Month: March 2020

A wonderful week at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

After getting ourselves all cleaned up -laundry, grocery shopping, dumping waste tanks, filling up fresh water – we headed to Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to meet friends. This is yet more classic boondocking. We stay on a spot off of King Valley Road, about a mile from US 95, 30 miles south of Quartzsite. Kofa stands for “King of Arizona”, the name of a significant mine in the area. They stamped their bullion with the initials, and it stuck. And yes, the refuge is capitalized as I show it here (weird I know). We arrived on a Wednesday just after lunch, and we stayed until this morning, an entire week.

We mostly just relaxed, but we did do some 4WD roads in the area. The trip to the North Star Mine (and driving by the nearby King of Arizona) was the highlight.

Bell shaped greenish white flowers
Double good x flowers and a lizard
These were probably the most numerous
Lots of these too in big bushes, especially near the road
More than one here
The ocotillos were mostly past blooming. I find them the most interesting structural plant.

Oh, and there were some interesting ruins too.

A little window above North Star Mine
North Star Mine. Much larger than it appears in this picture. The tanks were probably 10’ high or more.
Close up of part of King of Arizona
A big picture view of the part of King of Arizona we could see
A very old “tank” along the road to North Star  used to hold water for wildlife
An old well bore, maybe 8” in diameter. We put the cap back on
Pile of soft white material, maybe 30’ x 20’.

I have no idea what the white stuff is. The best I found out is a reference to a well 5 miles south of King of Arizona and supported an ore concentrator. I saw no signs of a mill, but there were some old metal fragments characteristic of the time. The well and white pile were right next to an obvious spring, so my guess is this is the concentrator.

We took a trip on another day to the Horse Tanks. They are natural water holes that have been enlarged by the Wildlife Service for game. Another gorgeous area.

The water from the hills comes down the wash resulting in lush vegetation
The start of the trail to Horse Tanks
The Jeep in the landscape. Love the ocotillo
Just an interesting weathered area in the rocks
The lower Horse Tank. There is another above the pour over shown.

I have also been sewing. I have completed 3 quilt tops to be donated at the FMCA rally, so I haven’t only been goofing off. Oh, and I have gotten Kevin addicted to the Australian series Brokenwood Mysteries. I either download them (poor service spot) or stream them (good service location).