Small Home – Big Yard

From San Diego it’s a beautiful drive along I-8, up from the coastal plain and into the National Forest near Alpine, CA.  From here the terrain turns rugged with arid mountains of huge boulders along both side of the highway and beautiful vistas to the south.  From sea level at San Diego, I-8 climbs to over 4000 feet in elevation before beginning a fairly rapid decent – arriving 51 feet below sea level at El Centro, CA.  This is the former Sea of Cortez valley which was once connected to the Salton Sea.  At El Centro the evidence of irrigation from the Colorado River becomes apparent as you are surrounded by agriculture – lettuce, figs, broccoli and other leafy vegetables.  These fields extend all the to the Salton Sea on the north and the Mexican border to the south.  Past El Centro the desert landscape returns until arriving to the lush green fields around Yuma.

Cocopah Bend RV & Golf Resort

We’re once again parked at Cocopah Bend RV & Golf Resort, site #547.  This isn’t a great site. Both sites behind us have permanent fencing which encourages leaving dogs outside (and barking) all day long.  We’re not sure we’ll be back to Cocopah – there appears to be very little in the way of upkeep happening in the park and obviously no rules about the amount of junk that can litter the sites. In some places, you can barely drive down the narrow lanes. On Sunday we explored some of the foothills RV parks.  As we found on our first visit to Yuma, The Palms is still one of the best, and most expensive! Right next door is Sun Vista, an older resort that has been very well kept.  And, with rates around $30/day on monthly, it’s a great value!

Sun Vista RV Resort, Yuma

Even with a shortened stay in Yuma this year, we spent an afternoon over the border at Los Algodones and checked out some of our favorite Yuma restaurants including a new brewery “Pint House” downtown on Main St.

One of the many farm products grown in Yuma is the delicious Medjool date.  Prices in grocery stores generally range from about $4-$8/pound. Buying “farm direct” at the Imperial Date Gardens just outside of Yuma, we picked up 11 lbs for $22!  Plus, we sampled wonderfully decadent chocolate covered dates with pecan filling…yum!

Medjool Date Farm

From Yuma we’re headed north along the Colorado river to the Lake Havasu area where we’ll spend one week at River Island State Park and another week at one of our favorite parks, The Islander.  More from Lake Havasu…