Crystal Hill, Kofa NWR

 

Went on another group hike to Crystal Hill in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. This is the northernmost entrance to the refuge, about 8 miles south of Quartzsite, then another 6 miles west on a dirt road. This road is much rougher than the one to Palm Canyon, but wasn’t bad at all in the Subaru. We sure do like that vehicle.

There isn’t an official trail to the top of Crystal Hill, but we found a path and headed up. Most people come here looking for crystals, since this is the only area on the refuge where you can legally take rocks and minerals, and only without tools or metal detectors. And you are limited to ten rocks or ten pounds per person per year. I found a couple small pieces of quartz but didn’t take them.

It was a steep half mile climb to the top of the hill, and a little tricky walking on all the loose rocks. Everyone made it safely up and back down. It would have been easy to slip and fall, and with no cell signal we were glad no one had to be carried out! We were joined by pups Libby and Junah, who with four legs had no trouble at all.

Ginny, Charlie, Marti, Debbie, Jimbo, Chris, Josh, Kathy, Laurelee, Sara, Gayle.

Not much of a trail, so everyone just picked their way up across the rocks.

The seating wasn’t very comfortable, but we hung around for a snack and to take in the views.

Charlie, Marti, Jimbo and Sara at the top.

We could barely make out all the RVs parked in Quartzsite.

It’s always harder going back down.

Must be an old mine shaft.

It was laundry time again, and on the way home Debbie and I stopped to visit with Barbara (Me and My Dog) in her new site. She wasn’t parked far from the Lazy Daze group, but we kept missing each other. Debbie had a small piece of antler to give to Katie, and she really seemed to like it. We’ve run into Barbara and Katie several times now in our travels and I’m sure we will again. We had fun discussing our shopping experiences in Quartzite. We all helped out the local economy this year!

Forgot the camera again, and my phone doesn’t take the best photos. Barbara’s new hair style looks great, and Katie is as cute as ever.

We’re finally leaving Quartzsite tomorrow, heading towards Yuma, where we’ll most likely stay for at least a few weeks. Have dental work to finish up, and we’d like to get our chairs reupholstered if we can line something up. John and Susan are already there and plan to join us in Algodones on Wednesday, and we hope to meet up with Boonie and Coffee Girl for a hike or a bike ride. Maybe we’ll find some interesting things to do in the area this time. We weren’t too crazy about Yuma the couple times we’ve been before, but we want to like it since it’s about the warmest place to spend the winter in the southwest.