Boomerville: Desert Hike to the Bathtub and Blue Rocks

On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, we led a group of 17 other Boomers on a hike across the desert in the LaPosa BLM area near Boomerville.

Kathy found two points of interest used by local geocachers:  a structure known variously as "The Bathtub" or "Ye Olde Swimming Hole" located about a mile southeast of Boomerville, and a location known as "Blue Rocks" at the base of the Plomosa Mountains about 3.5 miles southeast of Boomerville.  We had our waypoints for the objectives in our hiker GPS and, promptly at 10:00 am, our group set out across the desert.

One of our first formalities was a group photo in front of a striking saguaro cactus (this photo courtesy of Boomer Bob Martel):

Not too far into our hike, we found The Bathtub, located at N 33.63565  W 114.14105, which our best guess was a cistern to hold water for sluicing in local small gold mining operations.  Great care was taken in constructing it, with a concrete conical wall lining the hole in the desert floor.  Below, our group posed for a photo on the rim of The Bathtub (courtesy of Boomer Duane Mathes):

Here's Duane posing in the bottom of the cistern:

A little further along, we found an unique saguaro we like to call the "Tuning Fork":

Finally, we reached our ultimate destination, the "Blue Rocks," located at N 33.61425, W 114.1344667.  We were unsure what we would find, but, as it happened, we found a striking vein of quartz-like rock with blue and blue-green coloration probably produced by copper in the rock. Below, Boomer Dee Dee is examining the Blue Rocks:

Here is a close-up of one of the Blue Rocks:

While the rest of us were marvelling at these geologic curiosities, Duane Mathes climbed the hill above us and snapped this photo of our group as we rested and ate our lunch:

Having rested and refreshed ourselves (not to mention having congratulated ourselves in finding our objectives), we returned to Boomerville.  For our return trip, we broke up into two groups:  one group chose to head 3.5 miles across the desert in the compass direction of Boomerville, while the other group chose to follow a local mine or ATV road up and down the washes and over the shoulders of the hills 4.5 miles back to Boomerville. We all returned safely and celebrated our adventure together at happy hour late that afternoon.