13-14 March, Oatman Site trip

Pat and I drove out to the Wild Desert today.  We're North East of Sentinal, AZ. We sat here for almost 24 hours before the first vehicle went by on the road. We're about a hundred yards of the dirt road, found this nice level spot to spend the night.

The XT got pretty dirty, but it will clean up when we get back to Yuma

Lots of big Saguaro Cactus out here

We were hoping to see some wildlife but it was pretty quiet out here.  I left some chicken bones and skin in a pile about 50 feet from the RV before going to bed.  By morning, it was all slicked clean, so there must have been a visitor in the night.  We did hear a Coyote singing to the moon.

Marked this spot on the GPS, in case we ever want to come again.  A very secluded place to spend the night, with good riding close by.

Sunset.  Still 90 degrees outside, but will cool off soon.

I went for a short evening ride.  And yes, I do have clothes on. Slowed to take a picture of the cactus along the trail, and ended up in the mirror.

8:35 AM. Lanny arrives, 5 minutes late! :-)

This old rock house is located on the Oatman Ranch.  We rode several miles on gravel, now into more dirt and silt of the Gila River Valley

Several of these hay stacks.  Was glad to see them, because they were one of the land marks we were looking for.

We did have directions from the internet, and "work of mouth", but nothing was totally correct.  We made a few wrong turns, but that was part of the fun.  A big puzzle

Hot, and shade is scarce.  We pulled in here to get a drink of water and check the directions again

Eureka! We found the Memorial grave site.  The bodies had been moved years ago from the Massacre Site.  This marker was put up in 1954.

There are no road signs or marked directions to get here.  Just a combination of bits and pieces.  So, it's pretty special to find it.  I'm glad we had to work hard to get here.

Although you have a lot of dirt, gravel, and dusty roads, you could get this far in a high clearance vehicle, a 4x4  truck would make it easily.  But, from here to the actual Massacre Site, it gets a little rough.

A few bucks in change, and some  Amulets on the grave stones.

The narrow upright marker on the left end was the original one, but it's unreadable. 

This bluff, zoomed 18 times from the grave site, is about a half mile away.  This is where they were headed, and they did make it to the top before being attacked.

Another Amulet

We found a trail that goes down into a ravine, Then sharply up the side of the Bluff.  It's much steeper than the picture shows it. Lanny volunteered to give it a try on his bike. 

He got part way up the hill on the other side before getting bogged down in loose dirt and brush.  He's getting turned around, which was quite a job.

Some on, some off the bike.  It's steep and loose. Because of the terrain, he couldn't get enough speed up to blast up the hill

Lanny is an excellent rider, and had the perfect bike or this kind of riding, but it was just too rough...steep, rocks, sand, loose dirt, and brush to be able to make it.  This is one of the easier parts

Don't know who's riding who trying to get up this hill

After giving up on the foot trail,  we tried several other ways to get to the top of the Mesa. This picture was taken several miles from the gravesite.  We found six piles of rocks, which I had seen a picture of on the internet. This is on the old Santa Fe Trail, and it's where someone told me the Massacre Site is.  Lanny is playing "Massacre"

We hung out and took a lot of pictures, then decided to go on as far as we could.  Had already been up some pretty rough trails to get here, where the road was good.

Bingo!  It's good we kept going, THIS is the actual site!

The Oatman's were Mormans, and had been traveling with a group, before the family set off on their own.  This was as far as they got.

Looking back from the top of the Mesa

Pretty rough road.  This is the exact path the wagons came up.  It's about a 30% grade, with a lot of rocks and loose sand

Those marks were made in 1854, by wagons being drug over the rocks.  Pretty tough duty!

A few feet down the trail, looking up to the Massacre Site

The way we came, it's about 140 miles from Yuma.

There are some HUGE cactus out here

A very Green Spring here in the Desert.  It was in the 90's, very pleasant riding temperature

We passed hundreds of very healthy Saguaros.  They are plump, full of water after a wet Winter

Only another hundred years or so, and this one will have arms too.

Looks level, but it's not.  Pretty steep hill, the kind that's hard to navigate with one eye and no depth perception.  I just hope for the best and blast on down. 

Lanny picking his way through the rocks

Back to another farm, we scared up this flock of egrets.  They were hanging out by an irrigation canal looking for a fish

This hill raises up around 1200 feet elevation.  We were headed to the top, but the US Army didn't want us up there.

Egrets before they flew

These next 12 or so pics are from Lanny's camera.

The Rendezvous on Rocky Point Road.  Getting ready for a good day of off road riding 

The Oatman Family Memorial and Grave Site

Sherm is happy to be here!

After a LOt of riding, and several wrong turns, we THINK we've found the Massacre site

Ripping off down the Santa Fe Trail!

We got pretty excited when we found the right place!  This was out goal, but it wasn't easy to get here!

Two Bikes.  Big Cactus

Contemplating what the Oatman's went through, just to come to a miserable ending of their lives.  Except or Olive, and one sister and one brother.  

The US Army Electronic Proving Ground is at the top of this hill.  Would have been nice to get up to the top, but we didn't feel like getting shot at today.

Trying to find our way back to the Rendezvous place where Pat has food ready 

We part ways at 2 PM, Lanny headed back to Sun City West, Pat and I back to Yuma.  We made it home, unloaded the Minnie, then went out for some Mexican Hot Dogs on West 8th Street

It was 90 some in our little Case when we got home.  Left the A/C going full blast and headed down here for the good chow with our neighbor Marlys

Scratch and Sniff.  Our park is filled with the scent of Orange Blossoms.  Some of the people (KT is one) get all stuffed up with the pollen and odor, but I LOVE it!  The best perfume in the world is Orange Blossoms

This lady is cooking out bacon wrapped hot dogs, and loading them with Mayo, onions, tomatoes, peppers, catsup and mustard. Served with some roasted jalapenos. We also had some crisp french fired smothered with melted cheese. 

What's left of the bacon Wrapped hotdog.  There are a dozen or more of these outside food cafe's within a mile of our house here in Yuma. Most don't open until dark, lost of the field workers eat late dinners.  This has been a wonderful 2 days!