A desert spring drive

Since we are leaving Yuma in a few days, and since we had not yet gone to see the desert along the Ogilby Road, we decided after church this morning to head out to go north up Ogilby Road to route 78 to Blythe, California and then east to Quartzsite and south down Arizona 95 back to Yuma.

Before we left the bus, we had Raspberry Cheesecake Bars that Dwayne had made with a Krusteaz mix last night - It was really beautiful and delicious too!

General route that we took

Our first stop along Ogilby Road was to take a closer look at some Ocotillo.

It wasn't in full bloom yet, but the stems were covered with leaves and it looked so swollen and pretty!

Blooms at the tops

Desert-scape

My honey examining rocks

Another Ocotillo - wider one

Dwayne near the first one that I posted pictures of above - to give you scale

The wider one from the other side

Dwayne heading back to the Jeep to get his camera

Desert-scape

At our second stop, there were these pretty little purple flowers - less than a dime-size in diameter

There was this large reddish-pink flowering bush near an Ocotillo at this second stop

I don't know what the name of this bush is - maybe one of my desert-dwelling or plant-knowledgeable readers will enlighten me!

Beautiful!

Prickly Pear

Another Prickly Pear

I think that there are a couple of Chollo in the wash with a couple of Palo Verde behind

Another one of those reddish-pink flowering bushes

This mounded bush was about to explode with blooms, but not quite yet!

Plants in the wash

Closer up on the reddish-pink blossoms

There is a small rounded cactus in there with red berry-like things protruding out - the balls of the cactus were tennis ball sized and the red berry-like things about 1" long.

This Ocotillo was still barren, though the ends appeared that it might be close to blooming. I don't know why it had not put any leaves on - all the others around had lots of leaves.

I think this is another Chollo

view back across the road and the Jeep

I took this to remember the signage: Limited Use Area, All Motorized Use Limited to Designated Routes Only, Cross Country Motorized Travel Prohibited, Navigable Washes Open, Obey All Posted Signs

 I wanted to see if camping is permitted in this area... will need to do more research.

In this third place we stopped, there were great wide swaths that were flat and with nothing growing on them... they looked almost like runways out in the desert. My honey is looking at rocks...

We stopped for gas in Quartzsite, stopped by to visit friends Donna Sue and Allen at La Posa South (just beyond the "Blue Birds' Nest"), and then returned back home - about 7 hours and a fun day!