Silent Bliss; Tumco Revisited

Up the rocky inclined dirt road past Tumco Mine, we find a spot off to ourselves tucked against quartz striated rock mountains. Their barrenness is otherworldly as they passively protect our presence for our most recent three day camping trip. We’re in the silence of the desert wildness where just about the only thing we’ll hear for two days and nights is the wind and each other.

This area is public BLM land so open to camping for fourteen day stretches free of charge but this blustery windy day, a Friday afternoon after we’ve finished in Algodones, we find ourselves the only ones here. Quite a change from the groups gathered over Thanksgiving when we were last in the area.

We sleep in on Saturday, a guilty pleasure I never get to indulge in, but finally the cats, so long overdue on feeding time, get so insistent they won’t wait a moment longer for their breakfasts. We’re doing a trial run without using the generator and our standby coffeepot is a range-top percolator which takes quite awhile to come to a boil. Once we finish with our own breakfasts we set off to explore some of this early mining country on foot. The dirt roads fork out in all directions so we head deeper into the cut into the mountains, the left fork, riddled with excavations and shafts from gold mining.

The hiking is pleasant, gradually gaining elevation but petering out on a left fork we take at a cliff-hugging trail which ascends to an obvious mine. Marc is not in hiking shoes and the rocky climb gets a little too serious for his footwear so we turn back. Far off on the valley floor with the telephoto on my camera I can see the Imperial Sand Dunes light and shimmering.

After a hearty BLT on chibata sandwich for lunch, we decide to tackle more hiking; the back route into the Tumco Mine area, which we feel is the right road fork. On my previous visit I only scratched the surface of the contained area which is fenced off, and doesn’t allow vehicle passage. The rest of these roads are numbered for off-road use, although in our entire weekend we were only passed by two ATVers. 


By now, the clouds have passed and the wind has died somewhat so we enjoy warm enough hiking in sunshine until late in the afternoon when clouds once again bag up the sky. I am overjoyed to come across a much more substantial ruin than in my first visit but disappointed to see every lime plaster inch left intact on the brick walls covered in graffiti. Why do people feel the need to deface an antiquity in such a manner? Are the vast majority of us so brain dead that it escapes us that this is something that can never be brought back once defaced?

Following Marc along the northern edge skirting the mountains, we pass through a large section of tall tailings now eroded into mini-canyons, as we follow a snaking wash farther east. We come across some huge timbers—probably washed-out foundation struts for more settlement ponds up ahead. The power of storms and rushing water to send them here must be very substantial. No wonder they say to stay out of desert washes during rainstorms.

We finally make it to a very deep wash which halts our progress and before us also lies the deeply gouged hole which used to be just another mountain. It’s obvious this mining was done with equipment, not the pick and shovel of the early times. Our feet say we’ve come far enough for today although there is one last mini-hill I wish to climb and photograph ruins before heading back. It sits behind us though so is convenient for our route back. Here the ruins appear as something out of Beirut during war time, as we marvel just what this area must have been. The tabletop hill contains lots of foundations, pillars and obvious cement abutments which speak of some sort of major processing plant.

Evening finds us gathered around a fire pit conveniently built by some other camper but the ensuing cold and wind soon drives us inside for dinner. Marc has movies we watch on his computer so we settle in and watch one in our new King size bed with the cats, and drift off into a night filled with complete silence.


Sunday has a lazy start which gives Marc the chance to attempt using his metal detector in the wash. Visions of gold nuggets glisten in his thoughts but his equipment list is woefully lacking in sifting apparatus for the sand. Oh well, we intend to come back to this blissful spot and I’m sure he’ll be better prepared next time.

Volunteer Extraordinaire

Things have been slow for Marc lately so he stepped graciously to the plate when asked for help beyond the ordinary by Helping Hands. Every year in December and again in February, Helping Hands throws the mother of all yard sales—proceeds from which are their main source of funding. Helping Hands provides many services to seniors in the Foothills area, and does so without charge to the senior. I often volunteer as I have time, by doing medical transport, taking those who can no longer drive, into town for doctor’s appointments. I’ve even taken those with impaired eyesight grocery shopping on occasion. We obviously get no pay for this, or any fuel stipend either, but we do get the satisfaction of knowing that we make a huge difference in the lives of the elderly in our neighborhood.

The setup for the giant yard sale starts about nine days in advance of the sale date, with the first step being erection of all the chain link fencing surrounding the sale area, then transporting and set up of all manner of tables and clothing racks. Following this comes the unloading of many sea containers full of literally tons of donated goods. This gets transported to the site via small U Haul trucks and even the Marines help out. Marc spent the better part of three days engaged in this end of it before the unpacking even began.



Once unpacking begins, the ranks of volunteers swell (about 150 come out to get the job done in four days) as the categories of sale items to be unpacked and priced is mind-boggling. If you can think of it, it is probably somewhere in all that stuff and will be for sale! I had room in my schedule to donate one and a half days to unpacking and hanging woman’s clothing but Marc truly went above and beyond by not only devoting an entire week of full days, but he also hauled our little fifth wheel to the site, where he stayed all night playing night watchman as well.

Beyond the satisfaction of helping such a great organization, the biggest perk for the volunteers at the sale is the chance to “shop” daily (ahead of the public opening) for every day volunteered. The volunteers get the best of the bargains, the most unique, the newest, the most pristine of the merchandise and all at bargain basement pricing that is a hallmark of this giant sale. We scored on so many nice items, including an outdoor patio set consisting of a metal settee and two large rocking chairs for $36, several Griswold cast iron frying pans for $3/each and a Henckel knife set for $3 which retails for close to $150. Clothing is beyond belief, some of it brand new, running about 25/cents an item. And fun? Yeah, we’ve got lots of that as well!

The following pictures show the opening to the public, which begins bright and early on a Friday with the sale continuing Saturday. By Saturday pricing is knocked down to half, so even though the numbers are slightly less, both days draw huge crowds and at the end very little is left for volunteers to pack up. If you’re in the area and need something, be sure and come out and support such a wonderful organization. The next sale date is February 17th and 18th. Of course, if you want first dibs on merchandise, do your part, and volunteer!

Tumco Mine Ghost Town

On our last day and night over Thanksgiving, we happened upon a desert pebble shelf providing boondocking with other RVers. Sitting a short distance above, sat the 1890’s boomtown and mine of Hedges, later renamed Tumco. It is now a historic and protected site of the Pichaco Recreation Area but run by the BLM on the far eastern border of California just north of I-8. Stated to be one of the earliest gold mining towns in California there is very little that remains of the once-bustling town of over 500 which sported residences, a hospital, two cemeteries, and saloons.






Early in the morning’s best light it was an interesting walk-around. I took time to photograph mementoes of an earlier life and time in what was a very inhospitable area. The miners worked for between $2-3.50 a day but since the homes they built sat on company land, they owed a monthly stipend for rental of the site. The gold was mined via use of cyanide and the waste was deposited into large cylindrical metal sediment pools. Once the mine closed, those were abandoned with their contents intact, lying in forlorn solidified heaps and lumps. Much of the town site is overrun with the ooze of these sediments and weather has made interesting patterns of what now looks like a volcanic ash flow.





It’s always an intrigue for me to wander through evidence of times past and wonder about those who trod this soil before me. One can imagine the noise and constant dust from the mine and living in such close proximity; it was mere footsteps out one’s door to go to work. There wasn’t much around these parts during those times—a small settlement at Yuma, 30 miles and a day away. The Southern Pacific RR punched their line through in 1877 which completed the line from Yuma to Los Angeles and which initially spurred the activity here since it is within two miles of the mine. Mining finally came to an end in 1942 with WWII and in 1949 the last residents wandered away and left Tumco a ghost town.







There is more of the mine area to explore when we return and Marc can go along with me. There is an information kiosk in the parking area with brochure pages giving the history of the site. It’s a short jaunt from Yuma at the Olgilby Rd exit north off I-8 and there are signs denoting its location. The numbered walking tour of the ruins is about 1.5 miles and is not a strenuous hike; vehicles are not allowed on mine property. For rock hounders, the area is also full of unusual minerals of note in the boondocking area, there for the picking.

Anza Borrego Trip, Part 2

Coachwhip Canyon
Given no hiking into the badlands due to the distance from us, we opt to go back to and across the highway, north to something designated “Coachwhip Canyon” which starts as a wide sandy wash from the highway. About a half mile in we pass a Class C getting set up in a wonderfully secluded spot hugging the cliffs and make note of it for our future use. We could reach this with the Dodge, but not the Freightliner due to all the sand. We slog northward, gradually gaining probably 500 feet in elevation during the course of our hike which takes us finally into the bowels of a slot canyon which snakes back and forth upon itself. Unlike the slot canyons of Utah, it is similar in character but not of rock as the topography here is eroded sandstone clay which mimics adobe. After a few miles, Marc has had enough so we turn around, losing hope this was a loop trail.




Salton Sea
We have one more night and two days so after a leisurely breakfast and start from Arroyo Salado we leave the park and head for the Salton Sea, about ten miles away. We are amazed at all the RVs parked along cliff tops overlooking canyons brimming with ATVs and dirt bikes. It’s like a festival with all the wagons circled as friends gather together amidst the rising dust. An intriguing spot for the far-off vista and lake views and canyon topography, but definitely not for us with all the hubbub and commotion. We keep going towards Brawley where we intend to then head east on Hwy. 78.






Imperial Sand Dunes
We happen upon the sand dunes almost by accident, noticing a constant stream of RVs in oncoming traffic. Soon we see a rest stop up a sand dune beckoning us to pull over. It’s a good thing too; we have a chance to exam the damage the rough roads have done to the rig—springing open cabinet doors and spewing contents and broken glass all over, including a liberal dose of sugar which now coats the entire kitchen and floor. Once again we marvel at the sheer number of large and expensive RVs and toys gathered in one ten mile segment—their numbers in the many thousands and thousands! All manner of sand toys dot the dunes like black ants in the distance and there is the constant hum of big machines roaring. It is truly a sight worth seeing at least once.






Tumco Mine Site
After a lunch stop to mop up the sugar damage, we turn south on Olgilby Road knowing we must find our last stop in the next 24 miles, when the road will then rejoin I-8. After a couple of false starts we happen across a few rigs parked on a desert pebble plain below the jagged Cargo Muchacho Mountains and a mine labeled Tumco Historic Mine. We pull in and find our own patch of gravel and settle in for indoor relaxation playing Mexican Train, as it has become fairly windy outside. Early the next morning I go mine exploring on my own but that story deserves its own blog so will follow this episode at a later date. We do find this spot much to our liking and figure that at less than forty miles from home it will make a good stay deserving of another visit. We are back home by noon and within a couple hours, the laundry is done, and the trailer is restocked, cleaned and ready for its next foray. Now we’ll know where to head back to for deeper exploration.





Just the Facts
Anza Borrego is little known considering its size. With free camping up to fourteen days, it merits serious consideration but be aware that you will also be competing with ATV usage in some areas. The visitor brochure lists twenty hiking trails but some, such as the slot canyon wash hike we did, aren’t even listed. There are two major badlands areas and some other areas of physical interest but most require four wheel drive. Dispersed camping is allowed throughout the park and there are also six campgrounds which charge $15-35 with some hookups. There are another eight backcountry campgrounds such as Arroyo Salado with no water and a vault toilet only and (usually) rough access. In a new twist to me (probably a California thing given the state’s abysmal budget status) you must BYOT (bring your own toilet tissue) when you visit the vaulted toilets.

This area gets less than 5 inches of rain a year and remains very hot June through September and even averages 90 during October so obviously winter is high season. We never felt crowded anywhere in the park despite the holiday however. I would imagine a weekday visitation would give a person miles and miles of empty spaces to explore. Apparently heavy rain years bring outstanding wildflower viewing in spring. The major town in proximity to the park is Borrego Springs with a population of about 3000. We didn’t see much in the way of restaurants (no fast food) nor shopping there, save for one small local grocery, a liquor store and an auto repair. But then, this isn’t the place to come if one is looking for town life.

Bring a four wheel drive vehicle if you can. Without it, much of the park will be off-limits. It’s not that the roads are necessarily so rough, but most sport deep, deep sand in spots.