Tumco Ghost Town – Glamis Sand Dunes

 

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Sometimes I have a few little blogs as backups.  These usually aren’t current blogs about where we’ve gone or what we’ve seen.  They are about thoughts I’ve had or things I want to know from others.  That was the one I posted prior to this.  Eventually, I’ll respond to some of the responses about the perfect park but right now I really need to get caught up and caught current or I’ll forget where we were and what we did.  

Morning after evidence of rain

It doesn’t rain a lot in Arizona and especially in the desert portions of that state.  Most of the part of Arizona we stay in during the winter is obviously the desert.  Well, we got rain.  We really saw rain the other day.  I take that back.  We heard rain hit the top of the motorhome through a good portion of the night.  The picture shows the true evidence of that rain.  We had puddles and we had mud.  Now that we’ve had it, we’re ready for everything to dry up and the mud to go away.  The mud hasn’t totally disappeared yet.  We noticed that as we rode out in the desert on our ATVs.  Mud was slinging everywhere.  I like it.  Terry hates it.  I think that’s because he has to clean the ATVs when we’re done.

Cactus Wren

Friday rolled around and we took a drive with Freddy and Delcie.  We had some ideas of where we might go but weren’t totally sure where we would end up or what we would see.  First of all we took I-8 to Ogilby Road.  A lot of RVs were still parked on each side of the road just off the highway.  This is another BLM and these RVs were taking advantage of a place to park and spend a little sunshine time in the gorgeous deserts of California.

As we moved north on S-34 we also noticed that even though the calendar indicated it was just February spring really was here.  Several plants were already blooming and the color just added to the beauty and mystique of the desert.    Finding the perfect ones to take a picture of was a little difficult.  There were many just beginning to bloom and others with lots of yellow or red or purple flowers on them.  We did stop and take a few pictures.  After all, that’s what we like to do.

A few miles up the road we came to Gold Rock RV Park.  We had hoped to stop there and get information from the office on some of the local mines in the area.  That wasn’t to be as the manager was out of the office.  However, one of the residents directed us just across the road to the Tumco abandoned mines and ghost town.  

Freddy's treasure -- motorhome wheel cover

Delcie checking the blooms

Actually, this area is a ghost town. It’s not that we saw any ghosts.  Heck, we hardly saw any town at Tumco (previously known as Hedges).  The informational pamphlets were out but we did go under the barrier and saw a little of the remnants of that mining town.  There really weren’t many remnants left though.  What appeared to be rocks marking a few sites on a cemetery, a well and some pads that once belonged to buildings was all that was left.  This might have been a hopping town a few years ago but on this day there wasn’t much left.  Obviously, the lure of wealth by mining the area is no longer a pull.  We didn’t stay long.  There was no gold for us to keep and no ghosts for us to talk to.

Old Tumco well

Back out on the road we kept heading north towards Highway 78.  We were heading towards Glamis.  Is this town really the Sand Dune Capital of North America or is it self-proclaimed?  Who knows but it was one fantastic place.  We didn’t realize it was a holiday weekend.  What we did realize is that hundreds and of other RVs hauling trailers were going to the same place we were.  This place really comes alive on the weekends, let alone on holiday weekends.  We also followed a convoy of army vehicles.  They weren’t heading to Glamis.  They were heading to fenced off military bombing targets just around the bend from Glamis.   That’s one area you better be sure your GPS isn’t giving you false directions as you certainly wouldn’t want to be in the middle of the target.

 

The sand dunes that surround Glamis are nothing short of awesome.  ATVs, UTVs, dune buggies and many other kinds of 4-wheelers were on the slopes.  Now normally when you’re talking about slopes I’m thinking about snow covered slopes.  These aren't snow slopes, these are sand slopes.  It’s such an awesome sight to see.  These dunes stretch for about 40 miles and are close to six miles wide.  

Riding the dunes

The camping area was starting to fill up.  Tents were up selling all kinds of flags and equipment.  People were getting ready to ride and others were zipping everywhere as fast as they could.  I wonder how many accidents occur in places like this over the holiday weekends since the sand roadways aren’t defined and they certainly aren’t one-way roads. 

‘Tis life on the road.