Back to Kofa! - January 2019

please remember you can click on a photo to see a larger version & highlighted text are links to further information

Part Five of Our Winter Break Trip

The temperature was in the high twenties when we left Green Valley, Arizona. A stiff wind buffeted the truck and camper as we drove. We stopped for gas mid afternoon in Quartzsite - we just can't let go of this place. It had warmed to 41° but felt much colder with the wind chill. The Chevron station was along Interstate 10. It was crowded. Some of the strangest people we've ever seen exited vehicles and entered the mini mart. The majority were in shorts and flip flops. Very few had on anything that resembled appropriate clothing or footwear. I suspect John Wayne would've call them "pilgrims". For us, this was a glimpse into a cartoon world.

I'm a child of the folk music era. In the mid nineteen seventies I was a member of the staff that put on weekend "picking & grinning" workshops in small towns throughout the Midwest, a program through the University of Wisconsin Extension. One of my favorite songs was "Hi Jolly" by the New Christy Minstrels. It was about Hadji Ali - called Hi Jolly - an Arab camel driver brought over as an experiment by the U.S. Army in 1856.

Since we were in Quartzsite, I wanted to visit the monument at his gravesite. After the end of the camel corps, Hi Jolly worked as a freighter in this area with camels he purchased from the Army.

We tried to follow the signs and got stuck in traffic. Most roads in Quartzsite are four lanes with signal lights. Traffic crawled along. A slow camel would have been ten or twenty times faster. With WalMarts and K-Marts attempting to maneuver and taking up acreage to do so, and everyone else joining in, it was a frustrating experience and we gave up. July just might be the best time to visit with Hi Jolly.

We headed south and returned to spend another night in Kofa National Wildlife Refuge.

The last of the day's sunlight moved up the mountainsides as we explored after setting up camp up a 4x4 high clearance road.

The Lady, again, consulted our 7.5' topo maps and noted a tank located close by. We climbed up a side canyon to find it.

 

Several possible shelter sites were scattered about the area and we investigated all that we could in the remaining light.

The temperature dropped below freezing with the sun but the views and light were incredible as we made our way back to our cozy home.

We walked again in the dark and were anxious to experience Hi Jolly passing by in the night.

Old-timers out in Arizona
Tell you that it's true
You can see Hi Jolly's ghost a-travelin' still
When the desert moon is bright
He comes ridin' through the night
Leadin' four and twenty camels 'cross the hill.

a verse from Hi Jolly

Well, the desert moon was not bright - no Hi Jolly - in fact it was gone, a new moon. The stars were brilliant overhead on this frigid night, our finest night of the trip for star gazing. We played with night photography before the cold drove us inside to our warm bed.

Morning was spectacular. We wandered with our ritual first mugs of coffee and enjoyed watching an awakening day.

We took a short walk up Indian Canyon. A fairly well worn use trail led the way.

As the day warmed with the sun, we wished to investigate an interesting monolith that was almost eroded away at its base. It looked to be a possible shelter.

On one end was eroded completely through with a narrow cut.

We were excited to find faint pictographs.

I squeezed up onto the shelf on my back and examined the roof just above me.

I couldn't help but wonder if I was seeing a recreation with dots of pigment of the night sky.

This was a spectacular spot for another quick visit to Kofa, definitely a place we could put a lifetime into exploring. We were so pleased with our introduction to this place.

The weather was driving the timing for our return home. A major winter storm was predicted to hit the Sierra Nevada in a couple of days and we wanted to squeak home just ahead of its arrival.

We drove north paralleling the Colorado River on the Arizona side. It was late afternoon on a Thursday and we made the decision to see if we could find a spot for the night back at Valley of Fire.

Our adventure concludes in the next installment. Please click here for - Part Six.