Today we drove to the Parker Dam on a paved road. We gave up trying to get over the mountains on wagon trails. We did, however, see where the one trail came out by the river. We started to follow it toward home but it soon became too high risk and we turned around.
The Parker Dam is a dam. What can I say? Dams fall into the same category for me as cities and military installations. I definitely do not appreciate them. The water behind the damn was quite high. Of course they take that water and sell it to Los Angeles. A short distance downstream I'm pretty sure I could wade across the Colorado River it is so low.
Further downstream the Imperial Dam will collect what little gets past Parker and Moovalya Lake where water is diverted from the river into the Main Canal. At Imperial they will pump that water into the desert to grow crops and allow the toxic run off to run into Mexico. Aren't we good neighbors?
I remember when we first began wintering in this part of the country. I posted that I had a hard time knowing whether I was in Arizona or California. My cousin replied it was simply which side of the Colorado River. I sent him a satellite photo and asked him to show me which of the ditches around the Mittry Lake area was the Colorado River. Of course he had no idea. In truth, I don't think the locals remember which was originally the river. Actually I think that's the only place where the state line between Arizona and California is on dry land. Probably because they've lost the Colorado River.
I wonder if the people who came up with the idea of building these dams gave any thought to the future. My knee-jerk reaction is that they gave the future absolutely no consideration. Did they think that the Colorado was somehow an endless source of water? The ancient Egyptians knew better than that thousands of years ago. Archeology has discovered that they worked to preserve water for drought. What year of the California drought is this?
Poor California had its driest years in 1,200 years from 2012 to 2015, the lowest snowpack in 500 years in 2015, and the current drought was declared in 2014 - five years ago almost to the day. They're sitting on giant aquifers but the State let these underground pools of water become privately owned. One of the shameless results is Nestle filling plastic water bottles that they sell around the world from water needed right there in California. Aren't we nice people? Now that's capitalism with a capital 'C'! Do they get points for a double hit? They're legally stealing water from people who need it and should be entitled to draw it from their wells, and putting it in plastic bottles to create continent sized trash piles in the ocean.
Now you know why I love dams. Moving on.
We had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant near the dam. The fire department is called Buckskin, but according to Google Maps it has a Parker, AZ address. Parker is sixteen miles south. Oh, well. It was good and we had fun.
On the way back we finally saw some wildlife. We were becoming convinced that the ATV ramming around the mountains had chased everything away. There were three species of ducks by the dam and the famous borros a short distance south of the dam on the California side. We stopped and took pictures.
The poor river is lined with resorts, RV parks and marina from north of Havasu City to south of Parker. Anyone want to make any wagers about where much of the waste water goes? South of Parker to Ehrenberg there are fields. We know where their toxic run off goes. By the time you get down to Squaw Lake just north of Imperial dam you are told not to eat the fish.
We have such magnificent natural resources in this country. Between over-population and abuse we are destroying our greatest treasures. Driving through the desert Pamela and I can tell where there has been grazing or mining by the lack of vegetation or absence of species that are prevelent a short distance away where human activity was not as great. Many, if not all, of you know that you can spot the course of a stream or river at some distance by the presence of trees, especially certain varieties like sycamore and cottonwood. We have studies and lived in this area long enough that we can tell when there's a town, military base, ranch or other high human impact area ahead by the gradual reduction of common vegetation. There is no doubt that human over-population and excessive impact are two ways we are killing our world. We may not be 100% responsible for the next mass extinction. Science shows us that they are cyclical. Nevertheless we are probably 90% responsible for bringing about the next mass extinction way before its time by our over-population and behavior.
Guess I've probably preached long enough. If you've read this far, I'm probably preaching to the choir. People who either want to deny reality or know reality but don't want to do what it takes to correct things have usually turned me off several paragraphs ago. If you are a denier and have been open enough to read this much, I'm proud of you. I hope I've given you food for thought. This gives you a place to start your own research.
Besides, I've got to stop and get ready for the lunar eclipse. I still need to put new batteries in the camera and mount our spotting scope. We have a lot of cloud cover so I hope we don't miss the show. Hope you get a good look too!
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