We are still technically in the desert, but the Imperial Valley of Southern California is artificially irrigated by diverting the water from the Colorado River that makes up the border between California and Arizona.
They divert so much water that by the time the Colorado River reaches the Mexican border it resembles a creek more than a river. Most of the fresh fruit, vegetables and citrus consumed in the region is grown right here in the Imperial Valley.
We eventually made a turn to the east again and found ourselves traveling on Interstate 8. Oh, I'm sorry, "The 8", we are still in Southern California after all. At one point we were paralleling so close to the Mexican border our cell phones both started to ping off of a Mexican cell tower instead of the U.S. towers.
Soon we found ourselves traveling across an 8-mile wide and 40-mile long sand dune known as the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness. The very northern tip of the dunes (north of CA-78) are a protected wilderness area where no motorized vehicles are allowed.
That however is not the rule south of CA-78, where we crossed the dunes. It was very evident by all the businesses that were renting dune buggies and off-road motorcycles.
Located 3.9-miles north of "The 8" on Olgilby Road (Exit 159) is the turn off for American Girl Mine Road. The road leads 4½-miles up into the Cargo Muchacho Mountains where the original mine was located.
But we are here for the FREE camping that is located along the first 2-miles of American Girl Mine Road. On both sides of the road you'll find several hundred yards of flat desert terrain where most of the campers tend to setup.
We found a suitable spot about 1¾-miles down the road and about 100-yards off the roadway.
As you can see our nearest neighbor is well over 100-yards away.
By the end of Day 2 with nothing fun to do, Tricia had talked me into letting her trim my beard. Now all the birds in this area have plenty of material to build their nests, if they just check the ground all around our trailer.
Seeing as how we were only here for two days, and there really isn't much to do in the sightseeing department, we decided to not even unhitch THE POD from ROVER while we stayed here.
Part of that decision was based on the fact we only have a quarter tank of gas left, not that we can't drive the 7-miles back to the Interstate and purchase gas at the next exit east of here. The problem is we are still in California and the lowest price gasoline in the nearest town is $4.09 a gallon.
Tomorrow our planned route has us drivng across the border into Yuma, AZ where you can purchase gas for $3.19 just about everywhere. I think we'll just wait until tommorow to purchase our 30-gallons of gas in Arizona!
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