Day 2 in the Yuma Desert

Wednesday was another perfect day to be driving around in the sandy Lechuguilla Desert of the Barry Goldwater Range near Yuma. We have found over 300 caches in the two days and come across some very interesting geocaches.

mountains in the Barry Goldwater Range

cache called the Missile Tree

somebody was digging for something

I saw lots of quartz

Unknown Person's Grave

Olga Smith writes about this area in her book

Gold on the Desert

Ocotillo are very green right now

remains of Smith's winter cabin

"GOLD MINING HISTORY: This honest account of a genuine experience, Gold On The Desert revises the usual concept of deserts and their inhabitants. In the formidable Lechuguilla Desert of southwestern Arizona, Olga Wright Smith established a home under a huge boulder while her 'men folk' prospected and mined. An Iowa schoolteacher, the author faced the absence of towns, neighbors, modern conveniences and water. And the presence of rattlesnakes, armed smugglers, sandstorms, and heat that burst the thermometer. Her sanity almost snapped from loneliness and fear until she found the desert companionably peopled with wild things; quail, orioles and hummingbirds, foxes and mountain sheep, water-frantic honeybees, exotic flowers. Comic characters too - insatiably curious lizards, the dancing mice, a cat in need of asbestos boots, and a burro named McGinty who signalled with his ears. Mrs. Smith penetrated the bashful hermit world of the desert prospector. She learned that he licks a mineral specimen before showing it, and trades water hole data, magazines and flapjack recipes with his friends. Hardened by sun, wind and self-reliance, Olga Smith achieved the status of enthusiastic "rock-hound" and master of the delicate art of goldpanning. She made daily notes of her adventures as the first modern woman ever to observe a full year's cycle on the Lechuguilla Desert, including the crucible of summer when wood becomes so dehydrated that nails fall out. With her engineer husband - the young Cap Smith - of the book - the author went to Arizona prepared for the worst and found it. Desert Settlers & Gold Prospectors" ~ Amazon synopsis of Gold on the Desert

leaning saguaro

area of tanks

looks like a man operating it

looks like, no so

variety of tanks, total of five

resting in the desert