KofA Wildlife Refuge
KoFA wildlife refuge is a spot I return to every year. This year though, I bypassed the Crystal Hills area where I usually go and continued south to King Valley. The road into King Valley is quite good, better than Crystal Hills, but it’s 15 miles or so south, so further from Quartzsite (which is a good thing) and there’s no cell service, not even the crappy service you get out of Quartzsite at Crystal Hills. The only downside to King Valley is that it’s all wilderness so you can’t camp more than 100 feet from the road. I found this out the hard way by getting busted for being 400 feet off the road. The person who busted me was totally unimpressed by my explanation of how I came to camp in a non-sanctioned area and promptly erected a new “do not drive here” sign to keep me in line on future trips.
I rode about 8 miles down the road from our campsite but didn’t make it to the mine site (KofA stands for “King of Arizona”, an old mine). Maybe another year. Instead, I contented myself with gazing at the whimsical shapes of the mountains visible from our campsite.
Moonrise in King Valley
King Valley mountains near sundown