Yuma Tour
Kofa NWR
While the Imperial NWR lines the river and exists primarily due to the water, Kofa has almost none but contains nearly twenty six times the land. It contains two rugged mountain ranges and is an important habitat for bighorn sheep.
Imperial NWR
I’ve never enjoyed a trip to the desert as much as the three days in the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge. Perhaps it was the biking that slowed us down, but by the time we’d reached the refuge, we had already passed through three other distinct ecosystems and had started seeing.
Yuma, Arizona!
Five days out of San Diego found us rolling across the Colorado and into Arizona.
The Imperial Valley
Chances are if you are eating lettuce in January, it comes for the pesticide-laden land of the Imperial Valley. A hotbed of immigration trouble, poverty-ridden, and with one of the highest rates of endangered and threatened-species in the country, it’s not a place that ranks high on a tourist’s must-see list of America.
Agua Caliente and the Anza-Borrego
State Road 2 runs north-south for 52 miles following an old stage route. It’s marked as the Southern Emigrant Trail of 1849 which was a clever marketing scheme of some of the local Chamber of Commerce men.
At exactly half-way, the geothermal springs of Agua Caliente lie in a fissure along the edge of the mountains beckoning to the weary cyclist to stop for a soak.
Desert Oracles and Road Signs
With nearly nothing but extreme heat and cold to occupy their time, a few of the locals have an abundance of humor.
Ah, Sunny So-Cal!
According to the volunteer rangers that took pity on us and rented us a cabin with firewood at Paso Picacho, Vic and I managed to bike into the worst snow storm since 1991.
Poolside in San Diego
We’re off to see the desert on our bikes, but have been enjoying some very California time.
Mojave by Bike?
With my new olive-based shaving cream, milky face cleanser and some a shampoo that came with a shower cap which reads “Vixen Hot Mama Bella Donna Goddess Botticelli Muse” and would make an excellent saddle cover, I am off for a seven day ride and nearly two week trip across the blasted deserts of Southern California.