Day 44 • April 14, 2012 • Glamis to Palo Verde, CA •  45 miles

The BLM rangers sent us on our way with more bottled water, granola bars, and a “Get your Head in Gear” safety Frisbee that came in handy as a crosswind protection device for Zoe.  Many thanks to the BLM for helping us out in a jam.

Sand toy appears to be the general term for the motorized ATVs, dirt bikes, and dune buggies buzzing around the place and Glamis, a few miles down the road from last night’s emergency tent site, is the self-proclaimed world headquarters.   Here the internal combustion engine rules and the BLM tries to keep the peace.  There are impromptu RV towns scattered here and there on the dunes, complete with a musical ice cream truck.  I expected Mel Gibson to appear out of the swirling sand with a gas can in one hand and an assault rifle in the other.  We were happy to avail ourselves of the convenience store that surely wouldn’t exist without the sand toys and then took advantage of the screaming tail wind to push us on down the road.

We had the occasional crosswind blast of sand as we were propelled along by the tailwind but nothing like the day before.  The wind eased and the downhill flattened as we rolled into the Palo Verde Park just south of the town of Palo Verde, CA.  Run by Imperial County, the park is very simple but had what we needed–  a bathroom w/ electrical outlet, trees to break any further wind (we didn’t get much more), and a camp site.  As a bonus, we camped right next to a beautiful section of the Colorado River.  Emory, the campground host, gave us a rundown on the local wildlife including the Great Horned Owls nesting above our tent.  He was so impressed with Zoe’s adventure that he let us stay for free as his guest.