OMG!!! Where do I get these ideas as my truck carrying my nest (slide-in camper in its bed) gingerly crawls up the rough steep incline of a dirt road, that most people wouldn’t call a road, to what I call Cibola Heights?  Something on the dark side of my brain says, you’ve been here and done this before.  The damn road looks like a 45-degree angle from left to right side - I’m not doing it!  The dark side says, where are you going to turn around?  I look around, there’s no place, there’s piles of rocks and other stuff on either side of the road.  The dark side says, do you want to back down that steep hill?  That’s a no brainer- NO!  I say, the first level spot is the end of the road for me and where I’ll park for the night.  At the top of the hill is a spot, a little larger than my truck, not flat, but if I use my “levelers” (18” long 4”x4” pieces of wood) it might work.  Well, I’ll need some ramps to get on the 4”x4”s.  I have two bricks, so I position the leveler contraption, and back on to it.  I check the bubbles that indicate when the nest is level on my stove to see if I’m flat.  Not bad, but the left rear tire’s contraption is listing badly.  The dark side says, it’s only for one night.  I say, it’ll wait til the middle of the night to give way, so that needs to be fixed.  I pull off the levelers, shore it up, and feel more comfortable; it’ll work for the night, the last night here!  Now, I’m perched high on a hill overlooking the Colorado River, Cibola Lake and the National WildLife Reserve (www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/CibolaNWR), and miles and miles of desert and mountains.
    It is gorgeous, but it’s the last time I’m doing (risking) this!  The sun indicates it’s about 4 or 5pm and it’s 87 degrees here in mid March; I need to get outside and enjoy.  I’ve put a C/D of Jefferson Starship on the laptop’s player drive to match the craziness and view.  Wildlife is not needed, Mother Nature has painted a geographic masterpiece!  In the morning I find, I’m still here.  No problem during the night.  I come out of my nest and look around. A big deer is coming up the dirt road, sees me and runs. I think of a photo of it, but I see something really big off to the south.  I walk that way for a while and determine they are free range cattle, so no interest, but I take a couple photos of the scene.
    I know the drive down this incline will be much worse than coming up.  That’s the way it was the last time I was to Toro Weap, a remote overlook of the Grand Canyon on the north rim.  I survey the road and make a plan.  I can see two iffy bad spots and the whole downhill is so steep, but it’s the only way out. Yea, I won’t be here again.  Predicaments like this are no fun!  I walk down to the first bad spot and throw a bunch of big double football size rocks off the road (how did I get over them last night?), and go back to the truck to give the descent a go.  I ease through the first gully, then encounter another that’s not so easy.  The hill is so steep I can’t see the road in front of me, because the hood of the truck blocks my view.  The wheel base won’t fit to either side and the truck can’t straddle it.  How did I go up it?  I decide to stay on the high spots as much as I can and drive gently.  It worked!  I stop at the overlook and take a couple quick photos.  The jostling of going down that steep incline took its toll on me.  I won’t do it again.
    Now, I’m on level road and headed for the marsh.  There I see a large deer in the grain field beside the marsh.  It would be a hunter’s trophy with that rack!  I walk quickly trying to get the Palo Verde Mountains’ highest peak behind it.  The deer sees me and like lots of deer, it stares.  No wonder they get shot, but before I can get the composition I want, it starts running through the grain field where it was having breakfast.  I’ll take a nice walk towards the marsh and see what I can see, then I’ll be off to picturesque Kelso Dunes (www.nps.gov/moja) about a 100 miles south of Las Vegas and 3-4 hours from here.  It’ll be the farthest point west for me.
    On the way I saw gas for $4/gallon, that and the rest of Arnoldland (California), I don’t need.  I drove east on Rt. US 10 at Blythe and bought my gas in Arizona where it was 80 cents less/gallon.  Kelso Dunes are by far the largest piles of sand I’ve ever seen, right on my way to Vegas, so a good overnight spot.  Sunset didn’t color much and the following sunrise was a little lamer than other visits, but still this is one of Mother Nature’s gems.  I’d made sure I had plenty of gas to spare before I left the last station far behind.  I coasted down the mountain without hardly touching the gas pedal to get to the first gas station off US Rt. 15 at Primm a couple years ago and made it on fumes.  I don’t need that again, either.
    On the downslide and lovin’ it.  Ask me about a free photo.
 
Bob R  o.c.FotoGuy
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