How do you spell fun in the desert?

We wrangle up our friends and family and head out to the desert to have breakfast, look for geodes and explore a ghost town! Our friend Fred is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to just about anything having to do with science. We've been to more than one church function where he entertained my children from beginning to end, answering all of their questions and teaching them all sorts of things that make him any homeschool mom's dream! (When you add to that the fact that he owns a few horses, I'm fairly certain that ALL my kids would pack up and move in with him if asked!)

Ben leading all the little kids up a little mountain. (I admit, it's probably more of a big hill, but it is enough to make any mama queasy. That qualifies it as a little mountain.) ;)

Ben, Amelia and Noah just enjoying the view and some freedom

Fred helping Abby and Michelle to understand all the different tests that you can do to determine what substance makes up the different rocks.

The girls practicing what they've learned.

Ben enjoying life as a homeschooled "child". :)

Caleb and an Ocotillo plant

After we explored this area and enjoyed a tasty breakfast of muffins, links, yogurt and locally grown oranges (which I have to say are the BEST!!!), we moved on to see what else we could find. Fred led an expedition through the desert, walking the kids through a "mini grand canyon" and ending up in an abandoned mining town, Tumco. There are only a few remaining fragments of structures. In it's prime, Tumco was a typical mining town, complete with a hospital, school, stores, a saloon, cemetery... all the amenities one could hope for except for one very important one... AIR CONDITIONING! I cannot even begin to imagine what it was like to live here without air conditioning.

This is the basement of what was the saloon.

A cyanide vat that was used to separate the gold from the ore.

The desert area around Tumco. The Ocotillo plant (see Caleb's picture) was used for its strength to help build the structures that were originally used in the mining town. Although the plant can widely be found around Yuma and even a mile or two away where we had our breakfast, there are very few remaining plants around the mining town. If you look carefully, you can see a few wispy ones growing on the mountain in the distance. It amazes me how long it takes for the desert ecology to work it's way back. It is certainly deserving of our respect.

Searching for Geodes

Oh, did I forget to mention that during the airshow I left early to pick up one very special guest? My Dad decided that he wanted to come out and get lots of grandkid time when they were all in one place. We were very happy to see him, though he probably would have preferred to adjust to the heat before we ripped him out of bed first thing in the morning and dragged him out to hike the desert. Much like the rest of the trip, he was a good sport.

We enjoyed a particularly rainy "winter" this year, so the desert blooms were all around. I'll leave you with a few samples of the pretty flowers that we found blooming.

A true testament of this plants desire to survive... the root system can be seen above the dry rocks it's growing on.

This pretty purple flower reminded me of my Grandma. :)

A prickly pear in full bloom. Leaves of this cactus can be found for sale in our Walmart produce section. The funny thing is that IF you can find an eggplant to buy, the cashiers won't know what it is... but this cactus, they know! I had it in a salsa one day and I admit, it was pretty tasty!