I woke up in the middle of the night. I was stunned at the silence. I didn’t hear anything – no cars, no planes or helicopters, no sirens. Absolute silence. It was just as quiet when I got out of bed at 7:30am yesterday morning.

The desert cooled considerably overnight. The outside temperature had dropped to the high 30s and it was 52 degrees in the coach when we got up. We broke the silence by running our generator to operate the heat pumps, coffeemaker and microwave.

I went out and walked toward our nearest neighbor, at least 200 yards away. I could barely hear our Onan Quiet Diesel generator as I approached his site. I don’t think the generator is bothersome.

Dispersed camping

Donna went for a hike while I watched a disappointing end to the Chargers season. When she returned, she told me she found a site with “improvements.” I didn’t understand what she meant, so I put on my hiking shoes and she led me to the site. There were a couple of motorhomes set up above a dry wash. I could see the ground around the coaches was different. This area of the desert is generally flat and mostly covered with small rocks and decomposed granite. These sites were mostly free of rocks and the ground had a much lighter color.

The occupant of one of the coaches greeted us and invited us to tour his site. It had been built several years ago by his friend, who has since passed away. His friend, Sonny, spent the last four years of his life here hauling in large rocks, raking and leveling the area and then hauling in sand from the wash. After Sonny passed, his ashes were scattered in the rock garden.

He made rock gardens, planted cactus and created rock steps down into the wash. The guy who comes here now with his wife (we never learned his name) has been coming to this site for the past eight years. He told us that a few years ago, a group of visitors tore up the rock garden and piled the heavy rocks in the center of the site. They strung beads and other things in the trees. It was senseless. He rebuilt Sonny’s garden as it was.

Walkway around the rock garden

Barrel cactus, water pan and bird feeders

Cacti and sandy surface

The garden also features bird feeders and hummingbird feeders. A hummingbird landed on a feeder just a few feet away from Donna as we were talking.

This area is public land, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM frowns on these types of “improvements.” They want the desert to remain in its natural state. I can understand this, but I have to admit the site was nice. With so much area of BLM land, I doubt if they would find or ever do anything about the rock garden.

Later in the afternoon, I heard a loud engine revving nearby. I went outside and saw an ultralight aircraft fly past our rig, no more than 100 feet above the ground. He flew over the hills to the east of us. Later, I heard him returning. He didn’t fly by as close to us this time, but I snapped a picture as he went by.

Ultralight aircraft flying by

He flew off to the southwest, heading for the sand dune area. Presumably, he’s camping there and takes his aircraft out to explore the desert.

We had a fiery sunset, then the desert quickly cooled again. This morning, I heard a train off in the distance, other than that I heard nothing but total silence. We’ll head out later this morning. I plan to make a couple of stops in Yuma for groceries and fuel. Then we’ll drive to Hidden Shores where we’ve booked a site for the next week.

Desert sunset