Yuma: sand dunes, but where's the ocean?

Yuma Sand Dunes from the freeway

Yuma is famous for its hot summer temperatures and its mild winter climate that attractions tens of thousands of snowbirds annually. It also is famous as the home to one of the world’s largest inland sand masses.

Though the sand dunes are located in California, about 20 miles west of Yuma, they’re still named after America’s hottest summer city. Motorists on Interstate 8 drive through miles of the dunes on their way to San Diego. There’s a rest area between the east and west bound lanes of the freeway, but there is no dunes access. The dunes, along the eastern edge of the Imperial Valley, run for more than 40 miles.

The dunes are a national recreation area managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). They’re very popular with off-road enthusiasts. More than 80,000 acres are open to off-road motorized vehicles in the dunes, mainly starting at Highway 78 and running south to the freeway.  Motorized vehicles are not allowed in the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness, which is accessible only on foot or horseback. Vehicle camping is allowed in all areas open to vehicles, though some spots are available on a first-come basis.

The Yuma Sand Dunes are popular with movie-makers who shot films here as early as 1913. Films made here include Star Wars, Scorpion King and Jarhead.

 

 

Yuma's Lutes Casino boasts eclectic interior

Interior of Lutes Casino

Lutes Casino in Old Town Yuma is an interesting place to wile away a few hours if you’re interested in old posters and other memorabilia. The interior is crammed floor to ceiling with pictures and posters; some items hang from the ceiling. It is, as their website, describes the place, “interesting junk.”

Items on the wall include an autographed photograph of actor Walter Brennan, pool players and nude bikers; well, they weren't really nude --they were wearing shoes and socks.



The casino isn’t a casino in the normal use of the word, in that it doesn’t have poker tables or slot machines, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t at some time in its long history. It does have a couple of pool tables and lays claim to being the oldest pool hall in Arizona. Lutes also lays claim to being the oldest domino hall in the state, with tables at the front where patrons can play this board game.



The building it occupies was constructed in 1901 when it was used as a general store on the ground floor and a hotel on the second floor. Around 1920 the building was turned into the Casino Billiard Parlor. Ownership changed a few times over the next fdew decades, with it being acquired by the Lute family in the 1940s with the previous owner using it to settle a gambling debt.

Lutes has a bar and restaurant that serves hamburgers, hot dogs, a few other sandwiches and salads, and some quesadillas and tacos. Their “especial,” as the menu calls it, is a cheeseburger and wiener combo drenched in hot sauce.

Jazz lovers take note: Lutes sponsors a series of Friday night jazz concerts two Friday a month during the summer. Performances by local musicians are popular; seating  is limited.

Lutes is located at 224 Main Street.



Old locomotive marks Yuma Crossing

Interpretive sign at Pivot Point

Pivot Point is a nice place to relax while learning a bit about the history of Yuma. Located near Old Town Yuma along the Colorado River, the spot commemorates the spot where the first train crossed into Arizona in 1877.

A huge old Southern Pacific locomotive, a 1907 Baldwin, stands on the spot today. A public address system recreates sounds that train engineers and passengers might have heard after crossing. These sounds include the train’s arrival, a passing steamboat and the bridge over the river being cranked open.

Old locomotive at Pivot Point

Part of the original rail line is still on-site. That’s the concrete pivot that was turned to allow boats to pass. Pivot Point Plaza is part of the Yuma Crossing National Historic Landmark.  Nearby is the Yuma Territorial Prison (think “3:10 to Yuma”) and the Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge, the last link connecting the southwestern transportation system between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Pivot Point Interpretive Plaza, which sits above Gateway Park, is a colorful place to be at night between October 1 and May 31. That’s when the city park puts on a laser light show.  The show goes on hiatus during the summer months because of Yuma’s heat: the lasers need to be chilled to work properly.

Sanguinetti House: a cool piece of Yuma's history

Sanguinetti House Museum

The Sanguinetti House Museum is a good place to chill out on a hot day in Yuma, Arizona. Located in Old Town, this adobe house, built in the 1870s, has at least one modern convenience: an air conditioner. It also has a lush garden with plenty of shade in back.

E.F. Sanguinetti

The museum is named for its former owner, E.F. Sanguinetti, an early pioneer in Yuma who was a businessman, merchant, farmer and banker. He was considered one of Yuma’s most influential citizens of that era.

This Arizona Historical Society Museum traces the history of Yuma and the Lower Colorado River from the mid-16^th century one. Reproductions of old photographs, such as President Taft signing the Arizona statehood bill, line the walls of this compact house. Antique buffs will love the two small rooms crammed with dark, ornate period furniture and other furnishings. One of the museum’s most interesting features, however, just very well may be the 37-minute video that traces the history of Yuma. It is a fast-paced presentation crammed with loads of interesting facts about this important military and agricultural community in the very southwest corner of the state. I particularly enjoyed learning more about Yuma’s military history: that General George Patton trained his troops for warfare in North Africa near here, and that B26 bomber gunners learned how to shoot at the military base, now a Marine air station, by riding a Jeep that had a gun mounted to it around a track.

Sanguinetti House garden

The garden is at the rear of the house. It is filled with lush greenery not usually found in Yuma. Benches are tucked in among the greenery, giving visitors a place to sit and enjoy the peacefulness and privacy of the garden. The garden could have used a good weeding the day we were there, but it did not detract that much from the serenity of the place. At one time, the garden had an aviary, but now there are only empty cages.

The Sanguinetti House Museum is located at 240 Madison Street. It is closed Sundays and Mondays. There is a small admission fee.

 

 

Army honors trail-blazing Mormons at Yuma, Arizona

Yuma statue honors Mormon Battalion

A war between the United States and Mexico resulted in a southern wagon train route to the Pacific Ocean. This trail was blazed by more than 500 Mormons who enlisted in the Army in 1846. A statue commemorating this journey can be found at Yuma, Arizona’s West Wetlands Park on the Colorado River.

The Army solicited Mormons specifically for this trip members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints already were seeking new territory in the West to settle. The group became known as the Mormon Battalion. Besides establishing a southern route across the southwest, their mission was to secure California and New Mexico for the United States.

The Mormon Battalion began service on July 16, 1846, in Iowa. Some soldiers brought their wives and children on the trip, but not all ended their journey in California. Among the scouts for the trip was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the son of Sacajawea who served as guide and translator for the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Pacific Ocean in 1804-6. Charbonneau was only a few months old when he made the trip west with these explorers.

The battalion arrived in Yuma on January 9, 1847, where they camped along the Colorado River. The next day they crossed the Colorado at Los Algodones, Mexico, less than 10 miles from present-day Yuma. Their journey ended in San Diego, California, on January 29, 1847.

The wagon trail they established would be well used within just a couple of years, as 60,000 miners bound for the California gold fields traveled this route. Today’s Interstate 8 freeway parallels this route through Yuma.

Yuma's West Wetlands Park

Finding the monument can be tricky. The park is reached by heading west on Yuma’s First Street, then taking a right on 12^th Avenue.  It’s a ways from the most well-used sections of the park. Continue on the road through the park, past the solar energy project. There are no signs marking the statue honoring the Mormon Battalion, so be on the lookout for a pedestrian bridge on the right side of the road. The statue is visible through the underpass. Limited parking is available on the other side of the road.

Route 66: Dramamine required

Stunning highway views

Route 66 is not always like the comfortably paved highway celebrated in the classic television series of that name. At least one part is so hair-raising you need nerves of steel to drive it, and passengers may want to have plenty of motion sickness remedy handy.

The 22-mile section in question starts a few miles south of Kingman, Arizona, where Route 66 also is known as the Oatman Highway. The first few miles are pretty good compared to the rest of the journey, with mostly roller-coaster roads, but once you start the climb into the mountains, it’s a different story.

The road is narrow with steep grades and lots of hairpin turns. One driver estimated there were 122 turns, so you can imagine how twisty the final miles are. I didn’t keep count of the number of turns, but I would not dispute the other driver's figure. The drive is very nerve-wracking if you’re headed south toward Oatman because your vehicle will be in the outside lane which overlooks deep canyons and ravines. The shoulder isn’t very wide and there are no guard rails as we know them today. A few places had short curbs while wood posts connected by wire cable passed for guardrails in a couple of other places, but mostly there was nothing to keep vehicles from tumbling over the bank. Far better to drive this highway north out of Oatman where if you drive off the road, you’ll end up against a hill.

Oh, and the road isn’t very well maintained, so drive slowly, not that you could go very fast over it anyway. This would be a great road for motorcyclists, but not for RVs or large passenger cars. Route 66 – America’s highway – was built in the days when roads followed the contours of the land, bridges were only built over rivers and cars were a lot smaller.

The summit at Sitgreaves Pass

Whatever else it may be, this section of Route 66 is very scenic. You can literally see for miles and miles. There are occasional pull-offs to admire the view. The summit, at Sitgreaves Pass, is 3,550 feet high, then you start downhill, which is almost as scary, past a working gold mine, into Oatman. 

 

  

 

Downtown Oatman

Route 66 is Oatman’s main street, barely two lanes wide. Traffic slows to a crawl here because the street is frequently filled with tourists feeding wild burros.

The rest of the Oatman Highway, from Oatman to Topock, Arizona, where it joins Interstate 40, is boring in comparison, as it is mostly roller-coaster road, so you still might want to keep the Dramamine handy.

Getting used to life in Arizona

Life in Arizona is certainly a contrast from our life in Washington, and some of the changes take some getting used to.

For example, low-flying military jets. There's a Marine air base next to Yuma International Airport. While we haven't seen any commercial planes taking off or landing, we've seen plenty of low-flying military planes whooshing overhead at high speeds. The first time I encountered this, we were riding scooters back to the RV park. The planes went by so quickly and noisily, I almost crashed my scooter in surprise. While the RV park we're staying at doesn't seem to be in the planes' flight path, we do get a lot of low-flying helicopters, especially at night.

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Yuma gets a fair amount of winds, so much so that we rarely put the awning down on the trailer. There's a palm tree right next to our trailer, and I enjoy watching the branches blow in the breeze through the translucent vent over the bed. Song birds roost there during the morning, with their warbling providing a wonderful alarm. I do not, however, like the pigeons that hoot all around the clock. One of these days, I swear I'm gonna make us some pigeon pie!

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In Washington, we had signs warning of deer and elk on the road. In Arizona, they warn about wild cows and burros, neither of which we've seen (I don't count the “wild” burros of Oatman) on the road, though Jon did see a deer on the road the morning we took the freeway to Wellton, a town about 30 miles east of Yuma.

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I can't get used to the Border Patrol inspection stations a few miles out of Yuma: eastbound on Interstate 8 and northbound on U.S. 95. As gringos, we are automatically waved through, though one time an inspector stopped us long enough to ask if we were U.S. citizens. He quickly waved us through without asking for proof when Jon said we were. We have seen cars of Hispanics pulled over and being questioned. I wonder how many illegals they catch this way, since motorists can take back roads that bypass the inspection stations.

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Though I used to complain about having to cut the grass at our house, I really miss green grass. Here, most homes have graveled yards filled with cactus of various types and palm trees. By the way, a palm tree is no substitute for a stately Douglas fir. Give me one of our national forests any day!