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🌈 Join the Spotlight! Become a part of Yuma’s vibrant narrative by joining us at Yuma Spotlights. Share your stories, and experiences, and be featured in our spotlight, where we celebrate the real stars of Yuma – You! Don’t just witness the magic; be a part of it. Step into the spotlight and let your Yuma story shine.

$499.00 Dbl and $625.00 Single per person

Enjoy 4 day and 3 nights at the Viejas Casino. This trip includes a full day city tour of all San Diego has to offer. Also, on day 3, we will drop you off at either Sea Side, or Balboa park for a free day on your own. 

299.00 Dbl 375.00 Single per person

3 days and 2 nights in Las Vegas. Your chance to experience, Death Valley. You will see, Bad Water, Zabriskie Point, and enjoy lunch on your own at Furnace creek resort. 

Come out and play with us on trip of a lifetime.  Stay and Play or Take and Adventure.....only in the West do we have this much fun.

$87.50 per person

Day trip from Phoenix! 

Go back in time to the 1800's....see what the true west was all about.....but we will keep you in comfort with modern day conveniences.....But this is a blast from the past you don't want to miss.

AdventureWest.tours is a family-owned and operated private motor coach tour company. Donald and Amy Riegler have traveled extensively throughout Arizona and the Southwest. Donald is a proud U.S. Marine veteran and has a passion for travel, tourism, and hospitality. Amy Boxer Riegler, Donald's wife, has spent over 30 years in business management and accounting, and knows how to get things done! Together, they are driven to create amazing tour experiences with the highest level of service and the some of the best drivers and tour directors around.

As a travel director/ tour guide for over 20 years, my travel experiences have provided me with strong, well developed interpersonal skills, organizational/ multi-tasking skills, excellence in detail, and superior customer service to go above and beyond to help to create exciting and fun memorable experiences for our all guests. As a native of Arizona, I have the unique experience and knowledge of the Sonoran Dessert and surrounding landscapes, to include cities and national parks. I enjoy sharing my experiences and knowledge with people who would like to share the same interests.

Please welcome our newest addition to the Adventurewest.tours team. 

Shirley comes to us with years of being self employed in Real Estate and has a passion for travel. She may be newer in this business but her love of travel and attention to detail is the key. You will be sure to enjoy her personality and she will enjoy making your trip most memorable.

Keri has been an active guide for the past 30 years. She started in 1990 with a company for young adults doing cross country tours, as well as tours to Alaska and Canada.

From there she connected with another company doing tours to Australia and New Zealand.

These days, she concentrates on Southern CA, the CA Coast and the Pacific Northwest.

She is an upbeat, energetic and happy person, and can't wait to introduce you to San Diego, her home town, and her favorite place to show off!

Phoenix, Arizona

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Yuma, AZ: Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area

Movie producers have been making films here since before the era of talkies. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was filmed on the Imperial Dunes.

From the Osborne Overlook on Highway 78 visitors can view both the protected natural area as well as the recreational vehicle area. The Plank Road, an historical site is visible from Interstate 8 near Winterhaven, CA off Grey’s Well Road.

Use permits are required within the recreational area for “primary vehicles” – the street-legal vehicle that gets you there. Permits are available for the season or for a seven-day period. Season permits run from October 1 through September 30 of the next year.

Let’s say you would like to experience the thrill of racing across these dunes, but you don’t have a sand buggy or ATV. No problemo. Just rent them. Jet Rent looks like a good bet. They have the largest ATV rental fleet in the area and are open year-round 24/7. 928-314-4345.

Beware! Accidents on the Dunes are usually associated with alcohol. Surprise, surprise! You may be stone cold sober. But the other guy … ???

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Yuma Tours & Adventures: Your Great Southwest Escape Starts Here!

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Yuma tours & adventures.

Why Yuma Tours & Adventures?

Quality inventory available, experienced in polaris off-road, easy online booking.

Discover the thrill of off-roading with Yuma Tours & Adventures, the top choice for off-road vehicle rentals. Conveniently located just off the I-8 in Yuma's East end, the trails are just minutes away from their location. Embark on an epic journey through miles of trails that will take you to the Wellton area in the East, Fisher's Landing area in the North, the Mittrey Lake area in the West, and the Border Wall in the South.

Immerse yourself in the beauty of the desert along the majestic Colorado River while exploring Arizona’s rich historical sites. Whether you prefer the freedom of exploring on your own with the Ride Command app on top-notch RZRs or having an expert guide join you for a tour, they've got you covered.

During 8-hour tours, you’ll make a stop at a local restaurant, giving you a chance to refuel with a delicious lunch and refreshing drinks. Expect a variety of terrains, from sandy stretches to rocky paths and mountain trails. Some trails may get narrow at times, adding an extra element of excitement to your journey.

Are you ready for your unforgettable Great Southwest Escape? Look no further than Yuma Tours & Adventures, your gateway to experiencing the wonders of the Desert Southwest.

Getting Here

Bus Tours to Sonora, Mexico

Another option for getting to Sonora is to take a bus, or a shuttle bus, tour to a Sonoran destination. You can plan your own trip and travel in luxury with a group of friends and family to explore Sonora!

Ambos Tours of Arizona, LLC Linda Rushton 269 W. Loma Street Nogales, Arizona (520) 988-5425 More information

Gray Line Tours Tucson Citizen Auto Stage Co. Luxury bus tours to Puerto Peñasco 3594 E. Lincoln Street Tucson, Arizona (520) 622-8811 (800) 276-1528 Visit their website

Tour West America Yuma, Arizona Tour Office Bus tours from Yuma and Phoenix to Puerto Peñasco 333 S Main Street Yuma, Arizona (928) 783-8888 (800) 706-8687 Visit their website

Yuma Adventures Bus tours from Yuma to San Felipe, BC and Puerto Peñasco 12557 S. Frontage Rd. Yuma, AZ 85367 (928) 342-0015 Visit their website

Sonora Trips and Tours

Arizona charter bus companies with service to sonora, sonora ecotourism , sonora tour operators, sonora ecotourism travel agencies, charter air services, buses to sonora, border shuttles, bus tour operators, charter bus services, drive to sonora, rental cars.

“Kek!” - the call of the Yuma Ridgway's rail

On an incandescent July mornin g at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Southern Nevada, University of Idaho graduate student  Eamon Harrity  and a field assistant sit along a berm of saltgrass and saltbushes beside a reservoir, fiddling with a Bluetooth speaker. The air is calm and rapidly warming; the dry-paper rustling of dragonfly wings and the drone of horseflies can be clearly heard over the clucking of coots from the reservoir. Suddenly the calm is disrupted by a series of grunt-like “kek” notes emanating from Harrity’s speaker. These are recorded calls of the Yuma Ridgway’s rail, and he hopes to pique the interest of one in the nearby marsh.

A chicken-sized, chestnut-colored bird with short wings and too-big feet, the Yuma Ridgway’s rail inhabits marshes and riparian riparian Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas. Learn more about riparian areas from the American Southwest to northwest Mexico. Once widespread along the entire Lower Colorado River, the rail was listed as a federally endangered species in 1967 due to habitat loss.

The hot arid deserts of the Southwest may seem a strange spot for secretive marsh birds. At places like the Salton Sea in southeastern California, the Lower Gila River in southern Arizona, and Nevada’s Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge (managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), triple-digit summer temperatures are common and rainfall is scant. But these sites are oases in the desert, providing year-round water to a diversity of wildlife, including endangered rails.

Back at Ash Meadows, by 11 a.m. the sunshine is glaringly bright, magnified by the albedo of the ash-colored soil. Harrity and his assistant have been playing the kek calls on the speaker for the past 20 minutes. A couple of birds have responded but none became bold or curious enough to approach. Harrity has set snare-like foot traps amid gaps in the dense cattail and bulrush, aiming to lure a rail with the calls.

At once, Harrity brings his finger to his lips. “Shhh...” A faint rustling comes from the cattails. Suddenly the rustling grows louder, more animated; Harrity springs into action and launches himself into the reeds. Several minutes later he emerges with a rail clutched to his chest.

He and the field assistant process the bird, taking morphological measurements, affixing an identification band to its leg, and attaching a telemetry “backpack” to track its movements. Afterward the bird is released, fluttering from the field assistant’s hand and disappearing seamlessly into the reeds.

Harrity’s research, conducted alongside his advisor  Dr. Courtney Conway , has shed light on the habits of this elusive bird. It is the first study to definitively show that some of these rails migrate from breeding grounds in California and Arizona to spend winters in northern Mexico. Previously thought to be sedentary, some Yuma Ridgway’s rails travel hundreds of miles on these migrations, flying mostly by night and stopping frequently along the way.

The investigation into whether  these rails migrate began at an unexpected place: solar facilities in Southern California. In 2013, biologists were confounded by the discovery of two dead Yuma Ridgway’s rails near solar arrays deep in the Mojave Desert. “One individual was found more than 30 miles from the nearest marsh habitat, which seemed very strange,” said Jennifer Wilkening, Service wildlife biologist and habitat conservation planning coordinator at the Southern Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office. “People wondered, ‘What was it doing out there?’”

Solar facilities often feature dense arrays of solar panels which present a shimmering, water-like reflection from above. This so-called “lake effect” appears to confuse birds, which fly toward the reflection expecting water but finding nothing but dry desert. Some birds, disoriented and too exhausted to fly further, end up perishing.

No definitive research has been done to determine whether the “lake effect” is causing bird mortality at solar facilities, but some companies—including First Solar, Inc., which built the Southern California solar arrays where dead Yuma Ridgway’s rails first turned up—have taken preemptive measures to mitigate detrimental effects the facilities might have on wildlife and habitat.

One of First Solar’s measures is to help fund Harrity and Conway’s research into the migratory habits of these rails. Another is providing financial support to habitat restoration efforts at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, home to one of the most robust northerly populations of Yuma Ridgway’s rails.

Just west of Ash Meadows  is the Amargosa River, a 185-mile-long riparian lifeline winding through the otherwise inhospitable northern Mojave Desert. Rails that flourish at places like Ash Meadows could follow that lifeline and colonize new territories, said  Leonard Warren , Amargosa River project manager for The Nature Conservancy, which works with both private landowners and public land managers such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve habitat for wildlife.

“These birds find forage and cover in dense stands of cattail and bulrush, and they build their nests on mats of these plants,” said Warren. But too much of this emergent vegetation decreases the value of marsh habitat for rails. Both cattail and bulrush are perennial plants that resprout from thick underground rhizomes. After each growing season, the leaves of both species die and form a layer of thatch above the rhizomes. If left undisturbed, these thatch layers pile up over the years, smothering other plant growth and decreasing the amount of open water available to wildlife.

“No one fully one knows why, but periodically clearing that dense thatch layer seems to help these birds,” said Harrity. “In the Lower Colorado River, regular floods used to scour the riparian areas, clearing away that decadent emergent growth.”

Now, with all of the water modifications that have taken place on the river, those floods no longer occur, said Harrity. Land management agencies in the Lower Colorado region such as the Service have adopted prescribed fire as a surrogate to those erstwhile floods, clearing acres of thatch in a matter of hours. At Ash Meadows, fire is being implemented for the same purpose.

In February 2020 , a prescribed burn prescribed burn A prescribed burn is the controlled use of fire to restore wildlife habitat, reduce wildfire risk, or achieve other habitat management goals. We have been using prescribed burn techniques to improve species habitat since the 1930s. Learn more about prescribed burn at the refuge’s Lower Crystal Marsh—funded by First Solar and the Conservancy—cleared 152 acres of overgrown marsh vegetation to improve habitat for rails. Where cattails and bulrushes once grew in rank profusion, a fire-blackened shoreline now stands. Before the burn, the western shore of the marsh had been completely hidden from view.

Secretive rails won’t use this newly cleared habitat—not until the vegetation has a chance to grow back, but before it becomes too dense. “The ideal interval for these thatch-clearing fires could be three years, it could be five years; we don’t know yet,” said  Carla Wise , senior wildlife biologist at the Southern Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office. “We’re hoping to find out what works best at Ash Meadows with this most recent burn.”

In the meantime, Yuma Ridgway’s rails continue to use other marsh habitat at the refuge and elsewhere in the arid Southwest, stalking shorelines and uttering their kek calls from the reeds. Habitat restoration efforts by the Service and its partners are part of a process ensuring that this seldom seen, oft-heard bird remains a unique component of riparian areas in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.

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Tours & Specialty Dinners

Visit Yuma will not be hosting any tours or dinners again this year but is working with community partners to have these experiences available to visitors.

History dinners: Dinners will again be available at the Sanguinetti House. For more information they should call the Sanguinetti House for dates and ticketing info. Date night dinners: a casual rustic date night dinner experience is available this year and being hosted by Naked Dates. These are not the four-course gourmet fine dining experience offered previously. These are more casual in nature and a new experience for those interested in learning about the importance of dates in Yuma and enjoying a wonderful meal. Costs and info can be found by contacting Naked Dates.

Learn about other events and tours available throughout Yuma, with the VisitYuma.com calendar or It’s Happening weekly e-news to find out when ticket sales begin. 

Check back for more information on History and Date Night Dinners!

History Under the Stars 2023

History under the stars dinner, set at the Sanguinetti House Museum and Gardens. Each dinner will feature a different menu and focus on a different aspect of Yuma's rich history, from the story of E.F. Sanguinetti, the development of downtown, the history of irrigation and agriculture, and the history of the military's presence here. Get a taste of the history that makes Yuma unique. 

Revel under the stars with a unique "History Under the Stars" dining experience at the Sanguinetti House Museum and Gardens in historic Yuma. (It's the perfect gift idea, too!) Your evening will include a special presentation from the pages of Yuma's history books. Get a taste of the history that makes Yuma unique! Tickets are $70, and seating is limited, so purchase tickets today! For more information and tickets hit the button below or call 928-782-1841. See you at the museum! March 2023 dates have been canceled. Stay tuned for next seasons dates!

Save the Date

Did you know that the Yuma and Bard area helped save the Middle East’s Medjool date palms? When disease broke out in Morocco in 1927, palm shoots were brought to this area and cultivated. Some years later, new trees grown here were repatriated to Morocco to help them replenish their date groves. Now local date growers are among the top producers worldwide, even exporting our dates to the Middle East. Each year, up to 15 million pounds of premium Yuma dates are grown, harvested, and then shipped around the world. More date info and recipes can be found at NaturalDelights.com . Dates and date products may be purchased at these local establishments: -- Brocket Farms homegrown dates, eggs, local honey, specialty gifts, and more. 102 E. Third St., 928.257.1440 -- Imperial Date Gardens gift packs, nuts, candies, and date shakes, call about free tours at 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays or by advance arrangements. 1517 York Road., Bard, Calif., ImperialDateGardens.com, 800.301.9349 -- Martha’s Gardens Date Farm dates, local honey, sandwiches, soup, date shakes and ice cream, pleasant landscaped patio for a bite, call about farm tours aboard a tram, $10 per person, call for reservations. 9747 Avenue 9 ¾ E, MarthasGardens.com, 928.726.8831 -- Naked Dates Organic Medjools, date shakes, handmade soaps, date beer, and fresh eggs, call about walking tours. 13589 S. Avenue 25E, Wellton, HealthyNakedDates.com, 888.374.2037 -- Peanut Patch date shakes, homemade fudge, nuts, dried fruits, candy, and gifts, plus free kitchen tours November through March on selected days, call for info. 4322 E County 13 St., ThePeanutPatch.com, 928.726.6292

Yuma farm tours are a great way to find out where your food comes from. If you’re eating a salad during the winter, chances are that it was grown in Yuma. Agriculture is Yuma’s number one business; it’s a more than $4 billion industry each year. More than 91% of the leafy greens...

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Dog and cat killed in west Phoenix house fire, officials say

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Two pets are dead after a fire ripped through part of a west Phoenix home Thursday afternoon.

The Phoenix Fire Department was called out around 6:30 p.m. to 59th Avenue and Thomas Road on reports of a fire.

When they arrived, they found heavy flames and smoke coming from the backyard. Photos from on the scene showed much of the backyard and patio with extensive damage.

Fire crews worked to put the flames out as the house was evacuated.

Unfortunately, a dog and a cat died as a result of the fire. No one else was hurt.

Phoenix Fire Investigators are now working to learn what led up to the fire.

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Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.

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