by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and includes an improved campground as well as an informative walking trail showcasing the petroglyphs.

I went a bit overboard on the pics of the petroglyphs, but instead of a bunch of pics to bore you with, here's a movie of them instead...hopefully a bit more entertaining.

A view of nearby Oatman Mountain

from the petroglyph site

I parked Uma, the URRV, pretty close to the mound

of rocks that is the petroglyphs site

One can see a trail going all the way to the top of Oatman Mountain so after setting up camp I rode Scarlett to see how far up I could get.  

Turns out, not that far.  There's a locked gate, the shot below is as close to the base of Oatman Mountain that I reached.

Near the locked gate to the trail up

Oatman Mountain

A view of the top of Oatman Mountain

from the access road

After leaving the Oatman Mountain area, I wandered over to the Painted Rock Dam but it too can't be reached due to locked gates put up by the Corps of Engineers.

Returning back to the campsite, I took a slight detour onto what I think was BLM land (but not listed as camping area by allstays.com) to pose Scarlett with a nearby hill.

Sunset was a short wait after I returned, not a cloud in the sky, went for artsy shots instead.

I am unsure if I'll stick around one more day, and explore nearby Gila Bend.  I guess I'll make up my mind in the morning.

The Southwestern Sojourn - Day 45: Maintenance Day

A cloudy day with wind making the temperatures which reached the mid-60s seem cooler.

Still the clouds made for a nice sunrise:

Found there were tasks to be done on Scarlett, the 2014 Ural Sidecar Rig and I spent some time at the hardware store in nearby Florence, AZ sourcing the right bolt.

One of the two bolts which held the starter motor in place had fallen off and I noticed it this morning.  I think I failed to secure it properly while working on the failed clutch parts last month.  Sigh.

New bolt in place, cable adjustments needed to be done with the clutch cable as it had stretched a bit more as expected.

By the time the above was done, and travel time to/from Florence....no time to pack up the URRV and move to the next spot.  Tomorrow I move west about 140 miles.

Work and chores occupied the rest of the day, finishing off with a glorious sunset to again see me off this BLM site as I spent the last night here.

The Southwestern Sojourn - Day 44: Checking out Cottonwood Canyon

Today was the day to ride Scarlett to see what lay to the east along Cottonwood Canyon Road.

Turns out, I didn't get very far.

One road turned out to be blocked, there's apparently some kind of livestock operation behind locked gates.

Further on, the road got bad really fast....and I wasn't up to a kidney busting ride today and so I stopped early on for this picture.

Going back to the fork in the road, I took the one on the right instead and wound up stopped by the entrance to an open pit quarry where they were digging up rock.

Still, it was a nice spot for views of distant peaks:

So I motored on back to the campsite and spent the rest of the afternoon listening to an e-book and just relaxing in the warm weather.  It would hit a high of 71 degrees today, very nice.

As if knowing I'm thinking of leaving tomorrow, Mother Nature provided a nice sunset for me:

 Superstition Mountain in the golden hour

 I'll be moving further to the west tomorrow I think.