Kofa, Picacho, and the Main Event!

On Sunday, 3/12, we arrived for four nights at Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, a favorite camping spot on last year’s trip. Named for the nearby King of Arizona mine, Kofa NWR was established in 1939 for the protection of desert bighorn sheep. Over 80 percent of the 666,641-acre refuge is wilderness and much of the adjacent land is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and both are open for boondocking! Woohoo!

 

We just love boondocking at Kofa!

We got set up at a site close to where we parked last year and Carole and I walked to the Spiral. The Spiral is a 60 feet in diameter perfect spiral labyrinth that you can see from Google Earth view. Who and when it was created is a mystery. We had a fairly good idea (or so we thought) of where it was located, so took off across the desert hardpack. We overshot our mark by quite a bit and had to backtrack and it turned out the Spiral was nearly directly across from our campsite. 🙄 Oh well, we needed the steps. Lol.

 

Pretty amazing view from our campsite.

The origins of the Spiral remain a mystery.

We had a very relaxing stay at Kofa, enjoying fireside happy hours and beautiful sunrises (compliments of Raney) and sunsets. This is getting to be one of our favorite camping spots. It's a great place to just chill for a bit.

 

Raney and Riley - camping bookends. Lol. 

This sunrise is brought to you by... Raney!

Sunrise over Kofa. 

Sunset - these I don't mind so much. Lol. 

We did the Palm Canyon hike with the puppers on Tuesday to see the only native palm trees in Arizona. These California Fan Palms are remnants from an earlier age, probably descendants of palms that grew here after the last ice age. As the climate warmed to desert conditions, the palms only survived in the favorable microclimates of a few very narrow ravines; fewer than 100 trees remain today.

Carole, Bob and Ruby on the hike to Palm Canyon.

Rog, Raney and Riley on the short, but rocky hike to the Palms.

Loved the wildflowers along the trail.

Palm Canyon viewpoint.

Wednesday was laundry day. Carole and I completely filled the huge cargo area of the Pupwagon (our Honda Element) with a couple weeks’ worth of washing and headed to Quartzsite in search of a laundromat. The first two were super busy, but third time was the charm and we managed to snag enough machines to get everything going at once. With that chore out of the way, we walked around the flea market area. It was a bit of a let down after the huge array of vendors that we saw last year during the big RV Rally, but we still managed to pick up a few things. Then we met Rog and Bob at Silly Al’s for pizza and more of our favorite Big Blue Van!

 

No day is a bust that ends with Big Blue Van. Lol.

We picked a good day for an indoor dinner because we had some very interesting weather that day. Huge storm clouds and a lightning show that lasted for hours! Lucky for us it was off in the distance, so we had great entertainment without getting drenched. Lol. Note that this next sequence of photos were taken in just over an hour - that's how fast the weather and light changed. I wasn't able to capture the lightning but it lasted well into the night.

 

Loved the drama in black and white.

And now, finally, we get to share a new campground! We pulled into Picacho State Park near Picacho, AZ on Thursday, 3/16. We’d read great things about the park trails, and it was a perfect place to stage for the “big event”. Yes, I’ll tell you about that in a minute. Promise! Picacho, which I very much wanted to pronounce like the Pokémon character, but sadly it is not. It’s actually from a Spanish word meaning “a large pointed isolated hill” and is pronounced pi·​ca·​cho - pə̇ˈkä(ˌ)chō. Sigh. It’s more fun my way!

Picacho Peak State Park, a great place to stay any way you say it.

Tiny lightning-attack Pokémon creature or tall isolated hill – either way, Picacho State Park was a winner! We were glad we’d made reservations because the campground was completely full when we arrived. The spaces were spread out with lots of vegetation between and the trails did not disappoint. You can hike to the top of Picacho Peak, but we saved that for another time. Earlier this year, Rog redid the wet bay on the coach and installed a new faucet with a mixer valve and longer hose. We tested it out by giving both Raney and Riley a bath. It worked great, but they weren’t as thrilled with it as we were. Lol.

Picacho Peak is in the middle.

Bath time for the babies!
Not sure who was wetter, them or us. Lol.

On Friday, we walked the Calloway Trail to see the wildflowers. With the wet spring the desert is in full bloom, and it is bringing the tourists and photographers out in droves. When we pulled out of the park around 9am on Saturday, the trailhead parking lots were already full and the line to get in the gate was easily over a half mile long!

The wildflowers were gorgeous!
These are California poppies and Coulter's Lupine.

 

Spikey cactus and delicate blossoms.
The birds apparently like both!

Purple Mat, Ocotillo, and Globemallow

A saguaro cactus stands sentinel in a field of flowers. 

Brittlebush glows in the sunshine.

We decided to hit the Costco in Tucson on the way to our next stop. Yes, yes I’ll tell you about it in a minute. Hold your horses. Lol. Anyway, while Carole and I went inside to do the shopping, Rog and Bob unhooked the toads. (Fun fact, Carole and Bob bought the CRV that we had on the big trip, so it may look familiar!) Then, in the Costco parking lot, Ruby made her great escape! She is a darter and loves nothing more than to run away and dance just out of reach. Bob and Carole are working hard on her recall, but Ruby can be… shall we say… a bit mischievous. She charged out the door of their motorhome and around the parking lot with Bob in hot pursuit. Rog joined in the chase, but Ruby was determined to flaunt her newfound freedom. The scary thing was she was racing through the parking lot, dodging under cars and then ran right across the road leading into Costco. Finally, Bob got close enough to get her to sit (she does listen, sometimes!) and was able to get a leash on her. After putting her back in the RV, Bob realized that he’d lost his keys in the mad dash after Ruby. He was looking around the parking lot when one of the guys who gathers up the shopping carts asked if he’d lost something. Bob said he'd dropped his keys and the guy held them up. But what was totally crazy, was that we were all loading up to leave when Rog glanced out and saw something laying on the road near our coach. He went over and it was Bob’s wallet! Dog, keys, wallet – talk about disaster narrowly averted! Bob agrees he was one lucky guy. Whew!

 

Does this angel face look like she could
cause so much trouble?

It was a short drive from the Costco to the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson…drum roll, please…the venue for the 62^nd Escapees Escapade! Huh? What's the big deal, you may ask. Well, let me tell you why we’re so excited to be here. I’ve mentioned the Escapees RV Club before, founded in 1978 by Joe and Kay Peterson who were traveling with their children full-time in an RV and wanted to keep in touch with others like them. To fill this need, they started the Escapees RV Club. The first official publication was a five-page newsletter, written on a portable typewriter, copied and distributed to 164 members. The first Escapade, with just 24 RV’s, was held in Bakersfield, CA in 1979. Fast forward to 2023, this is the 45^th anniversary of the club and the 62^nd Escapade and there were 951 RV’s and 1621 registered attendees! Wow!

 

1978 - Escapee founders Joe and Kay Peterson.
1979 - The very first Escapade.

The club has evolved into a total support network for any type of RV’er with over 180,000 members. The club’s focus is on support, education and community. They also support the CARE center that assists RV’ers who are sick/injured or aging out of the lifestyle. The Escapade was a 5-day event with over 60 seminars, live music and entertainment every evening, a market place for shopping, RV show, fund-raisers for CARE, a huge variety of social gatherings, and so much more!

We arrived on Saturday, 3/18, and were directed by the parking team to our spot for the week. Since we wanted to park next to Bob and Carole, we arrived together and the parking team set us up so we could share a patio space. Perfect for the puppers! The event didn’t officially begin until Sunday, but we were able to register and wander around the fairgrounds. At every single Escapees event we’ve attended or location we’ve visited we have been super impressed by the welcoming inclusive spirit and that certainly held true for this Escapade.

 

We loved being parked nose to tail so we could share a patio space.

We're thrilled to be here!

We had a jam packed week which is why I am sooooo far behind on the blog. I apologize for that, but when the choice is between doing something new and fun or writing about something we already did, you all are just going to have to wait a bit. Lol.  The next post will recap the highlights of the Escapade and our time in Tucson. Have you ever heard of Silent Disco? Would you be interested in finding out if Rog beat me at a shooting match, or if I beat him? Did I suddenly go silver? Tucson Spring Street Fair, Thunder & Lightning Over Arizona Air Show – did I mention we’ve been busy? That’ll all be in the next post!

Everything Old is New Again.

I wish I could say we have new and exciting destinations to share, but this blog post is really going to feel more like déjà vu all over again. Lol. Our route after we left Rian’s on Sunday, 3/5, hit several of the same stops we made last year. Even though we’re almost a month later in the year, the weather has remained decidedly on the chilly side, much more so than last year.

 

Look closely, that's a double rainbow!

Our first stop was Vista Ranch Winery, a Harvest Host location in Merced, CA. This is one of those gems we found several years ago and keep coming back to. It’s conveniently located and it’s always more fun to spend $ on wine and tasty treats than campground fees. We were lucky enough to arrive while the almond orchards adjacent to the winery were still in bloom. We had passing showers (and that gorgeous rainbow!) on our arrival day and blue skies to see us on our way. We took the puppers for several walks through the orchard and they had a blast racing through the trees. The scent of the almond blossoms was heavenly.

Almond tree blossoms. 

 

On a stroll through the orchard.

The walnut trees were bare, but beautiful too.

Such a lovely, peaceful scene... 

...and then here comes the hooligans. Lol. 

Our second stop at Orange Grove RV Park near Bakersfield on Monday, 3/6, was another repeat performance. The campground really is situated in an orange grove and because the blossoms hadn’t set yet, we were able to pick as many fresh oranges as we wanted. The RV park even supplied the fruit pickers and we put them to good use. We will be having fresh squeezed orange juice every morning for the next couple weeks. Lol. Raney also made friends with Nana, a 2 year-old Newfoundland, in the doggie area.

Rog picking our morning oranges. 

 

The fruits of his labor. Lol.

Raney and her new friend, Nana.

Mommy, where did my friend go?

We had booked two nights at Orange Grove with the express purpose of driving over to Indian Wells Brewery in Inyokern, CA to stock up on some of our favorite beverages – their Lunatic Lemonade and hard orange soda. It’s about a three hour round trip though, so we wanted to be sure they had both in stock. I must have called a dozen times and left two messages, but no one ever picked up or returned my calls. We finally decided to skip it since we didn’t want to drive all that way to be disappointed and we knew that was a real possibility since last year they were completely out of the bottled Lunatic Lemonade. Sigh. As a consolation prize, we walked over to the California Fruit Depot and loaded up on some amazing goodies. And free samples of everything!! They have an incredible array of snacks, nuts, fruits, and other delicacies. The next morning I call a call back from Indian Wells. Too little, too late. She apologized and said the guy who works Sunday and Monday won’t answer the phone. Really? Insert eye roll here.

 

California Fruit Depot, always a tasty stop.

Our third stop on Wednesday, 3/8, at Amboy Crater was one we also made last year. Are you sensing a theme here? This time we stayed on I40 longer and passed huge solar arrays and wind farms. Rog says you can tell you’re in the desert when you start seeing the wind generators. It was a little disconcerting and certainly new to see them on snow covered hills!

Snow in the foothills along CA Hwy 58 at Tehachapi Pass.

Wind generators in the snow. A first for us!

An aircraft graveyard in front of the wind machines.
Coincidence or sacrifices to the wind gods?

We had the entire overflow parking area at Amboy Crater all to ourselves, so the pups got lots of off-leash play time. I must say that Miss Raney has started to show some teenage attitude. Rog was playing ball with Riley, so I took her across the road to another sandy wash to play. She saw that Riley had the ball and took off in his direction. When I called her back, she looked over her shoulder at me and clearly understood what I wanted then looked me straight in the eye and turned around and kept on going. In case you think it’s a mother-daughter thing, she did the same to Rog a few days later. Spicy little wench. Lol. Somebody is getting enrolled in obedience class when we get home.

 

Parked at Amboy Crater.

Our handsome sandpuppy.

Looking for trouble. Lol.

Riley and Rog.

Who says naughty doesn't pay. I got the ball!

We walked the pups to the observation point but chose not to do the hike to the crater. It’s only a little over two miles roundtrip, but it’s up the side of a cinder cone and we didn’t think it would be very dog-friendly footing. The signage also said to leave three hours to do the hike, so I’m guessing it’s not an easy two miles. Lol. We did learn that Amboy Crater is 250 feet high and 1,500 feet in diameter. It is situated in one of the youngest volcanic fields in the United States, with its most recent eruption approximately 10,000 years ago. (Still older than me! Lol.)

 

Amboy Crater.

Since we wouldn’t want to mess with our new tradition of no new places 😊, our next stop on Thursday, 3/9, was La Paz County Park near Parker, AZ. We stayed here for a week last year and really enjoyed it. Last year it was all first come/first served and we got super lucky and scored a site right on the river. This year the park had adopted a reservation system and we somehow ended up in the exact same spot as last year and we even had the exact same neighbors on both sides! Hilarious. Most of the regulars come down from Canada and stay for six months. They are delightful folks, and it was fun to see them again.

 

Site #208. We were so lucky to get the same spot twice.

We also planned to meet our friends Bob and Carole and their pup Ruby at La Paz on Thursday, 3/9. Bob and Carole left Washington a week after we did and managed to hit a weather window to made it down I5 over Siskiyou Pass. Our route and destinations were all different, but after leaving Amboy Crater, we were driving down Hwy 62 when Carole texted me to ask where we were, because she though they might be just a mile behind us. They were! Wow, we couldn’t have timed it that well if we tried. We pulled into La Paz together and got set up in our riverside spots. Ruby is Raney’s BFF and a favorite of Riley’s too, so the puppy reunion was joyful!

Best friends together again.

 Speaking of puppers, how is it traveling with the two big dogs? Glad you asked. And if you didn’t, just skip this part. Rog and I are now Olympic-class dog vaulters. I swear they insist on laying in the most inconvenient spot possible. Most importantly, they are doing great together. Riley has become so much more tolerant of Raney and she has learned to read his mood a lot better. Watching them jockey for position and toys is hilarious. The best spot or best toy is always whatever the other one has. Raney is also pushing limits just a bit more, that teenager thing again. When we’re moving, Riley likes to ride laying next to Rog with the vent blowing in his face. Raney’s favorite spot is on the dog bed at my feet, but she’s not above stretching out so she’s still claiming the bed and nudging Riley aside so she can hog the vent to. The looks he gives me. Pathetic. We try not to intervene too much, so they learn to sort it out themselves, but neither do we let one bully the other. Riley appeals for help more often than Raney. In fact, the other night he got me up in the middle of the night and wanted me to make Raney get off the couch! Nope. You had it and got off; you figure it out. Geesh. Kids! Raney still loves her morning snuggles, but she also would like to expand that window. So every couple hours, I get a whine and nudge, “Is it time yet?”. Anything before 6am and she gets sent back to her own bed. Someday maybe I’ll get through the night without one or the other whining, Mommmm. Bottom line, it’s a lot like traveling with two very large toddlers. Lol.

 

Raney enjoying the view after morning snuggles.

Would love to know just what he's thinking. Lol.

We had three nights booked at La Paz and really wished we could have stayed longer. There is just so much to do in the area. On Friday we took the kayaks to Lake Havasu City and planned to paddle under the London Bridge. I still can’t get over the fact that it’s the real deal. I wrote about it last year, along with more details on La Paz and the area, so check it out here if you are interested: Go Around the Bend: Lake Havasu City and Up SARA's Crack. Unfortunately, the afternoon winds had kicked up and we decided to hold off on the paddle. The trip wasn’t wasted though, because we hit another favorite spot, College Street Brewery. We had lunch and sampled some great beers and filled our growlers for evening Happy Hour. College Street brews Carole’s absolute favorite beer, Big Blue Van, and I gotta say it’s close to the top of my list too.

Now there's a cast of characters.
Rog, Teddi, Carole and Bob.

View from Rotary Park in Lake Havasu City.
It was windy and the water was a little choppy for inflatable kayaks.

College Street Brewery.
No trip is a bust that ends with a "Big Blue Van". Lol.

Saturday was our last day at La Paz and we stuffed it full. Carole and I started it off by hitting the swap meet just down the road. We were happy to find several local crafters, some flea market finds, and an excellent produce stall. I bought two large pieces of elk antler for Raney and Riley. The antlers are even better chewies than bones, but they are pricey and the ones in the pet stores just aren’t large enough for the big kids. Needless to say, they were a hit and I was the favorite mom, for a little while anyway. Lol.

 

We always find fun stuff at the local swap meets.

By 11am we had sunshine, temps in the high 70’s, and almost no wind – perfect weather for kayaking. Bob and Carole have a new inflatable, it’s a Sea Eagle like ours, but a different model. They got the Fast Track, it sits a little lower in the water and is sleeker and faster than our older version. This was the first opportunity they’d had to get it in the water and it was Ruby’s first time kayaking ever. She did great! We paddled down the Colorado River which was lined with RV parks, small vacation cottages, and enormous private homes with just a few stretches of nature on the California side. It’s difficult to imagine this is the same river we spent 16 days floating through the Grand Canyon wilderness. Lol.

 

Bob and Carole's newer model Fast Track on the left. Both are great fun!

An excellent time on the water.

Pulling out of the river right at our rig. Doesn't get any easier than that!

After our successful kayaking adventure, we beat feet to the Nellie E Saloon and Desert Bar. We visited last year and just loved it. The drive there is an adventure in itself. It’s about 5 miles down a challenging dirt road, totally off the grid, and only open 12-6pm Saturday and Sundays. It was also packed and had an excellent band, Mudfish, that we were beyond thrilled to see again this year! We took Ruby and Raney along and were impressed with how well behaved they both were. Also, purely as a public service, Raney ensured that the clean up crew did not have to worry about any stray French fries under the tables. Lol.

Gorgeous drive out to the Nellie E.

Did I mention the wildflowers are blooming?

 

A fun time was had by all. :)

Different perspectives of the chapel built next to the saloon.
Hmmm... drink, repent, rinse and repeat? Lol. 

Raney and I checking out the chapel.

Saturday evening was also hopping at La Paz. There was a private party in the event center and another gathering with live music behind us. Even our Canadian neighbors had a little impromptu jam session. After our busy day, it was delightful to enjoy the sunset and a relaxing fireside chat listening to the music. One of the things we loved about La Paz was how quiet it was at night, especially considering how closely packed in everyone is. We often joked that the Canadians were all in bed by 8pm and up at 6am. Unfortunately, this evening was the exception and the guitarist behind us (definitely not Canadian) belligerently continued far into the night. Maybe we wouldn’t have minded if he had been anywhere near as talented as Mudfish. Lol.

Carole got this stunning shot of our lovely sunset.

Happy Hour(s). 

Lots of Happy Hours in progress down the line. 

A few stars were visible. 
A lovely last evening at La Paz.

Sunday, 3/12, was moving day. We have one more repeat stop and then we’ll be exploring some new territory and…drum roll please…getting to the main event. But that’s for the next post. 😊