Rob Roy Mine

Jim had to haul a generator out to the Rob Roy mine on the Kofa Wildlife Refuge.  The maintenance guys from Imperial Wildlife Refuge were out at the mine working on reroofing an old building on the Rob Roy property and the generator they had brought out didn't work.  The Rob Roy mine was recently purchased by the refuge.  They like to keep at least one building in useable condition so that hunters and other guests have a shelter to spend the night in if needed.   The Rob Roy was an old gold mine and has all kinds of old artifacts from busier mining days.  While Jim was there the caretaker took some rock and crushed it and then panned it out and lo and behold there was gold in the pan.   Of course, once the refuge takes full possession no one will be able to do any more mining.  
The former owner of the Rob Roy is 93 years old and still owns the King of Arizona mine which is an active gold mine.   

There is a small cemetary close to the mines that dates from the late 1800's.  Back then there were quite a few miners working these mines and they had their families with them.  There are mounds of rocks defining the graves but only one gravestone that can be read.  The rest of the graves probably had wood markers that are long gone. 

More Kofa Cabins

The other cabins we visited while out in the northern section of Kofa National Wildlife Refuge were these two in the pictures.  The top one is called Hoodoo Cabin and was actually built from a kit in 1940.  It was a line cabin.  Line cabins were used by ranchers when they were so far out from home that they couldn't get back before dark.  They had this cabin to sleep in and cook in.  The left side of the cabin with the rounded roof was a full kitchen.  The other side was the sleeping quarters with a wood stove and in the back was a bathroom with a shower.  There is no water to this cabin now but it can still be used as a place to stay overnight.

The wooden cabin is Wilbanks cabin and is built where the old Wilbanks homestead originally stood.  The Wilbanks family lived out here and raised cattle before the big drought that caused the dust bowl.  It affected land as far west as western Arizona.  Its hard to believe this area ever supported a large ranch full of cattle but it did.  The homestead burnt down killing some family members and the rest of the family moved to "town" after the trajedy.  It takes a few hours even now to get out to these cabins and its hard to believe people lived out here and survived. 

Kofa Cabin

One of the first things we did when we got to the refuge was go out into a remote section with another volunteer couple.  The other couple help maintain the Kofa side of the refuge system while we help maintain the Imperial side.  They invited us along to see the more remote section and help them with a few of their duties.  It was quite a ride out there.  There were two major "rain events" this summer and fall that hit the refuge.  The roads in the refuge were pretty much washed out not being much as far as roads in the first place.  Most roads just follow washes so when the water flows through them they get filled in with sand and gravel or just washed away.  One wash had over 8 feet of water in it during the big rain -- hard to believe when all we've seen is dry, dusty washes that look like they haven't seen any kind of water running through in a century. 

We did a circle tour that is less than 30 miles.  It took us all day to complete.  The road that was there last spring was gone.  We were riding in a 4 wheel drive truck with a small backseat so all four of us could ride together.  We were lucky the guy driving was very good at driving off road.   He took that truck where we didn't even see a road ahead of us just rock and steep, deep cuts.

The first cabin we checked was called Kofa cabin.  Kofa is short for King of Arizona -- the name of a famous mine in the area.  This cabin was built by the CCC back in the 30's and this group of cabin builders consisted of native americans.   The cabin is available to guests to spend the night -- just a shelter, no water, no toilet.  There is a water tank in the yard that is kept full by a windmill and is maintained for the bighorn sheep.  The tank is fenced to keep the burros out.  The refuge doesn't like the burros which are non native leftovers from the mining days.  The burros compete with the desert bighorn sheep for food and territory. 

Sedona

Our next stop on our way south through Arizona was Prescott Valley.  We took a day trip from there and drove over the mountain through a little mining town called Jerome to get to Sedona.  Sedona is known for its beautiful red rocks.  They truly are beautiful from what we could see.  We didn't go to Red Rock State Park or the famous creek where you can slide down the big flat rock like a giant natural water slide.  We did check out all the neat shops and saw all kinds of places where you could buy crystals and have your "aura" checked.  There are many art galleries and tourist shops and interesting places to eat -- all on the spendy side. 

We drove to the Sedona airport to a restaurant that overlooks the runway.  Supposedly you can see lear jets coming in and taking off "part of the rich crowd" that hang out in Sedona but it was pretty quiet when we were there.  Our burgers came with green chili fries -- very good-- not really spicy hot just pieces of green chili battered and fried.  We also saw a restaurant that was serving cactus fries -- maybe next time. 

Prescott (pronounced preskit) and Prescott Valley are popular retirement communities.  The weather year round is pretty nice because the area is at 5000ft.  The drawback to towns that attract retirement crowds -- the roads are busy all the time because no one works.   They are always out shopping and eating.   We did find a forest service recreation area that had gold panning.  We found one little spec after about an hour and a half. 

We have begun our orientation for working at the refuge for the winter and start actual work this first full week of November. 

Petrified Forest National Park

We loved going through the Petrifed Forest.  Its right off of I-40 before you get to Holbrooke.  The Painted desert is on the north side of the freeway and the Petrified Forest is on the south side of the freeway.   Everywhere you look you see beautiful giant pieces of colorful "wood".  It was a whole forest of trees that were buried by a flood and over the eons the wood was replaced by minerals.  All kinds of colorful minerals are in these specimens.  The wood looks like someone came with a chainsaw and cut it up into smaller pieces but it actually broke up naturally and just looks like its been sawed.
We stopped at DoBell Ranch which is next door to the park.  The ranch is privately owned and is full of petrified wood that you can buy for 30 cents a pound.  The national park doesn't allow any collecting so your only choices are to buy it from sellars in town or out at this ranch.  You are welcome at the ranch to go out and pick your own or pick from their piles.  They have a great museum and the granddaughter of the original ranch owner showed us around and was very nice.  There were small pieces of petrified wood everywhere you walked and she kept saying to fill our pockets.  We found a very nice piece (not too big) that we kept as well as a small dinosaur bone and some other free samples of beautiful rocks. 

We left Prescott Valley and stayed in Quartzsite a few days and are now at the refuge for the winter. 

Painted Desert

We left Las Vegas, NM and went through Albuquerque just after the balloon festival so we missed seeing all of the beautiful balloons in the air.  Our next stop was Gallup, NM.  Gallup is one of those cute little Route 66 towns.  Lots and lots of Native American jewelry, art, rugs, etc.  Every shop was full of beautiful stuff.  New Mexico has a law that they have to say in the store if its authentic native american made so if it doesn't say then its not.  What they don't protect you from is whether the stones in the jewelry are genuine turquoise or not so you want to go to reputable stores and if the price is too good to be true then its suspect. 

Our next stop was the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park.  Its two parks in one.  The northern part of the park is the Painted Desert.  It has fabulous vistas of multicolored rock.  It reminded us of the Badlands in South Dakota.  You can actually drive your RV through the park and most of the pullouts for picture taking are big enough for RV's.  Most people drove their rig through but we chose to park the RV in Holbrooke, AZ and drive through with the truck.

We are now sitting in Prescott, AZ enjoying some nice mountain views and enjoying mid 70 degree temps.  

Colorado Springs

We spent a few days in Colorado Springs after quickly going through Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.  We found an old but nice campground east of the city.  We had somewhat of a view of Pikes Peak but there where too many power lines in the way to get any nice pictures of the peak.  We took a ride on the Cog Railway up to the top of the peak.  It was a beautiful day and we go some nice pictures.  We sat across from an elderly couple that were celebrating their honeymoon.  They were a very cute couple.

We also drove through the Garden of the Gods.  The rock formations there are incredible.  I think this one is called "kissing camels".   We spent one of our days in Colorado Springs getting new tires on the truck and found out that the batteries needed replacing as well.   We hit the road again and now are a little north of Santa Fe in a little town called Las Vegas, New Mexico.  We've got two more weeks of traveling before we get to the refuge where we will be parked for the winter.