Yuma County, part 2

 While Yuma County has very few roads, it still has more than 200,000 people. It is a very concentrated population located on or near the two rivers that flow through the county, the Colorado and the Gila. Outside of these areas, the population is pretty close to 0. There is probably the lone dwelling in the desert in various places, but it is mostly an uninhabited land with a sprinkling of short-lived ghost towns.
  The majority of this unpopulated land is owned by the federal government. The biggest of these areas is the Barry Goldwater Air Force Bombing Range. There is also the Yuma Proving Ground. 
 In addition, there are three national wildlfe refuges in Yuma County. There is the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, which is the location of the aforementioned Palm Canyon. There is also Imperial National Wildlife Refuge, on the Colorago River north of Yuma and, lastly, there is the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge on the border with Mexico in the southeast part of the county. Cabeza Prieta is one of the most isolated and least known areas in the United States. There have
 never been any towns located in this area and no evidence of any aboriginal habitation on a permanent basis. The archaeological evidence suggests that people only passed through this area on their way to somewhere else. This is the location  of El Camino del Diablo, or The Road of Death, that 19th century pioneers took on their way west to California. As the trail's name suggests, many of them died in this harsh, unforgiving land.
  There are also three federally designated wilderness areas located on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. These are the Trigo Mountains, Muggins Mountains and Eagletail Mountains Wilderness Areas.
  Outside of the settled areas of Yuma County, there are very few roads. Any road that does exist in this area is unpaved. Some of them are maintained, such as the road to Palm Canyon and the roads to the now defunct Castle Dome Mining District and the also abandoned mines in the Kofa Mountains such as the North Star, the Rob Roy and the King of Arizona (better known as the 'Kofa' mine). Any other roads that exist in the county are primitive dirt tracks only negotiable by four wheel drive vehicles.
  There are only four highways in the entire county, three federal and one state. There is Interstate 8; Interstate 8 Business Loop, which is the 'main drag' through Yuma (by far the county's biggest city and the seat of government), U.S. Highway 95 and State Highway 195, which is a new highway that is only a few years old. It is a 4 lane, divided highway that was built to serve as an alternative route from Interstate 8, on the east side of Yuma, to the Mexican border crossing at San Luis. Only four highways in a county with more than 200,000 people! The populated areas also are served by a network of county maintained roads which are mostly paved and then there are also Martinez Lake Road, which runs from highway 95 to Martinez Lake, a distance of 10 miles, and Imperial Dam Road, which runs from highway 95 to the border with California and beyond. It is an alternative route to Yuma if one is coming from the north.
  It is stunning to know how empty, remote and inaccessible most of Yuma County is even though alot of people live in the county.