The Plank Road, Imperial Sand Dunes (Sunday, February 11th, 2017)

So much for the rest and relaxation, time to hit the road again.  We headed out today for the Imperial Sand Dunes.  We usually go to an area of the dunes called Glamis, but this time we went further south to a place called Buttercup.  

Glamis is the yellow dot, Buttercup is the red dot.

Buttercup is just west of Yuma.  It is very close to Interstate 8 which goes between Tucson, AZ and San Diego, CA.  We haven't been here before, so we are excited to try it out.  We drove down today, and will be camping here until Tuesday.

One of the first sights we saw at Buttercup was the plank road.  It is the remains of a road that was built in 1915 to allow the first automobiles to cross the Imperial Sand Dunes, giving them access to San Diego and Los Angeles from Arizona.  It was used from 1915 - 1916 when it wore out and a new plank road had to be built.  The second plank road was used until 1926 when a 20 foot wide asphalt-like concrete road was finally built. 

This replica of the plank road shows what it would have looked like when it was first built.

The original plank road had been completely covered by sand over the years, but was dug up and revitalized from 1973 - 1974, and this is what it looks like today.

This plank road was not far from our campsite at Midway, and was really fun to ride over and see.