Q Mountain and Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

(Clicking on the pictures will open them larger in a new window.)

Thursday, March 23, 2017

We have been talking about taking a ride over to Q Mountain so today we stopped talking about it and did it. I would like to be able to climb up so I could say I did but sitting below I knew there was no way my right knee would be able to make the trip back down. We then followed a road to the west as far as a wash. We decided far enough, we have made it through worse but the road ahead look more suited for ATV's then Jeeps.

Some pictures taken at the wash where we decided to turn back.

The yellow flowering bushes are beautiful.

After taking the pictures above we talked about it and decided to take a short ride into the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. We turned in at Crystal Hill/Pipeline Rd. Our short ride turned into about three hours and the scenery was beautiful. (This area will be in several more Blog Titles in the next few days.) 
If you are into rock-hounding and collecting the only place it is allowed, in the refuge, is within the boundaries of the Crystal Hill Area. There are very specific instructions at a Kiosk in this area. (This is not something we are interested in doing at this time so we continued without getting out to explore.)

We could see the Kofa Mountains as we turned off of AZ 95.

Our first stop was at the Kiosk. Besides the information provided, pictured
below, they have brochures available with information about the refuge
 that includes a map. The map lists most of  the roads and what type they are,
either any high clearance vehicle or 4 wheel drive recommended.
After taking one of the 4 wheel roads today we would say take the
recommendation as fact. We were down and up quite a few washes.There 
was nothing to steep, on the roads we were on today, but we did encounter 
several very rocky areas including a couple of hills where we did some slow 
rock crawling and encountered loose gravel at the same time .Plus, the road 
was very narrow, (trees, bushes, and saguaros close to the road), in spots and a 
large four wheel drive vehicle would have had fun getting through.

We are on the Pipeline Road and according to the brochure the New Water Mountains are on our left.

The Kofa Mountains are on our right.

Basically, every direction has breathtaking views.

We turned onto a 4 wheel drive road towards Scott Well and  Jasper Spring. We went past Scott Well but did not go all the way to the Jasper Spring, looking at the time we decided it was better to head out of the refuge. Looking at the map we turned onto road (1) which would take us to MST&T Road and back to AZ 95.

Scott Well from the road above.

Some of the flat part of the 4 wheel drive road.

Two views of the same hill.

When I got out to take a picture of one of the cactus below these flowers 
were growing through the rocks on the side of the road. 
It is amazing to me that these little tiny beautiful flowers are able 
to take root and survive in such a harsh environment.

We are now on Road (1).

Reaching  MST&T Road we had a choice left or right. Left would takes us to AZ 95 and right, according to the map, would take us to the MST&T Tower. You probably can guess which way we went first from the picture below. Seriously, how could we be on the MST&T Road and not go up to the tower?

Pictures taken of the views going up to and down from the tower.

The views at the top standing near the tower.

On the left the tower in the distance as we are headed up
to it. On the right we can see it in the distance from the
road as we circle around towards AZ 95.

Caught a glimpse of pink on the side of the road and when we stopped
we saw these two cacti in bloom.

One last look at the Kofa Mountains behind us.

The sun setting on what has been another wonderful day on this
"Our Third Adventure".

"Take it all one day at a time

and enjoy the journey."

~Kristi Bartlett

Hope you had a wonderful day. 

If you have a moment to leave a comment we would love hearing from you.