Desert Photos

[kdmac]

Some scenery photos, most from my campsite with and without the telephoto. Palm Canyon is 18 miles south of Quartzsite into the KOFA mountains, just a 1/2 mile hike but so impressive. The palms are 60 or 90 feet tall with trunks of 20ft in diameter. The photos of the palms don't do justice to how large they are. They are in one little steep draw inside the larger and have been protected in there for years to be able to grow so large and be so old. A fire did go through the main canyon and burns can be seen on palms nearest the opening (you can see the blackened trunk in the photos)...but they are still thriving.

This is the canyon you hike 1/2 mile into to see the palms










Telephoto from my campsite


Looking west from my campsite to Dome Rock in the morning sun


Love the textures that are just everywhere you look


Love that morning sun


"One day son, this will all be yours"


The only bloom I've seen since I got here in October


My buddy the Gila Woodpecker who is now addicted to sugar water...I feel so bad...notice the yellow plastic flower is gone...he is so darned clever


The Loggerhead Shrike, or sometimes called the "Butcher Bird" as it impales its excess food on thorns or barbed-wire. Not such a good shot but he is a tough one to get. Seems to be checking out to see what has the woodpecker all excited about


Came right into my camp...had to shoot through the screen door so that's why it's a little fuzzy.


The sunsets and sunrises are forever magnificent

[BarbaraRose]

Very nice! Love the Palm Canyon pics. We saw something like that in Joshua Tree Nat'l Park. It seems so odd to find such lush vegetation hidden within so much barren rock landscaping. A true oasis!

[sharon]

I can never see to many pictures of the desert. Keep 'em comin'!!!

[Liz]

Wow, what a gorgeous place! I've got to come visit you there this winter! Love the unusual (to me) birds you are seeing. Beautiful photos capturing the light just right.

[kdmac]

Wow, what a gorgeous place! I've got to come visit you there this winter! Love the unusual (to me) birds you are seeing. Beautiful photos capturing the light just right.

Oh, yes, do come and visit, that would be splendorific!! It's a very relaxing place, so trememdous in scope that it is somehow embracing with it's quiet and solitude. I have chosen to be off completely alone for a bit of "sabattical", so to speak. Although I saw Snowball and her husband setting up the other day when I was on my way to the post office so look forward to a nice visit with them. Quartzsite is an odd, "off the 'normal' chart" little desert town which has a tolerance for every type of person, I enjoy being somewhere where people can just be themselves, so many have little to nothing, I wish I had tons of money and could just hand it out.

Sun finally came up and I see black cloudes and rain....lots of black clouds, probably lots of rain.

[asirimarco]

Beautiful photos - I love the desert it is my most favorite place. Just gives me a good feeling all over.

[Nasoosie]

Those gorgeous desert photos are most definitely changing my prejudiced picture of 'desert' climate and landscape-----how totally beautiful that place is. Quartzite will surely be on my list of places to visit, perhaps as soon as next winter, when my friend from home expects to be retired and can travel with me. Your photos are prize-winners, Kath----I love them.

How do you deal with water, sewer, and that mundane stuff? I know you probably already told about these things, but I wasn't as interested in 'desert' camping back then, as I am now. Keep the photos coming!

[Acadianmom]

Beautiful pictures. I have pictures of me in the desert when I was about 3 so don't remember it. One of these years I am going to make it out there. Hope you get to meet Snowball(Sheila) and her DH. He's an artist too.

Martha

[JoanE]

You always have wonderful photos and these are beautiful. Looking forward to my visit out there too.

[longdog2]

Fantastic photos as always. You get such good perspectives and then always have just the right caption for them.

[Rufflesgurl]

Thanks for sharing your great photos. Lots of groups will be converging on Quartzsite in January. Tentative plans to join them. Glad to hear you are loving it.

Linda

[BirdbyBird]

Thank you for posting and sharing...... I will make it out to Sharon's Wonderland eventually...... She does so love her desert!

[kdmac]

Those gorgeous desert photos are most definitely changing my prejudiced picture of 'desert' climate and landscape-----how totally beautiful that place is. Quartzite will surely be on my list of places to visit, perhaps as soon as next winter, when my friend from home expects to be retired and can travel with me. Your photos are prize-winners, Kath----I love them.

How do you deal with water, sewer, and that mundane stuff? I know you probably already told about these things, but I wasn't as interested in 'desert' camping back then, as I am now. Keep the photos coming!

Since Quartzsite is the mecca for the "Snowbirds" there are several well organized businesses in town that provide potable water, propane and dumps, generator repair, RV parts and repair, mega-sized laundry facilities, just everything you would need. Since there are literally thousands of places to dry-camp for 14 day limits in the hundreds of square miles around Q those services are a Godsend. Now, lots of us, like Snowball and myself have paid a one-time fee of $180 to use the Long Term Visitor Centers (LTVA) from September to April. The LTVA's provide a fresh water, garbage bins, and dump stations. So you can haul your trailer to these and use them OR, you can do what I do and that is bring the water back to camp and transfer it into my trailer via a hose set up I devised..works great. My black tank is emptied by the "honey-bucket" truck that will come to your sight and pump your tank for $25. When I first arrived in October I learned there is no fresh water delivery like in years past. I thought I would want that but my own way works fine and doesn't cost me anything. So, each month your costs are just gas for genertor and vehicle and groceries, and the pump truck, which only needs to come once a month for one person.
Some people are really set up very well with huge water tanks with pumps, solar panels to lessen or even alleviate the need for gas generators, large auxillary proplane tanks. I am set up so much more humbly ...cuz I is just a girl.

[longdog2]

JUST a girl--oh, come now! Girls rule.

[BirdbyBird]

But we do have the sense to know that we don't HAVE to do everything...just in order to impress ourselves with our greatness.