Salton Sea in California

I didn't get to post Friday because we were on the road for seven hours. It wasn't suppose to be any more than a four hour drive but while Joyce was driving, I was checking the reviews of the campground and it was listed as a dump.
So we tried another campground but they had no vacant sites for dog owners. So onward we pressed until we were at our Saturday destination of the Salton Sea.
We are staying at the Bashford Hot Mineral Spa campground. It has hot mineral spring tubs outside that were really nice after a long days ride. The pool is also heated, and has a spa next to it.

We got an early start exploring the area and drove down to the Salton Sea which is about three miles away. The problem is there are only certain areas where you can get close to the water.

Found an area where we could park.

Looks more like the ocean

Those are the Santa Rosa Mountains on the other side. We continued our ride for a little while and came upon some nice state campgrounds where we could dry camp on the beach for $5. Guess where we are going tomorrow? From the Salton Sea, we turned and headed in the other direction towards the town of Niland. We were told of the place called Slab City. This was an old military base that was abandond after WWII then taken over by Snowbirds and such. We were told that Patton train his troups here but I was not able to confirm this. The land is desert like so I can believe it.
After passing by the guard shack above, we stopped at Salvation Mountain

This was all constructed by one man. His name is Leonard Knight and he is 77 years old. Leonard has been here many years working on his art.

Leonard's Truck

Leonard's Tractor
Leonard's Mountain
More of Leonard's work.
Inside one of the structures which are made from straw bales and adobe clay.

Leonard
Us at the top of the mountain
Joyce with Leonard. He gave her a DVD of his work.

The Mountain

Follow the Yellow Brick Road!

Video of inside of one of the buildings

After viewing all of Leonards work, we continued on to Slab City. We did see some unusual sights like this car. Here's another

Same truck

Then we continued on to a place where we could see some mud pots. These are areas where the the water from the Salton Sea has dried up. No one knows how old the mud pots are. There were about ten of them of various sizes. Here, Joyce looks inside one of the mud pots only to have it burb mud on her pants.

Mud Pots

On our way back to the campground, we passed what looked like an old abandond mud bath. It must have been a grand place in it's day. Below are the outside bath areas.
As you can see from the ground, the mud and water contain a lok of minerals.
This is whats left of one portion of the original building. I was not able to find any history on this place.

Last Day in Benson

Today was our last day in Benson and we had a few things to do. Mac desperately needed a bath and a haircut, Joyce wanted to go horseback riding, and Mac's bed needed to be washed.

So at 10:00 am, we took Mac to the groomers and dropped him off. From there we proceeded to the stables and dropped Joyce off and that left me to do the laundry, wow!!

This is the area where Joyce will be riding. Some cowboy movies were film in this area as well as the Lone Ranger TV series.

Note the sign, if you fall off the horse or get injured while riding, the stable is not liable per Arizona law.

Joyce just hopped on Scout.

A cloud of dust and a hearty Hi Ho Silver Away!!!!!

Cochise Stronghold

Coronado National Forest is about a forty minute ride from us, and it's suppose to be where Cochise died. So off we went on a new adventure.

On our way we passed this small farm that was selling eggs for $3.50 a dozen, but he also had some other interesting signs so I had to back up for a few pic's. The problem is they came out a little dark but you should be able to read them by clicking on them. Seems that he was also running a rattlesnake ranch.

Rattlesnake Ranch

We then came upon the Old Ghost Town of Pearce, the picture below is off the one room jail house.

This building was just named "The Old Store"
The old town Post Office

This was the old General Store. The front of the store is constructed from metal castings, while the sides are adobe brick. It wasn't open so all we could do was look in the windows.

This was an old piece of mining equipment that located by the store.

Just outside of town was the the town cemetery, note the holes in the rock.

Joyce wasn't very fond of the signs on the fence surrounding the cemetery.

Some famous people are buried here, and the small sign tells about the rock with the holes in it.

No name on this grave, just a cross and it was laying on the ground so I put it back in place. After I took this picture, a strong breeze came along and blew it down.....I left it where it was this time. "Rest In Piece"

Solders of the Confederate Army are also buried here.

From the cemetery, we went to the newer section of town for lunch. Not much to choose from but we both enjoyed our Tacos.

Back on the road again, we continued on to Coronado National Forest.

After about five miles of dusty washboard road, we arrived.

If it ain't rattle snakes, it's killer bees.

Some information posted along the walk we took. May be a little tough to read, sorry!

Joyce in deep thought!

A Plaque that honors the Chief

That was Cochise's strong hold behind us and that is only a small portion of the rocks that surrounded us.

I took this video but the contrast is very poor, I will have to check the camera settings.

We are now in Arizona

This is a Giant Road Runner that someone built from junk. It's located on the east side of interstate 10.
Another Border Patrol inspection stop but we were waved through on this one.

Crossing into Arizona

The two pictures below are of an area along I-10 that is called Texas Canyon. This area is a popular tourist stop along the highway. It's just a small area but has unusual boulder formations.

We have arrived at our campground in Benson, Az.. We have a great view of the mountains and at 4:00 pm it is 82 degrees with a nice breeze. With our Passport America discount, it's $17.00 a night with full hook up and cable TV. I love discounts!!!!!