Strolling Amok

Palm Canyon

Originally posted 11/6/2012

Palm Canyon is part of the same Kofa National Wildlife Refuge that Queen Canyon is. It’s a whole lot easier to get to, I can tell you that.

Actually, I visited Palm Canyon but did not take the walking trail to the center of the canyon where the palm trees are. The trail is purported to be rough and take an hour to get in and out of. That trail puts you within sight of the palms. It’s another 40 minutes to actually reach them over “a very rugged climb”. It was about an hour and a half from sunset when I arrived, and I would have preferred to have my trusty walking stick on such a trail, not to mention needing it to beat away the autograph seekers who frequently beleaguer me. Another time.

The palm trees are considered to be the only ones native to Arizona, as they do not do well in summer’s oven-like heat. They have survived here only because Read more…

Kofa Queen Canyon

Originally posted 11/4/2012

The Kofa Queen Canyon is about 19 miles south of Quartzsite, and about 8 miles east. Why did I pick it? Read the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce brochure: “4-wheel drive, rough road, unmaintained roads, only foot and horseback travel is permitted in areas bordering this trail.” I went. I saw. I conquered. But, not before wetting my pants. Several times.

To say that it is rough and unmaintained is to say that comedian Jonathan Winters had a slightly unorthodox style. It’s a rock-strewn trail, not a road, that slowly and arduously leads upward nearly a thousand feet over four miles of alarmingly bad passage. It contains many small dry washes that are abrupt and nasty, much like that kid you sat next to Read more…