Enid on Painted Desert Trail, Imperial Wildlife Refuge
Since the forecast for the rest of the week isn’t very good, we decided to go today to the Imperial Wildlife Refuge on the Colorado River north of Yuma. It was a really lovely day, sunny, light breeze, and a very comfortable temperature. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife though, just a few birds (and one racoon) on some of the small backwater lakes and marshes which come off the river.
We hiked around the Painted Desert trail, an easy walk of about 2 kilometers, though it took us quite a while to walk it as I took the video camera with me. Halfway around we ate lunch just above a wash which had a few green barked paloverde trees and some mesquite.
The road gradually got poorer as we travelled farther north, and we turned around at the last viewpoint, Smoketree point. Here you can see the actual Colorado, and across to California.
Lettuce fields at Yuma
On the way back to Yuma we stopped at a farm produce stand, and bought some fresh vegetables. Across the road were large fields of many different kinds of lettuce, in a variety of shades of greens and red.
Finally we stopped at “Martha’s Garden Date Farm” where Enid bought a “small” date shake. More like a blizzard than a shake, it was also large enough that she hasn’t finished it yet, and it’s stored in the freezer.