(Still Catching up 2 of 3) A Jeep ride into the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge with Friends

January 29, 2018

We were up and ready to head out at 8:30AM this morning for a ride into the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. Tom and I asked Patsy and Bill to join us and they said, yes. With cameras in hand we piled into the Jeep and off we went. The sky was a beautiful blue and with a promise of a warm day it was the perfect day for a ride. We let them pick the road to head down and they choose the one at Mile 95 which is listed as the Pipeline Road.

Our first stop to snap some pictures of the wonderful desert plants.

Cute, as long as you never get to close Teddy Bear Cholla 
with all its little ones surrounding it.

Patsy spotted a green Ocotillo.
The first one we have seen this year.

They have such tiny green leaves and picky thorns.

A Staghorn Cholla

Patsy and Bill at the Crystal Hill Area

They see a cave above.

Tom and Bill definitely stopped to talk about something there in the wash.

What I believe is a Creosote Bush with tiny little puff balls on it. 

Field of Saguaros

We had turned down the road towards Scott Well.
Right in the center is the top of the windmill.

I looked down, thought snap a picture, and I liked it.

Up by the MST&T Tower.
 It does not matter what direction you look
the views are all wonderful.

The browns, the greens, the blue sky all add to the feast for the eyes to see. 

No matter how many times we ride up this rode and
see this view I would never get tired of it.

The beauty of the mountains is breathtaking.

The stately Saguaros, Teddy Bear Cholla, and Ocotillo  cover the desert
with their special beauty and it all seems to go on forever.

The Tower

From here we drove back out to 95 turned right and headed back to LaPosa South. Arriving back we took the Stinger "B" for a much needed ride to take care of "business", emptying two tanks and filling a third.  After finishing that fun, well Tom has the fun I just go along for the ride, Tom parked us back in our spot. It was that time of day, Happy Hour, so we grabbed some cool drinks, our chairs and walked over to Patsy and Bill's to join them along with Suzie and George and Brenda and Len who made a surprise appearance. This time always goes by fast with lively conversation; a little after 5 it is time to pick up our chairs and head home for dinner. Looking back, without a doubt, it was a good day. 

The  sun sets on what was a wonderful day spent with friends. 

         Tom and I love the beauty of the desert and feel lucky to be here in this time and moment.

                                                             Hope you had a good day.

                       If you would like to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.

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.