The Southwestern Sojourn - Day 16: Crystal Hill and Cunningham Mountain

Thursday, Dec 13.

Not much of a sunrise for today:

After work, I rode out to Crystal Hill, which is within the Kofa Wildlife Refuge Area to the south of Quartzsite, AZ.

The hill is known to "rockhounds" as a place to search for quartz crystals apparently, I did see many of such crystals but had no inclination to bring any home.

I took AZ Hwy 95 south for a few miles, and turned east at the turn for Crystal Hill.  After a few miles, you reach a welcome sign for the Kofa Wildlife Refuge and once past, you're in land where you can camp apparently.

I saw several truck campers and cars in the camping area at the base of what I thought was Crystal Hill.  Nice flat spots, good 4G LTE coverage, and it's free, what's not to like?  Sure, it's 9 miles from the highway on a dirt road with sometimes lots of loose rocks but doable if you take it slow.

I parked Scarlett and climbed to the top of what I thought was Crystal Hill, not a bad set of views from the top, here's the one I liked best:

 Nice view of an LTVA to the north of

Crystal Hill.

A view of the hills, the one on the left is

the one I climbed, the one on the right is

actually Crystal Hill!  Oh well.

I retraced my route back to the highway, along the way I stopped for a picture of Cunningham Mountain.  

 Teddybear Cholla near where I parked Scarlett

for the shot below:

 Cunningham Mountain, see the trail leading to it's base?

I could see a trail across the highway as I reached it, that seemed to lead to the base of Cunningham Mountain.  Of course, I had to find out!  A bit over 9km or almost 5 miles later, I was standing near the base of the mountain!  Nice road too.

Had some minor turns, some deep sand which caused me to get bogged down.  But, a quick engagement of 2WD and walking alongside the rig, I got her out of the loose stuff easily enough.

On the way back, I'd power on through that same patch of loose sand with 2WD with no issues.  Gotta love it.

Made it back to camp after going into Quartzsite to get some more groceries and gas for Scarlett.  Got UDF'ed by a Quebec resident driving an old Land Rover, I actually lusted over his truck for a bit while he peppered me with questions about the Ural.  Yves was his name, he's staying with his dog at the La Posa West LTVA nearby.

 The campsite I picked had this rock circle made by

previous campers I guess.  Some people must get pretty

bored at times just hanging out in the desert.

Tonight's sunset was completely cloudless so nothing to write home about if you know what I mean.  So I went for "artsy".