Cibola NWR, Gargoyle Canyon, and Julian

 Maybe a better title would have been Birds, Bees and Beer. Lol. Keep reading, you'll see. On Tuesday, 2/15, we had a blustery drive to Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. There are three dry camping options near the refuge and we ended up with a good spot on Oxbow Lake at the BLM campground. The Oxbow Recreation and Wildlife Area has several camping areas spread out around the lake. The camp host was super helpful and took Rog around to show him what was available. We picked a spot facing the lake with easy water access for Riley.

 

Our spot on Oxbow Lake.

Then we spent the remainder of the day hunkered down exclaiming over the crazy winds and the dust! There was so much dust in the air, you could barely see across the water and the mountains totally disappeared. The impact on visibility is so bad it gets its own weather advisory. Think blizzard white-out, only in beige. Ugh.  We were glad the winds only lasted one day and then we had clear skies and a lovely full moon.

 

Dust....No dust.
What a difference a little wind can make.

Moonrise over Oxbow Lake.

The primary reason we’re here is to visit the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was established in 1964 as mitigation after dam construction on the Colorado River. It spans both sides of the river with units in Arizona and California and provides important habitat for migratory and resident birds, especially the vast flocks of snow geese and Sandhill cranes. Although we visited late in the season, there were still several flocks hanging around.

 

Flocks of snow geese at Cibola NWR.

The geese take flight.

Sandhill cranes.

We walked the nature trail and drove the Goose Loop auto tour several times both in the day and evening. We saw plenty of the more common birds: ducks, quail, kestrels, wrens, and a friendly hummingbird. I was super bummed that we had no luck sighting the resident burrowing owls. They have habitats built all along the auto tour, but none deigned to come out and make our acquaintance.

 

Hummingbird posing near the visitors center.

Duck, Duck, Goose!

Plenty of habitats, but no burrowing owls in sight.

In addition to the 288 species of birds recorded at Cibola NWR, mule deer, coyote and bobcats are common. Hoping for some wildlife sightings, we drove at dusk past the Hart Mine Marsh to the Cibola Lake Overlook. No love from the furry critters, but the scenery was stunning and we saw a line up of cormorants doing their best Cirque du Soleil impression above the Colorado River.  

 

Birds on a wire.

View from Cibola Lake Overlook.

Hart Mine Marsh.

Evening light on the hills.

While we were at Oxbow, Rog found another short slot canyon hike on Google maps. Gargoyle Canyon. That sounded like fun and it was dog friendly so Riley got to go too! We drove down a sandy wash and parked near the entrance to the canyon. Riley was a trooper and scrambled up and over several boulders and along granite ledges. Then we came to a pour-over that was about 5 feet tall. Nope. He waited while Rog and I took turns exploring a little further. The canyon ended just a few hundred yards past the pour-over, so he didn’t miss much. 😊  The best part, we had it all to ourselves. We didn't see another soul the whole time we were in the canyon.

We drove down the sandy wash and parked.
Yay 4WD.

 

Riley isn't too sure about Gargoyle Canyon. 

Trail dog mode.

Raptor nest, faces and feathers.
Interesting finds along the way.

Just love slot canyons!

Dad can climb, Riley says this is the end of the trail.

I'll guard the snacks. 😏

Pictures of the hike on Google showed a weird fin shaped rock formation, or so we thought. We kept a lookout and spotted several. I took pictures and when I zoomed in, realized they were beehives high in the cliff walls! How cool is that! We saw the bees flying in and out and you could clearly see the honeycombs.

 

Bee hives in the cliff wall. Too cool. 

We left Oxbow on Friday, 2/18, and headed west. Along Hwy 78 we passed a virtual parade of RV’s and trucks towing a wide variety of Off-Road Vehicles all converging on the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area. There were miles of dunes and dozens of ORV’s scurrying like tiny ants this way and that. Lots of boondocking opportunities too, it looked like fun!

 

Fun on the dunes.

Imperial Sand Dunes along Hwy 78.

Our destination, however, was Stagecoach Trails, a private RV park near Julian, CA. Julian is a fun tourist town known for its pies. There are four, count ‘em FOUR, highly rated bakeries in a town with a population of 1,019. Lol. It’s definitely a destination for carbaholics! It didn’t hurt our feelings either to find that it had a very good brewery with excellent pizza and BBQ.  We happily contributed to the local economy, enjoying the shops, lunch at the Julian Beer Company and brought home some amazing apple dumplings and a whole Bumbleberry pie. That ought to keep us in carbs for a while. 😊

Fun shopping, and...

...excellent pies, and...

...a couple of pints, pizza, and smoked wings. 
A very good day.

 Stagecoach Trails was interesting too. It’s addressed off the Great Southern Overland Stage Route of 1849. The route is part of the historic Butterfield Overland Mail Route that, from 1857 to 1861, carried passengers and mail from Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California. The RV park had a whole section dedicated to the horse crowd, with corrals and lots of western themed buildings, art, and landscaping.  Riley loved the big dog park. They even had tunnels large enough for him to go through, but he was having no part of that. Lol.

Relaxing at Stagecoach Trails.

 

Fun western themed artifacts.

The namesake stagecoach.

A Riley sized dog run.

Riley says, "Nope, nope, nope."

I’ve mentioned the Escapees RV Club that we joined last year a couple of times and our next stop is related to that. Jojoba Hills SKP RV Resort is an Escapees (abbreviated SKPs) co-op. Members can also visit if space is available. The amenities look fantastic and we’re really excited to check it out. Hope we like it, because we’ve booked a week there!