Pullin' Chocks: Even More Parker, AZ

We finally got to a hike and a bit more sight seeing. We start with the Japanese detention facility in Poston, AZ just a few miles from our campsite. We had heard about these places that were set up during WWII back in the 1940s but didn't realize that there were several of these camps located around the western US. This one in Poston, AZ may have been one of the larger facilities. We got to see some Intaglios, which are a form of Geoglyph or earth art, and lastly we found a hiking spot down Shae Road.

Below a hero shot in front of a gnarly saguaro cactus on our hike out Shae Road. I think you know that is Steve & Gari, Agents 86 and 99 😉

Oh, and we forgot to mention that there was another race day in Parker this month. This was a 425 mile desert race for trucks. Below looks like Chuck's truck.

Oblique view of Chuck's truck.

The 26 truck

A line up of competitors with the lesser rigs

Front views.

Two more.

Shae Road hike; this was our parking spot below that plateau. Our idea was to climb up there ans see what we could see.

We made it, there's Gari up on top. We didn't go up the sheer cliff side, we walked around back and took a less steep route up.

We can see Romeo waaaay down there.

Lots of UTVs out here, look, there goes one now.

Next hike out here we are thinking about going up this wash road and see if we can get up on that plateau on the frame left.

View of that next plateau from ground level standing on the wash road.

Back on top... look, Steve found something in those rocks!

A USGS Benchmark up there on top.

I like that view looking down on Romeo, and this frame has the USGS benchmark in there too.

Another treasure find, a cache of old cans. That looks like a really old beer can opened with a church key. Back when cans were steel.... King Tut days we think.

Onward to Poston, AZ and the Japanese Relocation Camp. This camp, one of ten in the US, operated during WWII in the early 1940s. There were about 120,000 Japanese Americans relocated to these camps. The Poston camp held over 17,500 men, women and children from 1942 to 1945. Poston became the second largest city in Arizona at that time.

Gari reads the historical plaques at the kiosk entrance to the memorial. I remember reading about these camps in history in school. It's hard for me to understand that we would actually do something like this in this country and I wanted to come to this place since we were so close and see for myself.

There is Steve standing at the base of the monument at the memorial. There is a depiction of the tar paper barrack housing on the plaque at right, complete with a watch tower. Looks like a POW camp to me.

The shape of the memorial is in the image of a Japanese stone lantern and represents "Unity of Spirit" the 12 smaller posts circling the taller monument form a working sundial.

Below is a closer view of the tar paper housing. So sad.

We went on across the river into California to see the Blythe Intaglios. Steve stands at the feet of a 170 foot human figure relieved into the desert surface.

There has been some damage to these ancient artifacts and there is documentation to capture that damage. We understand that this type of geoglyph is found only in this part of the world right here in the US southwest.

In case you were wondering what an Intaglio is, the 511 on that is shown below. They are a type of geoglyph or earth art where human, animal and geometric shapes are formed in the desert surface by raking away the top gravel or tamping it down to form a relief in the desert surface.