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Take Us Away
The goal was to be away from any news sources on January 20th and the beginning of the coming shit show. January 20th was the saddest and most disheartening day in United States history in our lifetime. Yes, we are discouraged. Hope is gone.
Our first stop on this getaway brought us back to the Bishop area on the east side of the Sierra Nevada. There were three archeological sites on “the list” we could devote a day to finding. We started with a big surprise. We stumbled upon (or it might have been “the knack”?) an amazing site we were unaware of.
This was a major habitation site with over a dozen stacked rock “sleeping circles” along with bedrock grinding slicks (metates). This was an exciting find for us and we spent most of the morning here.
Next up was a site called the Mill Creek Boulder. This looked to us to be a fertility site. Some of the deeply worked petroglyphs had been lined with red pigment at a much later time. One side of the boulder was covered with cupules. This must have been a very sacred site.
Our next search was for a site called – I don’t know why – The Rosetta Stone. It is hidden behind a dense screen of dwarf willows.
The struggle to penetrate the willows was worth it.
The Lady climbed and discovered additional rock art.
The final visit was to a very remarkable granite boulder. It sits in the open on a small rise. The boulder is covered with ancient, worn, fading petroglyphs. It also has cupules and appears, to us, to be associated with fertility. This is also a very special and sacred site.
Our friend Donna was also following an escape plan. She was back down to Kofa so we made the effort to find her. Enroute our new truck got angry at me, yelled at me, and suggested I pull to the side of the road. This was a complete surprise and a decidedly new experience for me.
We were driving south on the California section of highway 95 south of Needles, a heavily used truck route. We generally drive a little under the speed limit. It is not unusual to be passed by big rigs wanting to make time. The speed limit was 65 mph. We passed a truck doing 58 mph, quite slow for this stretch of road, and pulled in behind a lead truck also doing 58. Lots of oncoming traffic and limited line of sight in places demands care in passing along with keeping an eye out for the idiot coming from behind carelessly attempting to pass everyone at once as fast as their vehicle will go. I repeatedly pulled to the left to see around the truck to check oncoming traffic. Finally, it was clear to pass and I energetically took on the task. As I pulled even with the truck the center of the instrument panel lit up with bright orange warnings and then told me to pull to the side of the road and take a rest. The Lady was more concerned about it than I was. “What’s wrong with the truck? What’s all these warnings? She asked. “I’m passing the truck now,” I replied. “We’ll figure this out when I’m done.” A little further down the road a CHP officer had a big rig pulled over. It appeared there was some sort of enforcement activity going on and truckers were responding by all driving 58 mph. This is what I suspect happened with the truck. I slowed from 63 down to 58. I then sped up and passed the first truck. I slowed to 58. I repeatedly crossed the center line to check oncoming traffic. I accelerated quickly to pass the lead big rig. I guess the truck, in its wisdom, interpreted this as erratic driving, alerted me with orange warnings, and told me to pull off the road and rest. I expect the truck also stored this information and reported it to Ford. The truck and I have had a talk about this. I doubt the truck listened.
We found our friend Donna along Palm Canyon Road. We set up in a nice dispersed campsite down from the parking for the Palm Canyon trailhead.
The Quartzsite and Kofa area was in the middle of a high wind event. Low areas were hazy with blowing dust. Higher ground was clear and we had nice evening light for our vistas from camp.
Wind rocked our campers through the night, but in our selection, we thought this site was a bit more sheltered from the wind. The wind remained strong in the morning. The Lady and I still took on “our morning wander” with coffee mugs.
We headed across the bajada to the north, encountered several large gullies we worked out ways to cross, and finished up by hitting a series of high points where it was near impossible to stand with the wind gusts.
I can proudly report, not a drop of coffee was spilled.
Understandably, Donna wanted to hole up out of the wind in the comfort of her amazing Tiger Adventure Vehicle. The Lady and me? We are not near that smart and sitting still is so hard. The wind was from the north. We thought the south side of the mountain block would be sheltered, somewhat, from the wind. Our plan was to find the old Indian trail we had investigated from Palm Canyon into Tunnel Mine Canyon to the north and see if it continued south from Palm Canyon. What would we find in a day of hiking and exploration?
The mountain block is near vertical. The canyons carved into it are impossibly steep and difficult to enter. It is spectacular!
The old Indian trail exists, running to the south from Palm Canyon.
Our first discovery was an old cowboy or prospector camp up against a boulder. The stacked firewood was beyond fragile. We touched nothing.
We came to an ancient habitation site on a bench above the wash.
We found very faded petroglyphs on the rock.
Finding these sites more than made up for battling the wind. We, of course, kept track of the landscape and our location with our downloaded USGS topo maps. We explored into Old Palm Canyon as far as we dared. We found no old palm or any palms at all.
We also looked into the impossible Fishtail Canyon.
The area was a bit sheltered from the wind – in places - and we had a great day. The wind died down overnight. We were able to sit out and watch the stars. The good thing about the wind was it kept other campers – within sight of our spot – inside and quiet. The next morning Donna started for home and the Lady and I headed into a new area of Kofa for us.
Our first destination was Burro Canyon. We set up in a nice campsite north of the canyon’s mouth on High Tanks Road. The road into Burro Canyon was around five miles in length. We’d hike up it and even further the next day. We find so much more when we hike. We made an initial walk into Burro Canyon in the late afternoon. The winds had calmed.
Evening light engulfed us as we returned to camp.
After we returned from our night walk, we sat out and watched the stars. Coyotes erupted in song around us. This was a peaceful place.
In the morning, we were in for a surprise. After our morning wander, as we made breakfast, overlanders started driving by our camp, a line of vehicles adorned in the usual fashion – roof top tents, toppers, towing expedition trailers. Twenty-two vehicles drove by, all together, a parade. Can you imagine the impact of twenty-two vehicles camping together? Is this allowed? Is a special use permit required for large groups? This was unbelievable. We called them “The Dust Eaters.” And it took a long long long long time for the dust of their passing to settle. We left camp before it did.
We enjoyed our hike up Burro Canyon. We investigated everything that caught our eyes.
There are a series of developed water sites – tanks – in the canyon. The road ends at De La Osa well.
By our standards Burro Canyon was a busy place. We encountered three groups – one was a group of two overland trucks, two was two couples in two side by side ATVs (from now on we call them wind-up toys), and three was a group of 5 men, each with a wind-up toy. We waved to the group in the trucks. The 5 men on the toys never saw us, we just stepped off the side of the road when they approached. The couples (rain birds from the Tacoma, WA area) with two wind-up toys were pleasant and the Lady bonded with the two women. They were impressed Julie could hike as far as they saw. The group of 5 men ate lunch at De La Osa well and left their trash on the ground. The Lady and I picked it up and the couples carried it out for us. Thank you!
We continued further up the canyon to find High Tank number 8.
There was no water as with many of the tanks in Kofa this year.
We climbed above and up to a high dry fall.
All other visitors had left when we started back down the canyon.
High up in a side canyon was High Tank number 7.
This tank still held water!
Quail and other birds were abundant here with the water source. We climbed above to explore. This is not easy terrain.
We returned to Burro Canyon and did a serious bushwhack to investigate what we named “Mummy Rock.” Kofa Queen Canyon has Skull Rock, Burro Canyon has Mummy Rock.
Shadows were well into the canyon as we hiked back to camp.
I should note that after the string of 22 vehicles drove by us this morning, we dropped the camper top and moved to a campsite up Burro Canyon Road and off the road from Quartzsite. This was a good decision. No one drove by during our stay here.
This had been a good day and we were just getting started with our Kofa adventure.
Our adventure continues. Please click here for Part Two.
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