Motorcycle Camping in the King of Arizona (KOFA) National Wildlife Refuge

Just heading out of the campsite back on the dirt road. Didn't see a single person out here. It's not really in too bad of shape, but I don't want to spend the night in here I don't think. Look at this, right? How awesome is this? You want to have a nice supply of really small sticks. Just heading out of the campsite back on the dirt road. Didn't see a single person out here. And now we get to start out right here in this location. Get onto the dirt roads right away. And that's one of the advantages to having the things that you need to camp out in the back country is that when you start your ride in the morning you're there. You're not waking up in a hotel and having to drive for miles to get back out into the back country. You just wake up there. And these kind of roads are just right at your doorstep. Nice easy road here. Some desert flowers in bloom. Cutting through a little wash. Yeah, nice active riding. A little bit of texture. Perfect temperatures today. It's very cool. 63 degrees. Shouldn't have to work up a sweat today. Okay, the road's getting a little bit more texture on it. And we're heading up into the mountains. I can see on the map that it changes from one color to the other. So we're going into a different portion of the wildlife refuge here. Maybe the land ownership changes or management is different. That can often mean that the terrain itself is very different as well. So we'll see. But so far so good. This is a good road, an easy road. Easy but adventurous. If you're a total novice you'd have your work cut out for you. But for an experienced rider it's definitely easy so far. Lots of different mountain ranges off in the distance. Different types of cactus growing out here. Everything from mesquite to cholla, saguaro, prickly pear. Okay, this is getting next level. A little bit of a hill climb with a little loose rock. Good views here. Well as I would expect it's getting a little bit more challenging now as we head up into the mountains. You can see we're starting to be surrounded by mountains on all sides of us. It's only about five miles or so I think until I get to the other side of the pass. We're out here in the desert. There's mountains all around and cactus. Not another person on this road so far. And it hasn't been too bad so far. It's been just a kind of a nice, easy, interesting desert road so far. But I know from experience once we go up and over a pass things can get a little more challenging. So hopefully it's not too bad. I can always turn around. The worst that could happen is I just get stuck in an awkward situation and have to turn my bike around. Okay, yeah, right away it's getting pretty challenging here. This is a steep hill. I should have had momentum before I did this one. There we go. And what I really want to avoid is going down something that's really steep in case I couldn't continue further and then I would have to turn around and go back up it. So because I'm on the way up the pass I don't think that's going to be an issue. But once I get to the other side and I start going down, if for some reason I encountered a really steep technical challenging downhill and I went down and then I got to the bottom and I couldn't go further for some reason, that's a consideration to be aware of and think about. So far so good. Okay, it looks like it gets a little steeper here. We'll stop shortly and check and see where we're at in regards to the pass. Watch out for these cactus on the side of the road. They'll stick you in an instant. This looks like a good place to stop. I'm just going to park on the side of the road. There's not a lot of traffic out here. Okay, it looks like that was the pass right behind us. So, so far so good. We should be heading downhill and then it curves to the left and it might be, well, it could be a little flatter but that could also mean that it's sandier. So we'll see. There was nothing that I've done so far that I don't feel confident if I had to turn around and go back the other direction. So we'll just carry on. Not a problem. Just a nice easy road through the desert. Although it's challenging enough that you really have to stay focused on the rocks and the sand and not a lot of time to sightsee and enjoy the beautiful scenery except for a quick glance here and there. So there was one obvious section that was what I would call the crux or the hardest part. And then there was sort of a workaround to the left. So if that was the hardest part then I would say that this is actually a pretty, pretty easy road for someone with adventure bike experience. You wouldn't have any big challenges on this ride if you're a beginner. It's another story. This is really beautiful here with all these different cactus all around us. Very cool desert environment and the way that they all kind of glow in the sunlight. It's pretty overcast today. It's not too hot out so it's nice riding. And it looks like I'm going to be taking a turn up here to the left and we should just be in this flat lowland for the rest of this ride. So yeah, we made it over McPherson's Pass. Wasn't too challenging, just one spot that was a little bit difficult but highly recommended. And like I said, we're perhaps going to be in a little wash and that looks like the case. So we've got five miles of this. Hopefully it's not going to be too difficult. Actually the road goes up here to the left so maybe we'll be above the wash. Yeah, that's better. Nobody likes to ride for five miles through a wash full of sand and loose rocks and this is nice. So far so good. I'm going to stop here and take a break. I stopped here on the side of the road to grab a bite to eat and drink some water and I crossed paths with a dirt biker. He was on a Honda 250 out here riding by himself and that road was perfect for today. It was just challenging enough that I felt like it was exhilarating but at the same time it wasn't so difficult that I felt like I put myself in jeopardy. So really a good choice to do that road and it excites me to know that it was an orange road as far as like how it is rated and so that gives me a little bit more confidence to do those kinds of roads in the future if I see a road that's listed as that orange level of difficulty on trails off-road if it's like this it's not really too much of a challenge so that really opens up a lot of territory but like I said those ratings are for 4x4s and it can mean different things so you just kind of have to put all of this information inside of your brain and make decisions but having the right information is a good place to start. So I'm going to get back on the road go this way and get to kind of a main thoroughfare it's the the King Mine Road and it's sort of the main western entrance into the cofa here and I'll probably have to head back out to Civilization to the town of Quartzsite to pick up some more supplies some food and some water and things like that before I head back into a different part of the wilderness here but that said everything is going great and it's just absolutely peaceful out here not a sound in the middle of the day it's quite quite lovely so let's get back on the road. Well I hope you guys are enjoying this little tour of the Cofa National Wildlife Refuge a really special part of Arizona and one of the largest most remote parts of the state we should be coming up to the main thoroughfare a dirt road fairly soon it'll be a lot easier and faster and I'll probably have to head out of the wilderness here back into Civilization to resupply with some more food and water and things like that but with any luck we'll find ourselves another really great desert camping location tonight and cook another good meal. Quartzsite, Arizona a place that transforms itself this time of year in the middle of winter when thousands upon thousands of snowbirds come down here in their RVs and spend the winter boondocking and camping out in the desert. Okay now we are headed back into the Cofa for round two we're up in the northern end of the Wildlife Refuge now. Well this is it I think I've found my campsite for tonight and you can't beat the view it's pretty nice looking back over to the west here with the Cofa National Wildlife Refuge and the mountain peaks and the Sonoran Desert maybe we'll even have a sunset tonight. So I'm perched up on this hill at the end of the road and it was an easy road getting in here it was easy enough in fact that there's a an RV trailer parked over here once upon a time it looks like they had a caretaker or something like that that maybe lived up here. Well it looks like somebody's RV not too bad a condition I don't know that I necessarily want to sleep in here but it's not really in too bad of shape but it's a little dirty there's some mouse poop I don't want to spend the night in here I don't think. Here's some notes here electricity gas and water are currently turned off they need to be turned on before use please wash and dry all laundry before visiting the trailer it looks like this is a trailer that you could actually stop in and use if you wanted to and again it's not in the best condition but interesting to see nonetheless that they have something like this out here starting to be reclaimed by the elements the siding is coming off and flapping in the wind if I brought my tools I could have fixed it up a plumbing at one point and as you can see there's a power line up here pretty interesting I don't know what the story is here but it certainly has a great view I mean these mountains off in the distance this is pretty fantastic I might just have to camp out up here tonight I guess I'm just going to set up my camp here I've got some food to cook tonight and it's early enough in the day that I should have enough time to maybe gather some firewood if I want to build a little fire things like that so yeah here we are another night of desert camping well here we are my camp is all set up overlooking the valley down below I put these rocks down in the corner of my tent just to keep everything from blowing away hopefully they'll hold it down until I can get some of my other supplies inside of the tent look at this right how awesome is this we've got such a panoramic view of the sunset it's going to be really nice let's go down here see what we can find in terms of some firewood yeah just little cactuses all over I'm trying to step on the rocks not step on any cactus they'll stick to you just like that you want to have a nice supply of really small sticks that you can put in there and if you can find some larger like one and a half inch diameter pieces of hardwood that's good too because that'll last longer but then you need to make sure you can get it broken or cut into small usable pieces and that's why I carry a bushcraft saw with me but I haven't been able to find any of that kind of wood yet so we're just going to get a little pile of this stuff it won't take a lot all I have to do is cook up my meat we should be able to do it I've got a little bit of firewood stocked up enough to build a small campfire and maybe cook on the firebox stove tonight we're going to have just a little simple cookout here in the desert drink a couple bottles of wine and have a good time I'm glad you came over for dinner well I tell you what it doesn't get about more perfect than this right now sun has dropped down below the clouds and it's sunshine in full effect here at the Coffa National Wildlife Refuge I've got camp all set up ready to build a little fire and cook some dinner this is going to be a pretty nice evening what a glorious time to be out here right now the sun just dropped down below the clouds in full effect bright sunshine looking over this beautiful desert environment this is really really spectacular right now it's just that time of day when everything is so beautiful the golden light these peaks over here are incredible I can't wait to see what kind of sunset we get tonight well this isn't going to be too bad I've got my sleeping bag on top of an air mattress on this concrete pad so it's nice and smooth but I'll be comfortable and cush I've got a view out the tent window here overlooking the desert the wind has died down we're just in for a glorious evening here there we go there's the sleeping bag I've got my rocks to keep it from blowing away in the wind I'll take those out when I go to bed my air mattress right here on this nice little concrete pad should be pretty an outstanding place to camp the sunset was really lovely and dinner was good the wind died down and I've got just enough wood left to relax and have a little bit of a fire in the firebox stove while I finish the rest of the wine so I'm going to call it a night kick back and relax we'll see you guys in the morning top of the morning to you it's a little bit before sunrise and I got up watch the moon go down over here it's a full moon it's just about ready to set over there to be one of those magical desert camping nights for me I've really enjoyed the last couple days here and the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge it's over in the western part of Arizona and I highly recommend coming out here I barely scratched the surface on this ride but I was able to get out there and do some of the more challenging back roads camped out in the desert for a couple of nights had some good meals and just really enjoyed myself I hope that you've enjoyed this adventure as much as I have and if you have come back for more because I definitely plan on getting out and doing some more motorcycle camping so thanks for sticking around on this adventure and we'll see you next time