Boondocking in the Kofa NWR

The 14 day LTVA permit I purchased expired today.  So I displaced a day earlier than planned.  ( I had lost track of what day the 15th ) fell on.

Note: you can "check out" the morning after the permit expires, and still use the facilities.

Since tomorrow is Presidents Day, the water points wouldn't be running I found out after I'd dumped tanks.  So it's just as well I displaced today.

The next few days were forecasted as cooler so decided to only displace a short distance to wait out the cooler weather.

Less than 20 miles to Palm Canyon Road which leads you into the Kofa NWR.  Still lots of places to camp and I selected one that didn't have any other campers too close to it.  I also chose the side of the road upwind of it as conditions were quite dusty.  This was specially true when OHVAs raced but, way above posted speed limits, raising huge dust clouds.

After setting up camp, I rested for a bit.  After lunch, I tried out the bino/cameraphone adapter:

1x zoom with bino

1x no bino

1x zoom with bino 

1x zoom with bino

3x zoom no bino

1x zoom no bino

The tallest point in the mountains above is Signal Peak.  There's apparently a 3 and 1/2 mile trail to the top of it but I am not sure I will be doing that.  The 0.9 mile trail into nearby Palm Canyon had me huffing and puffing when I did it years ago!

Later, around 3:30 or so, I decided to check out Skull Rock, which is located in the Kofa Queen Canyon Road.  The roads are packed gravel and are very stony in points. The road to Queen Canyon was even worse which kept my pace down. Lots and lots of big stones and fist size rocks, that demanded close attention.

Once I reached the point where Google maps said that it was the location of Skull Rock, I started looking around.  Skull Rock must be one of those formations that is named by someone with very active imagination I think. I think I found it but not sure. 

Heading back out of Queen Canyon, the light returned briefly through the ever increasing clouds of the afternoon. I may have to check out this road again tomorrow or the next day in better light and earlier in the day. 

Sunset was ok: