Camping in the Littlehorn Mountains desert wilderness: Beauty and mystery in Mystery Valley

We went camping in the Littlehorn Mountains east of KOFA Wildlife Refuge.  It was a real test of our Rat (Toyota 4Runner) and Quail (Teardrop camper that follows behind).  Some of the roads were steep, rough, and narrow. 

We had an hour and a half of off-road travel, on roads where we saw only one other vehicle all of the time we were there (a Jeep....plus a few OHVs).

Everything performed admirably.

We got some more "desert pin stripes" on both the Rat and the Quail.  The sleeping quarters for the Quail are very narrow, barely larger than a twin bed (not a typo--not even close to a double bed size).  But if we had chosen a unit a foot wider then there are some places where we simply shouldn't try to take it. 

We needed to use 4-wheel drive to get in and out of the area.  The 4Runner was also a terrific choice.  It will go almost anywhere an OHV can go, but is a real car--one you can drive to the grocery store and look good in it (well, sans the pin stripes, I guess).

Here is our campsite.  It was beautiful.  As we said, almost nobody around.  A few OHVs is all, so in the 3-4 days we were there we were interrupted maybe 5 minutes total by other people driving their OHVs out on the "main road" (ha ha--it was a dirt/rock trail at best).  

Just what we seek.

We took three very nice hikes.

We saw a lot of wildlife, including Bighorn Sheep (barely can see them in this photo, but we could see them through our binoculars).  We hoped they didn't feel insecure that they were living in the "Little"horn Mountains.  We shouted to them:  "YOU HAVE BIG HORNS!! HONEST!"

Lots of lizards, including a Horned Toad (what Dan knew as a Horny Toad as a child in Oklahoma):

This was the type of reptile that Kevin Corcoran traded to Chuck Connors (i.e., later the Rifleman) for Old Yeller.



A three-foot rattler we almost stepped on!

It coiled up, ready to strike if we didn't take it seriously (which we, uh, did):

Later we identified it as a Western Diamondback.

We found an old mine, which is not unusual for our hikes.  What is not typical is that two of the ore carts were left behind.  There is a lot of valuable material in these carts.  Somebody must have had to leave in a hurry, but why no one else has taken them in the past 100 years we will never know.

We had delicious meals:

We don't do the peanut butter and jelly thing.  We eat well.....thanks to Vicky's skill.

But, HEY!  I have skills too, like filling the Toyota with gas:

and pounding down our tin cans for the trash.  



We had beautiful sunrises:

One of our hikes was particularly interesting, and beautiful....and mysterious.  We found a road on our GPS and decided to follow it.  It was clear, right away, that nobody had been on this road for many many years, not even OHVs. The grass had grown over it:







It is almost always the case that where there is a road, even an old one, there is a reason for it at the end.  So we traveled about two miles on it to find the end.

In doing so, we found that the road had been washed out in many places.  Even hiking (instead of driving) we had difficulty at times finding a way of crossing where it had been washed out.

We traveled through an absolutely beautiful valley, with mountains on either side.  The road kept going until we got close to the peak in the above photo.

Then?   Nothing!  It just ended.

And it ended at a very large dry fall:

And above this dry fall was a jumble of rocks.  Nothing visible.

Why was this road even here?  Usually what we find is at least one thing indicating civilization---some old wood, rusted cans, etc.  But at the end of this road?  Nothing.  Many hundreds of man-hours to build a road, for no reason we could even imagine. 

Even toward the top it was clear that large boulders had been moved to create the road.  See the wall to Vicky's left?  That took a lot of work.  Why?

This is sometimes what we find going our own way in the desert:  Mysteries.

Because of its beauty and mystery we decided we needed a name for it, since it has been one of our favorite of our 700+ hikes.

We named it "Mystery Valley."  

Who were the people who were here?  What did they experience?

Why was this road here?

The answers are left to our imaginations.