Kofa National Wildlife Refuge: Herd of Mountain Sheep

Our eighth day here, and we saw a beautiful herd of them, on a hike far away from any trails and people.

Our second camp site at Kofa:

Photos of the sheep:

Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, AZ

Kofa is the King of Arizona Wildlife Refuge.  It is south of Quartzsite, Arizona, and north of Yuma, Arizona.

Kofa was a project of the Boy Scouts, in the 1930s, who raised money to preserve the few Desert Bighorn Sheep remaining there. 

We haven't explored much of it yet, having spent our first six days in the same spot.  There is a limit of 14 days in any calendar year, so we will use up all of our allotted time easily, and return next year.

Our campsite:

During our stay at this first campsite in Kofa we had our 100th hike of 2016.  Some spectacular desert views.  We found old roads and walked them.  These roads have not been used for decades, which we could tell because of the size of the Cholla cacti and other plants that were growing in the middle of them.  They were probably closed when the refuge was started in the late 1930s.

Five star restaurant on Public Lands

To be able to live 4-5 months in one stretch in a slide-in pickup camper we have found that certain luxuries of living at home need to be maintained.  

Perhaps the most important is eating well.  We are fine with taking 30-second showers outdoors while shivering in a wind.  We can dig holes outside or use plastic wag-bags for pooping, or wear one set of clothes and underwear while another set is airing out in the wind to be worn the next day.  We can live in a camper where the floor area is approximately 2 feet by 6 feet.   We can be relatively comfortable sleeping at 40 degrees in our camper. 

 But we can't spend 4-5 months eating cold sandwiches and packets of oatmeal.

We start our day with coffee:

Vicky's breakfasts are just like at home---her homemade granola (bags and bags of it stuffed into hidden places in the pickup when we leave home) and yogurt.

My breakfasts are scrambled eggs, with soysage, turkey bacon, canadian bacon, or any leftover meat from the previous day's meal.  Just like at home:

Soy sausage (soysage), warmed pork and beans, and scrambled eggs:

Scrambled eggs, Canadian bacon, and hamburger stroganoff for me, and yogurt with fruit for Vicky:

Turkey bacon, fried potatoes, and scrambled eggs:



When return from our hikes, we have a large plate of fresh veggies:



And dinners?  Wow.

Hamburger stroganoff over black bean noodles with green beans:

Hamburger deluxe:

With so many toppings that it is difficult to get it into your mouth!  A Dagwood sandwich.

Chicken breast with fried potatoes:

Mexican beef casserole, one of our favorites:

Vicky making a meatloaf from my mother's recipe:

How is this for fine dining!  Meatloaf and green beans:

We eat tacos frequently:

Salmon melts:

Tuna/noodle casserole with poblano peppers:

Salmon and fried potatoes:

Roast beef:

And sometimes we combine all of these.  One night Vicky had her meatloaf as tacos, while I had mine with pork and beans (cold----NOBODY should heat pork and beans).



Thanksgiving, 2016:

and leftovers!  We always have leftovers that are as good or better than the first time.  Here is the leftover chili, ready for four more meals:

Dessert:  DESSERT!!!

Vicky makes me pumpkin pie without crust.  Choosing my calories I would rather have whipping cream than the crust.  I don't miss it.

All of this is basically healthy eating, mostly food prepared from scratch, leaving some room for treats.  This type of eating, along with averaging about 5.5 miles/day of hiking, results in a pretty healthy lifestyle.

Now, let's not neglect mentioning that Vicky takes total charge of this part of our road life together.  We have found that we need a clear division of labor to make it work, so my part is just to eat and appreciate.  I have my jobs, too, but they are not nearly as creative....or delicious!  (basically, without going into a lot of detail, I am responsible for managing the food AFTER it is eaten---if you get my drift).

Heading into the wind

We were going to stay another night in the Comanche National Grasslands, but a weather report changed that.

The report was for winds that could reach 60 mph, and possible showers in the evening.  Showers are a problem when you are two miles up a dirt road.

And winds that large can create a lot of problems for a pickup camper. 

First, when driving, the winds buffet you and make you feel like you are going to lose control.  When you are heading into the wind your gas mileage plummets. It is tense driving, and we don't enjoy it.

Second, when stationary, winds above 20 mph rock the camper so much that sometimes it is difficult to sleep.  

So we decided that we needed to get off of our dirt road before any storms hit, and find a spot where we could sit out the storm. 

Vicky, master navigator, found a National Grasslands several miles south, in Texas--the Rita Blanca National Grasslands.  We saw there was a picnic area there, and hoped we might be allowed to stay a night there, or at least close to it.

Success!  The picnic area allows overnight camping.

 

The advantage of this spot is that we have room to maneuver our camper so that it is facing the wind.  When it is stationary and facing the wind, even strong gusts don't rock it.  The winds were predicted to change from being from the south west, to the west, and then to the north west.  Every few hours I went out and moved it a bit to face a different direction. 

The picnic area also is on a good gravel road a short distance from a highway.  So we are not worried about getting out in the morning.

And there are bathrooms (pit toilets, but that's good enough for us)!  And trash cans!   And, not to our surprise, no one else there so it was quiet.  It was actually kind of cozy.

So bright and early this morning we head toward Arizona where we will stock up on needed supplies. Then we begin the second half of Road Trip 6 ,which will be in the southwest deserts.  We have really enjoyed our time in the midwest National Grasslands, but winter is coming and it will soon be too cold to enjoy them.

We will be back next year.  On to the desert!

Camping and hiking in the Comanche National Grasslands, CO

We camped in two spots for a total of 8 days and nights.  Very quiet, isolated, peaceful, and beautiful. Full of interesting history.

The hikes were spectacular.  We hiked 45 miles.  The hikes had a terrific combination of beauty, variety, and history:

Balanced rock:

Arch rock:

There was a very old cemetery.  We couldn't find anything about it on line:

Died in 1910.

Died in 1884.

Many deep canyons.

One of our maps had this spot marked as a "mine."  Since we have crawled and sweated to dozens of mines in the past five years we wanted to find it.  Well worth our while.

What we found was a mining road to it:

And then a series of large, flat terraces.  What was "mined" here is a mystery.  Never seen anything like it. 

In a valley below this "mine" was a lovely stand of trees.

And along the cliffs were hundreds of what appeared to be swallow's nests.  There were several clusters like this one:

And an area along the cliffs where there appeared to be old etchings.  Not from Native Americans, but possible some from people who worked the "mine" above it.

This one made us wonder if J.S. was buried below it.  It sort of looks like a gravestone.  We are good at making up stuff, though.  But look at the other dates:  1902, 1938.

1861?

We could find nothing on-line about the history of this area.

There are remnants of several homesteads in this part of the Comanche Grasslands.  Apparently they are from well over 100 years old.  Here are photos of the ones we found (they are all different ones):

 
 One beautiful spot we found was called Sand Canyon.  Here are some photos from this area: