Colorado River Heritage Greenway

When I wrote yesterday's post, I completely forgot we'd planned to go on a walk for the day. We've been on this trail before. It's such a lovely place and a wonderful resource for the locals, and so it was worth a return trip.

First, however, I stitched the day's inchy. I had so much trouble tracing these with my broken thumb, and this might be one of the worst. Oh well. When I look back at this five years from now, I'll remember it was all stitched with broken bones.

The kitties were comfy taking their morning sun baths on their window perches.

It's an easy drive from the RV park to the trailhead. It's a fancy trailhead. You might remember our visit from last year. I took some of the same pictures this year, but the post I've linked to has more information about the dam.

We paused before setting out to admire the rugged landscape.

Sorry...put your tents and sleeping bags away. We're only here for a short time.

We'll be walking right along the river, at the blue line toward the bottom of the image below.

Those of you caught in the deep freeze might appreciate seeing every blooming thing. These are the first we've seen of the desert marigolds this year. Soon, they'll be blooming everywhere.

Also, you might remember I predicted these blooms on the creosote bushes when we were back in Pahrump.

As we walked along, we spied this painted rock. Apparently, leaving painted rocks for folks to find is a thing. I always leave them for the next person, and this one was particularly cute.

Heading off toward the north, we could see Davis Dam in the distance. This is one of several dams along the Colorado River. I misspoke when I published this photo on Facebook yesterday. I thought Hoover Dam was the first dam along the way, but actually Glen Canyon Dam is higher up the river than Hoover Dam. After Hoover Dam comes Davis Dam, and then Parker Dam, in Parker, Arizona.

Looking in the other direction, we could see the bridge crossing into Arizona.

Across the way is Davis Camp. This was originally where the workers who built the dam lived during the construction period. Now it is a boat launch and recreational area.

Just upstream was a pretty nice-looking RV park. We haven't been happy at this place where we're staying. It's very noisy here, and now there's a new open field across the road from us where folks are permitted to set off fireworks every day of the week, up until 10:00 p.m. From mid-March until mid-September, they can set them off any day of the week until midnight. This wasn't permitted on our last trip just one year ago, and so now we've placed this park on our personal blacklist. If we ever want to come back here, this park on the Arizona side might be a better choice. Being next to the river would be a bonus.

There were flocks of diving ducks. They cruise in for a landing on the river, then all dive down at the same time, and all surface at the same time. It's funny to watch them. They didn't show up well in the picture I took, but I did capture this lonely coot on the river.

There are places where one can walk down to the water's edge. The water looked very clean and refreshing.

Our shadow selves hopped right in.

There are also picnic shelters along the way, and (first come, first served) one could have a nice little family gathering here.

Today is the day we've set aside to visit Oatman, Arizona. I'll say more about it in tomorrow's post. I don't really know what to expect there, but we're hoping to see some of the wild burros. It's supposed to be a ghost town, but I believe it's been restored to be something like Tombstone. We'll just see, won't we?

Already this morning, I stitched the day's inchy. I like this one better than yesterday's. I've been using different stitches around the borders for some, but this one seemed to require a buttonhole stitch around its border.

Okay, so time for breakfast. I know many of you are without electricity, and so I imagine you won't be reading this. Hopefully, y'all are staying safe and warm inside, despite the frigid temperatures.