AZ KOFA Wilderness - Wild Offroad Dirt Bike Ride!

[beemerdons]

AZ KOFA Wilderness - Wild Offroad Dirt Bike Ride! My AZ Beemers Friends Redline, Refokus and Reidy had a fantastic off road adventure, great narrative and outstanding pics.

DrewReid and I have wanted to go check out the KOFA National Wildlife Refuge for some time now, and the weekend of Feb 15-16 we both had free. Time for a two day ride! Refokus (from ADV forum) had mentioned some time ago he was looking for a ride and camp opportunity so he decided to join us.

KOFA stands for “King of Arizona” and takes its name from the King of Arizona mine. The mne produced more gold than any other single mine in southwest Arizona. The famous King of Arizona vein was discovered by a prospector named Charles E. Eichelberger who found the lode in a cave in the local mountains sometime around the late 1880s. The ore was amazingly rich. A boom town quickly sprang up near the mine - it was named Kofa (short for King of Arizona). Unfortunately, the ore bodies became progressively poorer with depth. The King of Arizona Mine was closed down in 1910, and the town of Kofa is only a memory.

Now, KOFA is a huge wildlife preserve between Yuma and Quartzite AZ in the western part of the state. At 665,000 acres, this area offers lots to explore even though 80% of it is designated wilderness.
We got a late start Saturday due to work schedules, but were on the road before 1pm.

We hit dirt just southwest of Tonopah to avoid taking the I10 all the way in.



Got to the park around 2:30



Picked up some dinner for later



Checked the signage



Next stop was within the park at the KOFA cabin. This place is free to use, first come, first served, and seems to be well visited.





Neatly appointed interior



It was only 3pm when we got to the cabin, and although we had loosely planned to stay there, it was too early to quit for the day. We decided to head to the interior of the park and see where we landed.

The crew



We’ll go this way and try to make it up near the KOFA mine, which is beyond these places.



Map check



Refokus on the gas



Short break time. Even though it was mid February, it was warm at around 85 degrees.



A lot of the roads were nice, most were sandy and there were a lot of rocky sections. The scenery was nice everywhere though.



Picture stop



The trail ahead gets more interesting



Turnoff onto road 36



Picture break





Refokus slides to a stop at the bottom of a rocky downhill



Finding some sand



Although we had hoped to get closer to the center of the park, it was now past 5pm and since we didn’t know where we were going anyway, this seemed like a good spot to set up camp.



Boom! There it is.





Even had an abundance of tinder dry firewood so we could enjoy our gas station sandwiches, cheetahs and Gatorade.



Our campsite had great views. Here’s to the west.



Unfortunately, about 1 minute after leaving camp, we dropped into the deep sand wash and stayed there for the next half hour. Tough riding so early in the morning, but the cooler temp felt good.

Out of the wash heading west we can see the Castle Dome Mountains. Heading right into them!



Refokus enjoying the easy section after a tough morning



Regrouping. Had to spread out some due to dust conditions.



Spotted this mine on the hillside and decided to investigate.



Tune in for part two, I'll post it in a minute. (Forum said I had too many characters in this posting! What kind of characters I ask?)

 

[beemerdons]

Exploring KOFA Part 2:

Ok, picking up where we left off, finding a mine near the center of the park...

Closer view of the buildings



Seems to be signs of life around the place, a pickup, trailer house and lots of stuff laying around. Refokus finds a sign to read. Turns out this is the Rob Roy mine.





Some interesting stuff around here



And lots of rocks scattered around various structures



Didn’t see Reidy for a while, then he turns up on the hillside.



Checking out the top side



While Reidy was up there, Refokus asked me if I had the feeling someone was watching us. I didn’t really, but knew what he meant. Reidy rejoined us and said he could hear someone higher up the mountain banging on something then said “I’ll be down in a minute.” Ok. Now we are either going to get some good info on this place or a load of buckshot. I stayed behind the other guys in case it was the latter.

Pretty soon, a guy meanders down the mountain and joins us. No gun, no dog, maybe we’re ok. He’s not too talkative, but I guess years out in the desert alone will make you that way. His name, he tells us, is David, and he’s been the caretaker out here since 1982. Must like his solitude. He tells us some mine history and that the big mine, KOFA, is on the other side of the mountain. Interesting character for sure. I couldn’t help but think if he wanted to he could shoot us and throw us and the bikes into one of the many deep mineshafts and no one would ever find us. Glad he didn’t want to.

David, (the caretaker,) Refokus and Reidy. (Looks like The Caretaker is thinking about killing Reidy first!)



My turn



Yes folks, the hills do have eyes!

Back on the trail toward the Castle Dome Mts



Reidy finds a chalky hill to check out



The next section was super scenic. Jagged mountains all around and an interesting road. Stopped for some pics.



It is really a bad idea to check out these mine shafts, so Refokus and I wait while Reidy goes in. We figured if he “slipped” we could get his bike out by leapfrogging it to the highway. No point in trying to rescue him.





Next stop was the ghost town of Castle Dome City. By then we were very low on water so we were happy to hear they had plenty. This place is a tourist trap for sure, but was kinda cool.

Some random pics of Castle Dome City. They claim most of the buildings are original, with only enough work done to make them safe. The equipment and other stuff was left when the town went kaput.







Could have used this to wash my riding gear



I found the old machine shop quite interesting. The overhead shaft and many of the belts for driving the equipment were still there, albeit in disrepair.









I found Reidy preachin’ to Refokus, who seemed to be into it.



Management wasn’t into it though, so Reidy went to the crowbar motel



Me and Refokus had to bust him out. Refokus was ready to handle the dirty work.



Next time we saw Reidy, he was hitting on a mannequin. I guess doing hard time will cause that.



Next, we were off to the mine across the road. They don’t like trespassers here.



Lots of mine shafts here. Some as deep as 450 feet.



Once back on the trail, we headed for hwy 95. Down the road a ways we saw several of these military blimps at the proving grounds.



Next, we headed across pipeline road that parallels I10. Little did we know this would be some of the most challenging terrain of the trip. From what I could find, this part of the trail is known as the Hogback, and it connects Pipeline Road to the Apache Chief Mine and Cabin.

Summit on the Hogback. That was quite a hill we had to come up to get here.



What goes up…must come down. This was the trickiest part of the ride. Some 4WD site I looked at said this drop takes us into Box Canyon in the New Water Mountains. It was a hairy decent for sure. Here’s Refokus hung up on a rock, but with a little push we got out of there.



Soon we dropped in at the Apache Chief Mine Cabin. This is one of those old stone cabins that has become a stopover and party place in the middle of nowhere. The Apache Chief Mine is on top of the hill behind the cabin.





Seems people bring all kinds of junk out here to “Furnish” the cabin.







They even left their laundry on the line, which of course must be molested.



From the cabin out was mostly just sandy wash riding. We hooked up with I10 at the Gold Nugget road exit and slabbed it home from there. I gotta say I was ready for some easy riding after that weekend.

Thanks to Reidy for doing the basic gps track, which we followed quite a bit of the time, and to Refokus for coming along. Great ride with no unscheduled dismounts and no mechanical issues! Fun stuff.

 

[garyahouse]

Looks like I'm the first one to see this. Gettin' ready to head off to the classroom. Busy day ahead. But I really enjoyed the pics and the story. I'm a little jealous. Florida had the same 84 degrees yesterday afternoon, but that's about all this place has in common with your pictures. Maybe I can make a trip out there one day. How well would my FJR do on those trails? Wonder if I could find a knobby car tire to help out in the traction department?

Gary

darksider #44

 

[beemerdons]

Looks like I'm the first one to see this. Gettin' ready to head off to the classroom. Busy day ahead. But I really enjoyed the pics and the story. I'm a little jealous. Florida had the same 84 degrees yesterday afternoon, but that's about all this place has in common with your pictures. Maybe I can make a trip out there one day. How well would my FJR do on those trails? Wonder if I could find a knobby car tire to help out in the traction department?
Gary

darksider #44

Gary when you come West let me know and we will ride the Moki Dugway in Southern Utah, easily doable by an FJR in both directions: Uphill and Downhill! JSNS!

 

[Mihalis fjr]

Very nice report & photos!

Thanks!

 

[ZOOOMM AGAIN]

Nice report. Adventuring on two wheels is always better with someone to share it with. Looks like you guys had a great time. "Dusty roads", that's to funny, all we have around here are ice and snowy roads. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Bokerfork]

Don,

First time in a while I've seen a Honda 650 with an adventure group. In your expansive experience, how do these stack up with other 650 class Adventure bikes?

BTW, nice report. Just trying to figure out how a place with nothing but snakes and lizards can qualify for a "Wildlife Sanctuary" status.

JS

Mark

 

[beemerdons]

Don,
First time in a while I've seen a Honda 650 with an adventure group. In your expansive experience, how do these stack up with other 650 class Adventure bikes?

BTW, nice report. Just trying to figure out how a place with nothing but snakes and lizards can qualify for a "Wildlife Sanctuary" status.

JS

Mark

Marky-Mark as you may or may not know, the Honda 650 is on my short list for the "Mother of All Mexico Dirt Bike Rides" in April of 2015. I just heard on the phone yesterday, from that turdball HotRodZilla: Tucson Joe is considering selling his Suzuki DRZ 400, which would be the sensible bike to buy (but AJ jazzed all over it when he borrowed it from Jose, Sick Bastard!). jes' sayin' and nuff said! https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/155841-mother-of-all-mexico-dirt-bike-rides-april-in-2015/page-1

Steve "AZRedline" Peterson is an incredible off road rider, he could probably ride a Hondoo Lead Wing off road and do just fine! I also love the way Dan Compton fixed up his WR450, even Girlie Man Dirt Riders like yamafitter can look really good riding that particular Yamaha!