Imperial NWR, Yuma, AZ, Jan 15 - 26, 2013

Our time at Imperial was a blast! We really enjoyed the fact that we were in the desert, yet also along the Colorado River and surrounded by mountains. This combination made the landscape so interesting. These photos are of the million dollar view from the back porch of our bunkhouse!

The Imperial National Wildlife Refuge protects wildlife habitat along 30 miles of the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California, including the last un-channeled section before the river enters Mexico. More than 15,000 acres of the Imperial NWR is federally designated wilderness.

We saw all kinds of migratory birds in the waters outside our bunkhouse - it was fun to watch the activity.

This is Oliver walking up the ramp to the wildlife lookout tower, just outside of the office and visitor's center (in the background). We spent a lot of time exploring the refuge and enjoyed the peace and serenity of living on the grounds. 

The colors throughout the day changed so beautifully and dramatically. Again, the combination of desert(Sonoran) and river (Colorado) contributed to this visual delight.

We spent a lot of evenings at the Painted Desert. The trail was a 3 mile loop through a pretty part of the refuge. There were also other off-shoots that we explored. As you can see by these photos, Oliver has taken-up running again and is out almost every night for an hour +.

You can see the refuge housing and office in the background of the above photo, taken from the Painted Desert area on the grounds. You can also see some of the houses on the nearby Fisher's Landing Lake.

The Painted Desert at Imperial NWR.

A "hoo-doo" rock formation.

Coming home one night after  grocery shopping this little guy was having his own dinner right outside our house! He did not run away despite the headlights in his eyes.

Oliver outside the bunkhouse (above). The kitchen and living space (below).

There is our bedroom in the back. We had a great time here and felt really comfortable living at Imperial.

We were invited to go along on a survey of vegetation that has been impacted by the increasing numbers of wild burros. Yes, burros. These are the off-spring of animals that were abandoned by minors when they left the area. The species has survived and now flourishes through this part of the country. Because of the summer rains and edible vegetation in the mountains, this part of the refuge (in the lowlands) has not not been too badly affected by the burros. We did not see any burros at Imperial, but have seen them since leaving. We had a great time helping with this survey and enjoyed being out of the office for a few hours!

Imperial is adjacent to the Yuma Proving Grounds where the military performs practice operations. While we were out doing the survey work, we stumbled upon a remant from their efforts and did not dare touch it. John reported its GIS location to them when we finished our work.

The survey crew: Oliver, Ashley (another SCA intern, working at Imperial on a 10-month service project), John (Wild Burro and Mustang biologist from Bureau of Land Mgt), Brenda (zone biologist for all of the river refuges in AZ - there are four of them), and Joe (biologist at Imperial).

The area above is where we were doing the survey work...another nice day to be outside. Below is a close-up of that old piece of artillary we stumbled upon.

Imperial is one of many refuges in the desert southwest trying tohelp rebuild the population of the desert pupfish, and endangered fish. This habitat is justoff the parking lot at the visitor's center.

This is "Digger" the desert tortoise that lives outside the visitor's center. He hibernates during the winter, but we were able to see this much of him one day when the temps were warm enough.

The observation deck at the visitor's center.

Inside the visitor's center.

Ashley working hard at her desk. Below are Nancy and Russ - two volunteers who help staff the visitor's center during the winter months. They are full-time RVers who also live at the refuge.

Oliver working hard. We don't spend ALL of our time outside exploring the refuge!