I believe we made it to Quartzite!
RV-ers can camp anywhere on BLM land near Quartzite with a permit.
Sunny 73
We arose early and drove to Quartzite. The trip was uneventful and even though we could not see the vistas in the dark, we knew from experience that we would see the same landscape when it got light; desert, cacti, rocks, and craggy hills. We know when we are approaching Quartzite from the east that when we top that last hill we will see a landscape littered with white RVs, both out in the desert and in town.
We jumped off the freeway and ventured to the access road on the south side of the freeway, where we knew the Desert Gardens Show resides. This was the last official weekend for this show, but many vendors hang out after the show officially ends. There are loads of uncut rocks and minerals, slabs, and jewelry, as well as some other weird things for sale. You would think from the name of the show, that this is held in a lovely desert garden in bloom with cacti and desert flowers. Well sports fans, it is actually just a bunch of RVs and tents parked in a huge, windy, dusty parking lot. Nothing “gardeny” about this. ( I think I just made up a word)
We pretty much had the show to ourselves.
The Garden’s show is primarily a tailgate, with many vendors displaying their wares next to their RVs. Much of the stuff we saw was a bit picked over, but we scored a slab of quality Tiffany Stone, some Peacock Obsidian, and a Kokopelli metal garden ornament for our daughter’s garden back in Tucson.
This was an amazing deer made from junk. Notice Kokopelli between the rear legs .
The most exceptional find of the day were three slabs of Dinosaur Bone, the quality of which I have not seen since the 70’s. I mentioned this to the guy selling it, and he just smiled and said that this stuff came from a major collection someone had purchased in the early 70’s. Bonnie recalls a story about the sale she read some time back. We are still researching where this D-Bone came from. I spent mucho donaro on this stuff, but I am a sucker for high quality.
The picture does not do this stuff justice.
After roaming around at the Gardens we drove back across the freeway and went to T-Rock, owned by some people we know that live in Calumet in the U.P. in the summer. I bought some Star Jasper and Chevron Amethyst.
We're not in Michigan anymore.
We are spending the night in Blythe, California. Bonnie adds facetiously “The Beautiful”. Basically Blythe is a street that runs from one end of town to the other and everything Blythe has to offer is on this one street. The natives fondly refer to this town as “Blight”.
Bonnie checks out some Chrysocolla.
Quartzite is also a big flea market.
Tables piled high with rocks for sale at Quartzite.
We’re headed back to Tucson tomorrow and will be resting up for the shows starting Saturday.