The Aztec Village RV Resort was kind of a dump. It did have laundry and showers and it was a 20 minute walk from downtown but it was basically a trailer park. Nice enough folks but D- in ambiance. Both bathroom doors had combo locks that worked some of the time so you better not be in a hurry. Come back in an hour and the door would open (too late).
We walked under the bridge (nice riverfront walk) across the street to Micky D’s for WiFi and coffee, topped off our water (pretty good tasting potable water) and then we were on the road to our end destination, Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. The road was a pretty easy 2 laner (Rt 60) with a few trucks so kind of a main road but everyone was relaxed. The desert here is different somehow, a little more sparse on vegetation, but all the usual suspects are here, Saguaro (sparse but represented), Teddy Bear Cholla, Ironwood trees, and Palm trees which we do not have in Bisbee (not native anyway).
Quartzite is talked about a lot among our RV friends and now we get it. There may be some houses somewhere but it looks like RV resort after RV resort taking up the whole town. Razor 4 wheelers buzzing around all the streets, gas stations, restaurants, Canadian flags. We say the movie Nomadland which shows the remote camping on BLM land and we did not see it in “downtown” Quartzite, but we soon found the vast areas where you can just drive around the washes and park anywhere, up to 14 days for free.
But we are staying 30 miles south on Rt 95 where Kofa is. Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is much more remote and our friend Carmen gave us the road that she likes to camp on. We found Palm Canyon Road, which is a good gravel road (2WD ok) and drove to within 2 miles from the end and found a nice spot with amazing views. There were maybe a dozen other people doing the same thing and last night I could see their lights in their rigs off in the distance. So no neighbors. It was warm and windy when we got here but the wind died down at dusk and it was very pleasant sitting outside.
We walked the 2 miles up the canyon and there is a ½ mile hike up to see the native palms (last count there were 42 of them) so they are rare. We forgot water so I bailed on the last 1/2 mile but Deb did the hike all the way in and back.
Started to rain a bit tonight as we sat snug watching a Louise Penny show. Stunningly beautiful spot.
Day 18 - odo = 3173
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