Palm Canyon - Kofa National Wildlife Refuge

Chance meeting at the laundromat

Last week in Yuma, I finally broke down and found a laundromat.  While there, a woman says Hello and asks if I'm Anne - I was so surprised!  Turns out I met Anne (yes, we're both Anne) and her husband Bill at Silver Falls State Park in Oregon a couple years ago.  Wow, she has a good memory - Anne also follows my blog.  As we chat, she tells me that they are camp hosts at Palm Canyon.  Oh yay, this gives me more confidence to visit Kofa after my stay at Imperial Dam.

Kofa mountains from my new site

New camp on Palm Canyon Road

As I drive along looking for suitable campsites, I see a large area off the road aways - it's good to be a little way of the road and away from the dust that cars throw up - and look, there's a small fiberglass trailer - maybe it's someone I met at the Quartzite rally!

Anyway, I pull off the road and then get out to scout around.  I've been surprised before when the road suddenly drops down into a wash.

View out into the desert; set up for sunset!

Meeting one of my inspirations for boondocking!

As I walk around, I'm taking a closer look at the little trailer - hmmmm . . . it's a Scamp, white tow vehicle with a solar panel on top . . . I check the back bumper on the trailer - omg, there's a familiar antenna!  I think that my neighbor is RVSue ( www.rvsueandcrew.net ) - later as I'm setting up camp, I hear two small dogs barking - that seals the deal - gotta be Sue.

Later, I take a walk and introduce myself - Sue is almost finished waxing her trailer!  Now, I'm really feeling bad about my filthy dirty, bug-spattered trailer (mind you, not bad enough to actually wash it).  I met the canine crew but after saying hello, they retreat to shade and their bones.  I had a nice visit with Sue before leaving her to enjoy her extremely shiny home (and a big bowl of popcorn).

Palm Canyon Hike

Short, but rugged hike traces about .5 mile up into the canyon before you see a narrow draw off to the left and up in the cleft - are palm trees!  Apparently, you can walk/clamber-over-rock and follow the draw up past the visible palms to a point where the draw takes another sharp turn to the top of the mountain, with a lot more palms to be seen there.  However, it's not recommended unless you are in good shape and don't mind some rock climbing - also, they warn about snakes.

Entry to the canyon

Palm trees near the top of the draw - the sun hadn't quite lit them up yet.

A look back down from inside the Canyon

It took me quite awhile to hike into the canyon.  I kept getting stopped by the birdsong echoing off the canyon walls, or the flowers, once I stopped to watch a hawk spiraling upwards in the morning thermals.  The deeper I climbed into the canyon, the more I noticed a slight dampness and the smell of the plants.

The desert is starting to bloom!

It's later than I thought!

Despite the warm days, I was thinking that it was still too early and the ground too cold for snakes to come out of hibernation.  But today, I saw my second rattlesnake in a week.

I thought this one was dead on the the road, so I stopped to take a picture.  As I approached (carefully), it proved to be very much alive and none to happy.  I guess if I had just gotten up after a long sleep and hadn't had time for breakfast or the snake equivalent of a strong cup of coffee before the popparazi started buzzing around with their cameras, I'd  be a bit peevish too.

Hope she made it out of the middle of the road!

Now, I have another thing to worry about when FW takes walks around the trailer!  No going into the bushes for her!

Kitty Corner

FW exploring the fire pit

And, of course, another super sunset!