East from Yuma

I'm cycling through some hot, dry country heading directly east from Yuma, Arizona. I'm just south of the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground.

US Army Yuma Proving Ground (USAYPG) is a general-purpose desert environmental test facility. It offers climate and terrain similar to major desert areas worldwide. YPG is primarily involved in developmental and operational test of artillery weapons and ammunition, aircraft armament systems, mobility equipment, and air delivery systems.

Located adjacent to the Colorado River in the Sonora Desert of Southwest Arizona, it's one of the hottest and driest areas in the nation. Larger in size than the state of Rhode Island, YPG encompasses more than 1,300 square miles. Yuma Proving Ground is 25 miles north of the city of Yuma, Arizona.

Yuma Proving Ground has an annual average of 350 sunny days, the air is sparkling clear and the average rainfall amounts to about three inches. This, plus the proving ground's excellent test facilities and staff of engineers, scientists and technicians, combine to offer to our customers an outstanding opportunity to test a large variety of materiel and equipment. An average of 100 tests are ongoing at any given time.

Modern military equipment testing in Yuma can be traced back to 1943, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Yuma Test Branch. The test site was located on the Colorado River below Imperial Dam for the purpose of testing new bridge designs, boats, vehicles, and well-drilling equipment for the Allied Armies of the Second World War. Supervisors of the dam regulated the flow of water, which provided ideal conditions for testing bridges and boats. Much of the test branch construction was performed by Italian prisoners of war.

The area was also a portion of General George Patton's California-Arizona Maneuver Area, used to train soldiers for service in World War II's North African desert campaigns.