2/26 - 3/4/05 Crystal Hill in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, AZ

2/26- Today marks our 2 month milestone for this journey. It dawned clear & cold in the Granite Dells near Prescott, the first clear morning for some time. As I started to retract our slide-out in preparation for departure, I noticed something didn't sound quite right. I stopped, stood on a chair & checked out the area between the top of the slide & the ceiling. The awning was being folded inward, rather than rolling up on the outside as it should. I climbed up on the roof & found a large sheet of ice, 1/2" thick, frozen from trapped rain water, fouling the awning. I went back inside, extended the slide, climbed back up & shoved all of the ice off. An interesting start to the next leg of our odyssey.

The drive was uneventful & blissfully dry. Despite many clouds on the horizon throughout most of the day, we saw no rain. The first 30 miles or so of SR 89 south of Prescott is slow going, extremely winding and posted at 35 MPH for much of it, although there are many 20 MPH hairpin turns. We started by climbing another 1000 feet, passing through ponderosa forest. Then it was all downhill, back into the high desert terrain.

Farther on we skirted Joshua Tree country again, then saguaro; at one point the two seemed to touch: Joshuas on the left, saguaros on the right, but I still saw no intermingling. An interesting natural apartheid. In the lower desert flowers lit up the landscape: Mexican poppies, lupine & most of all the desert sunflower, highlighting the terrain with touches of bright golden yellow.

Then we passed through the Quartzsite extended flea market, making our escape to the south down US95. Following directions I found at The Boondocking Guide, we turned east on a rather inconspicuous gravel road, heading toward the Kofa Wildlife Refuge. Six bumpy, washboard miles later we arrived at the Crystal Hill area, found a campsite & settled in. The sites here were once improved, but it is clear that the government is no longer encouraging people to come here. For example, the concrete parking barriers are disintigrating & there are only anchor points for other original improvements. Nevertheless, it is a great boondocking area. Initially I saw only one other RV (a couple from Myrtle Point, OR, not that far from Eugene) & numerous empty campsites. Later from the top of Crystal Hill I could see 3 other rigs scattered over an area of a few square miles. We picked a site where we could get a good southern exposure for our solar panels.

I am really getting efficient at setting up at a new location. It probably only took me 40 minutes to park, level, deploy the solar panels, set up the tripod & lock onto the satellite. After relaxing in the afternoon sunshine, we went for a walk, eventually climbing to the top of Crystal Hill. I gather from the website info on this area that this was once a rockhound destination & that there were actual crystals to be had. The hill shows signs of a lot of small scale mining, though that is now prohibited. You are allowed to dig with your hands & pick up anything on the surface (up to 10 pieces or pounds). There's quartzite all over the place, but I found only very tiny true crystals, less than 1/4". There was a really nice view from the top of the hill, almost all the way back to Quartzsite & to mountain ranges in all 4 directions. We had a nice sunset, but not quite up to photo quality.

2/27 - Early this morning as I was looking out over the desert from my bed, I thought I saw movement in the brush. Then I made out a jack rabbit, then another, then 4. Looking around now I could see there were jack rabbits pretty much all over. Finally Timmy spotted one and raised the alarm. You would have thought they were giant killer rabbits from the commotion. By the time we took our early walk, the jack rabbits had all faded into the landscape.

Later we set out for Crystal Hill, planning this time to see if there really were any crystals to be had. After only 20 minutes or so Timmy wandered into some Blazing Star, also called White-Bracted Stick Leaf, an appropriate name for this plant with lovely subtle flowers and gummy foliage. He got sticky leaves, stems & flowers all over his soft fluffy legs & face. As he was trying to clean himself off, he stumbled into some cholla cactus burrs. These things are really nasty, with inch long spines, very sharp & painful. He added several to his sticky mess. It was clear that Timmy was not cut out to be a rock hound. I extracted the spines & the worst of the stick leaf, then took him back home for safe keeping while I returned to the rock hunt.

I eventually spent 3 hours covering the hill from one end to the other. I only found one real quartz crystal, barely a half inch long & perfectly hexagonal in cross-section with 3 facets on each end. But the real treasure was the multitude of wild flowers blanketing the hill.

After I returned to Timmy's enthusiastic greeting, I started by combing the worst of the gummy mess out of his legs & face. Then, as it was turning out to be a very sunny afternoon, I unfurled Gypsy's main sail for the first time. It's really the main awning of course, but it felt like hoisting a sail in fair winds, now that we're finally enjoying the weather we have been seeking for lo these many weeks. And dear readers, it is from beneath this awning that I write these notes in the warm late sunshine. Wish you were here.

3/1 - Just a brief post today. Due to a gross logistical planning blunder, I ran out of beer Sunday. Now it's a rare day that I quaff more than one, but it's also uncommon for me to forego that one beer, either relaxing late in the day or just with dinner. So a run to Quartzsite was required & we headed in yesterday afternoon. Previously we had zoomed through Quartzsite on I10 & then Saturday we had bypassed most of it, so I hadn't really experienced it. I guess I'd summarize it like this... Unless you are in the RV community or just need fuel on your way from LA to Phoenix, you might as well keep going. Just about every business in Quartzsite caters to the RV crowd; there ain't much else. You would think that with thousands of folks setting up home around hear every year, the town could support a proper supermarket. But since the community evaporates as spring turns to summer, that may pose problems for the supermarket business model. Also, don't come to Quartzsite looking for a proper beer. There is not a single bottle of microbrew or craft ale to be had. It's mainstream American beer or nothing. Now I'm from the Monty Python school when it comes to beer (email me if you missed this reference), so I was not a happy camper. I stared into the beer cooler long & hard, hoping there was a brown ale in there somewhere. I returned to camp with a 12 pack of Millers. Sometimes we must suffer hardship on our travels.

And for your browsing pleasure, friends, our latest slide shows, a hike up Crystal Hill, including a surprising variety of desert wildflowers, & a show of nothing but desert wildflowers, which we have been enjoying in great abundance..

3/2 - Today we have a misadventure to report... a painful lesson in respect for the Teddy Bear Cholla cactus. It may sound cuddly, but my friends, do not be taken in. If you go back to the Central Arizona Gallery, you will find a picture of the Teddy Bear which shows its dead brown "appendages" that do resemble fuzzy teddy bear arms & legs. But they are still loaded with dangerous spines, as are the green arms.

We went for an afternoon walk across the valley south toward the Livingston Hills. After a mile or so, I started to frame a photo looking back toward Crystal Hill & I ran right into a cholla. A segment detatched & stuck, going straight through my jeans & into my leg. Yeow! You can't grab one of those things unless you have a tool or heavy gloves, so I found a stone & managed to knock it off. It landed on my sneaker & stuck. I knocked it off there & it left several multi-spined pieces sticking in my shoe. As I was picking those out, I somehow managed to hit the original chunk with the back of my hand, impaling myself with mutiple spines. Gaaahhhh! $%#%$@&%&! I finally managed to get it off with a narrow rock & then picked out the several spines still embedded. I counted 18 pricks on my hand, at least 8 drawing blood. And I still had to pull my pants down & extract 2 spines stuck in my leg. Enough walk. We headed back. I had to pick cholla spines out of Timmy's feet several times each way also. The desert may be ablaze with wildflowers, but it still deserves respect.

3/4 - Yesterday after work we went for a 3 or 4 mile round trip walk down the main wash for this valley, French Creek according to the map. The wash bed has the advantage of being mostly open, flat and clear of cactus & sticky weeds. There was also the hope that we might find a crystal that had been washed out by this winter's high waters. And I did find an interesting mineral: pale pink & looking more like petrified goo than a gem. I have no idea what it might be, but I've added a photo in case any of you readers might know. It's about 1 1/2" in diameter & 1/4" thick.

Our stay at Crystal Hill is drawing to a close; tomorrow we'll head back to Joshua Tree, to stop for a week on the way to Death Valley. Except for getting sticky & stuck, it's been a nice week. With abundant sun, we've had no problems with power management & it looks like we're going to finish the week on our original tank of fresh water & without having make a run to dump any waste water. So from a resource perspective, things are looking good.

We'll also be returning to California, after six plus weeks in Arizona. I had only experienced Arizona in the summer previously. Flagstaff, Sedona and of course the Grand Canyon area were enjoyable, but I had pretty much avoided the outdoors in the rest of the state because of the heat. So this time in the desert has opened a new world. The Arizona desert is also the place where we got our "sea legs" & validated that this venture may actually succeed. It will have a special place in my heart & "I'll be back"!

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