When we had stayed out the permitted two weeks in KoFA, we decided to explore Cibola Road, which traverses 45 miles between US 95 and Cibola Lake on the Colorado River. Most of the road is good, but there are several areas I wouldn’t drive an RV over, and they are at the far end, so no turning around unless you want to drive 35 or 40 miles back out. According to the map, this 45 mile dirt road is the only way into the lake…not true. It took us close to 2 hours to drive the road, and we arrived only to discover pavement, giant snowbird RVs, and the wildlife refuge headquarters. So basically we spent 2 hours driving a crap road when we could have come cruising in on the pavement.

Anyway, I’ve camped Cibola before and didn’t like it. This time was way different. Before, I was stuck in an abysmal spot called “Hippie Hole”. It was the first year of CoVID, March or April, I forget which because I have blocked it out. I suppose it didn’t help that it was 100 degrees and the place was jammed. It was only a few feet from the river, but you couldn’t access the river because the bank is impassible in most spots, and in the couple of spots where it was not impassible, people had set up elaborate camps and claimed the entire riverfront. I think I stayed for two nights and fled in disgust.

This year we camped in the desert a bit south of headquarters, on the Arizona side (Hippie Hole is, I believe, on the California side). We were only 3 miles from headquarters, so I rode my trike around the “auto tour loop”. The weather was fabulous, the skyscapes incredible and there was a great little riparian area with a nature trail. I saw hordes of Snow Geese, many ducks, and some Sandhill Cranes that were grazing in a corn field.

Cibola Wildlife Refuge