Few Visitors, Bountiful Beauty at Remote Park

The saying “You can’t get there from here” may not be far from the truth for Picacho--one of the most inaccessible places in the state park system.

Picacho (pronounced Pea-kah-show) is in the southeast corner of California, on the west bank of the Colorado River, 25 miles north of the Imperial County town of Winterhaven. But 18 miles of the drive is along a miserable, winding, one-lane dirt road that meanders through the hills, narrow gorges and valleys of the Chocolate Mountains.

Few have heard of Picacho.

And relatively few come here. Estimates are that 50,000 visitors stopped by--or drifted through by boat--last year. But that’s downright desolate compared to the state’s most popular park, Old Town San Diego, which last year saw 7.2 million visitors, according to Larry Paynter, an information officer for the state parks system.

Those who do visit the park usually come between late October and the end of April.

The rest of the year Picacho is extremely hot. Days often go by with no one here except the ranger caretakers.

But they like it that way.

Among the few year-round park residents are Steve Horvitz, 35, Picacho’s ranger superintendent; his wife, Sidona (Dodie), 32, and their children, Nicole, 8, and Ellie, 5. The family has lived in Picacho about a year.

Horvitz asked to be stationed here. He enjoys the isolation and the beauty of the place. So does his wife, who formerly worked as a ranger.

Picacho is so remote that the two girls get most of their schooling in the living room of their trailer home, where they are taught by their mother.

They are the only children of state park rangers in California enrolled in a home-study program, according to Paynter.

The girls attend school one day a week at the San Pasqual School in Winterhaven. Nicole is in the third grade, Ellie is in kindergarten.

“It’s important Nicole and Ellie have contact with boys and girls their age,” explained Dodie Horvitz.

Each Monday at dawn, Horvitz, his wife, and the girls pile into the ranger’s 1966 Ford one-ton truck for the snail’s pace, hourlong drive over the tortuous desert road--if it’s passable--to the school.

While the girls are in school, the Horvitzes cross the river into Yuma, Ariz., to shop, pick up their mail, pay bills, visit doctors or do whatever else they have to do.

Other than the family’s weekly sojourns to town, they have little contact with the outside world.

“We’re never lonely,” Dodie Horvitz said. “Steve goes about his work running the park. I teach the girls. All of us interact with visitors, hiking on trails, boating on the river and often (sitting) at night around campfires.”

Richard Winch, principal at San Pasqual School, said he’s tried several times to visit Picacho but found the journey too daunting.

“The car vibrated so much on that horrible road I was afraid I would damage it, so I turned back,” he explained.

For the few hardy souls who successfully complete the journey, the beauty and tranquility make up for the rough trip.

Lola Oberkamper, and her husband, Elden, both 79 and retired dairy farmers from Ceres, Calif., have been coming here for 23 years to camp along the river.

“It’s so isolated, so quiet and peaceful. Not many brave that horrible bumpy road,” said Lola Oberkamper as she and her husband sat at a table playing pinochle with Henry Burris, 70, a retired welder, and Betty Stafford, 84, a retired postal worker, both also of Ceres.

Some come to Picacho to swim in the Colorado River, to canoe, fish, boat or water-ski. There are three boat-in camps in the park--camping areas for canoeists and boaters.

The 7,000-acre recreation area is a rugged mountain area with scenic formations dominated by 1,947-foot-high Picacho Peak, a volcanic outcropping that looks like a huge medieval castle.

Picacho is alive with wildlife: with quail, road-runners, red-tailed hawks, buzzards, wild burros, bighorn sheep, bobcats, raccoons, skunk, owls, bald eagles, deer and coyotes.

“Coyotes are always howling in the middle of the night and waking us up,” said Nicole Horvitz, as she pointed out animal tracks outside her home, including some from a mountain lion chasing a burro.

From 1890 to 1910, there was a riotous gold-mining camp called Picacho within the present-day park boundaries. As many as 2,500 lived here at its peak.

The only visible sign of the ghost town is the ruins of an old mill. The rest of the town site vanished under the Colorado River with the building of Parker Dam upstream and Imperial Dam downstream.

In addition to Horvitz, another ranger is stationed here: Carol Rawle, 45. There also are two park aides, Katie Shea, 45, and Rose McCully, 35, and Bill Cardinal, 36, park maintenance man, who has been here 12 years, longer than anyone else.

There are no telephones in the park and no stores. The rangers get their power from generators and their water from a well. “We pay only $25 a month rent for the State Park Department trailer with utilities provided without cost,” Horvitz said.

Perhaps when the children are older, the family will move closer to civilization, Horvitz said.

But for now, he added: “The low rent and free utilities serve as an incentive to rangers to come and live in this faraway place.”