01-24-12

Yesterday we took a ride to the north end of the Kofa refuge.

The party included Becky, Dennis, Suzanne and Roy with their Rhino’s. Missy, Junior, Jo Ann, Dave, Maryann and Randy in their new jeeps. Shirley and Bill in their 1997 Jeep Cherokee and Patti and I in Clifford.

There is a constant friendly rivalry going on between the Jeep drivers and the Rhino herders. Junior made this diorama to hang on his spare tire just to bug the Rhino guys.

 

We mustered at the RV park entrance at 8:55 and were on the road by 9:00.

We drove east on I-10 for 26 miles to the Vicksburg Road exit where we headed south on Vicksburg Rd for 7 miles to the pipeline road. We turned west on the pipeline road and went about 1 mile to intersection 14 where Dennis and Roy unloaded the Rhino’s. While they were unloading we found that Bill’s Cherokee had a flat tire.

He changed the tire with a lot of help.

We continued east on the pipeline road to intersection 16 where we turned south. We stopped to check out the Kofa cabin.

The Kofa cabin is one of the three cabins in the refuge that one can stay in.

On this trip we will stop at all three cabins. Bill decided there, that he and Shirley would return to Quartzsite rather than take a chance of having another flat some where in the back country. In hind site it was the proper decision as the trail we traveled was very rough with lots of rocks and the tires on his jeep were likely not tough enough to survive the trip.

Bill has decided to get some good off road tires for his Cherokee.

We left the Kofa cabin and continued south toward Bighorn pass. Along the way we stopped to check out a monument that we could see on a side road.

I was hoping to stop at the Hoodoo Hilton for lunch but it took us longer that I thought to get over Big Horne Pass

so we had lunch at the Willbanks cabin. 

At first we set up for lunch outside the cabin

but it began to rain so we retreated to the shelter of the cabin. There was not enough room for everyone inside the cabin

 

so some of us had lunch on the front porch.

Of course by the time we all got resettled the rain stopped.

After lunch we drove south west in hoodoo wash and eventually got to what we call the Hoodoo Hilton. The official name is the Hoodoo Cabin.

 

We spent a few minutes checking the cabin out, then got back on the trail. We went north over Red Rock pass. 

By 4:15 were back at the intersection 14 where Dennis, and Roy had parked their trailers.

We passed this trailer hauling the Batmobile.

Interesting sky on the way home.

It was another great ride.