Colorado River Tour, Imperial NWR, January 19

 Water was not something that came to mind when we ever thought about the state of Arizona. Yet, the southwestern boarder of the state is the Colorado River. On the other side of the river is California. We spent four delightful hours on our first Saturday at Imperial NWR on a tour of the river. The weather was nice and we enjoyed being out on a boat, taking in the sites of the two states.

 We went in and out of a few side coves and got out of the boat a few times. Below is an old mining cabin that we visited. It was called Draper Cabin and it was built in the late 1800's. We hiked to it after docking through the above cove. The tour guide did a nice job of incorporating local history with current uses and issues around the river. We even saw some ancient Indian petroglyphs at one of the stops.

 Oliver signed the guestbook inside the cabin. The site is representative of what used to be many mining cabins along the river. Folks trying to find their riches in the mountains of CA and AZ along the Colorado.

 We stopped at Norton's Landing, once an active Steamboat Landing, for a delighful boxed lunch. There were some quirky remants on the grounds of this picnic area so it was fun to poke around after we ate.

On the trip back to Martinez Lake we opted for the back two "rumble seats" and sat out in the open air.  It was a fun way to travel down the Colorado River!

 

 Above is the "Painted Desert" area at Imperial NWR. This is a part of the refuge that we visited frequently during our stay. It was cool to see it from the river.

 During the trip we came upon three bald eagles; two male and one female. As you will see, we took way too many photos (this is not even all of them!) because we were so thrilled to see eagles in the wild. The female is the one without the white head. She is sitting in the photo below and flying in the photos above.

 The tour goes right through the Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, which was cool to see from the river.

 These are images from Martinez Lake, the starting and ending point of the journey.

 The black bird above is a "Coot", very common to this area. We got a kick out of watching them dive into the water for meals. They also have a very funny and distinct "quack" that was fun to listen for.

 AHOY, MATIE!