On 1-10, 230 miles East of Los Angeles. Succinctly described by one guide as a ‘useful freeway stopover town,’ Blythe is a speck on the California – Arizona border surrounded by a slender band of fertile farmland, the ground being irrigated by the Colorado River, which marks the border. With great optimism and not much success, Blythe is attempting to sell itself as a desert resort town but there’s nothing – except distance from anywhere else (and the detour described below) – to encourage a stop. Though the Blythe Blues Grass Festival the third Sunday of January is a fun annual event attracting some interesting Americans to the area.

Detour – Prehistoric Intaglios

 A few miles east of Blythe on 1-10, turn north on to Hwy-95 and continue for 15 miles until you reach a signposted side road. This leads to a set of prehistoric intaglios, or ground figures, made by removing the top-layer of rocks and gravel to expose lighter-coloured sand beneath. Whether these figures – the larger ones resemble a human and a four-legged animal – were intended as art, for use in rituals, or served some other purpose, can only be guessed at. One curious fact, however, is that the figures are much clearer from the air than from the ground.