Fast and ugly........hmmmmmm....reminds me of an old girl-friend!!!
The desert starts about 6 feet from the river edge
Kilroy was here...........2000 years agoToday took us 52 river miles (20 miles as the crow flies) north of Yuma on the Colorado River, via jet boat. Now I don’t know about you but, when I hear “jet boat” my mind conjures up an image substantially different from the craft pictured above. However, the boat employed two 50 gallon per second jets powered by large, gas-guzzling engines, which moved it smartly up the swift but shallow Colorado. In this area, at peak flow, the river moves 7 acre/feet of silt past any one spot each hour (that’s seven acres covered to a depth of one foot of silt). I guess we all know where all the material from that big hole at the Grand Canyon went. They say: “the river is too thick to drink and too thin to plow”.
Along the route we visited old mining towns from the late 19’th century, which have been swallowed up by the desert; 2000 year old petroglyphs; a nature preserve housing bighorn mountain sheep, coyotes, wild burros and scores of bird species and; remote State Parks, accessible only by water or overland 4 wheel drive. (The bighorn sheep obviously had the day off). The desert in this area is more in line with the mental image I had of deserts before embarking on this trip……..a whole lot of sun-baked nothing. Very hostile and very unforgiving country and, nowhere near as scenic as the Sonora Desert. You have to wonder if all the gold and silver made living in this desert worthwhile.
But, take a batch of desert; over 300 days of hot sun each year; add a splash of silt filled Colorado River water and….presto, you have the market garden of the US. Over 80% of all the lettuce grown in the US comes from Yuma (Who knew??) They also grow most all vegetables on huge corporate farms stretching for miles. Parsnip anyone? This area is also known for our new addiction……..dates….. Medjool Dates to be precise. They are delicious and nothing like what we buy in Canada that passes for dates. These are like eating a date square, without the square. Dangerous stuff!!
Along the route we visited old mining towns from the late 19’th century, which have been swallowed up by the desert; 2000 year old petroglyphs; a nature preserve housing bighorn mountain sheep, coyotes, wild burros and scores of bird species and; remote State Parks, accessible only by water or overland 4 wheel drive. (The bighorn sheep obviously had the day off). The desert in this area is more in line with the mental image I had of deserts before embarking on this trip……..a whole lot of sun-baked nothing. Very hostile and very unforgiving country and, nowhere near as scenic as the Sonora Desert. You have to wonder if all the gold and silver made living in this desert worthwhile.
But, take a batch of desert; over 300 days of hot sun each year; add a splash of silt filled Colorado River water and….presto, you have the market garden of the US. Over 80% of all the lettuce grown in the US comes from Yuma (Who knew??) They also grow most all vegetables on huge corporate farms stretching for miles. Parsnip anyone? This area is also known for our new addiction……..dates….. Medjool Dates to be precise. They are delicious and nothing like what we buy in Canada that passes for dates. These are like eating a date square, without the square. Dangerous stuff!!
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