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SCENIC HIKE AT KOFA's PALM CANYON – 10a Saturday, February 7
While we’re all together here at the “Quartzsite Fiberglass RV Gathering” let’s get together and go hike the beautiful KOFA Wildlife Refuge’s Palm Canyon trail to see Arizona’s only native “California Palms” growing, tucked away in this tiny little canyon. The one-way hike is about 1 mile and is of an easy to moderate difficulty level. Probably will take about 30 minutes to hike the 1 mile to get to where you can view the palms. For the trail there, you should expect loose rocks and a mix of both flat and short slightly steep sections. There’s parking at the trailhead. I was there a year ago, and there were not any porta-potties, so plan on no bathroom facilities.
 
Plan on your own transportation. Google shows it’s a little more than 30 miles (51 minutes), from Dome Rock to the Palm Canyon Trailhead and 7 miles of it is on a very nice dirt road. Let’s plan to meet at 10:00a at the general area of Steve and Judy Allen’s Casita trailer, where the “Quartzsite Fiberglass RV Gathering” official name buttons are being handed out (and also near where the music will be!) We will try to all leave together from the designated meeting place (see schedule below).
 
I think a picnic lunch while we’re up there would be fun, so please plan to bring a lunch with you that you can eat while sitting on the rocks.
 
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Please note that the sun hits the canyon where the palms are at about noon, for a small time window (maybe 30 minutes) where the palms are in full sun and not in the shade [so they are MUCH easier to view], so we should try to have the palms in view by noon, which means hiking there to arrive to the palms by Noon. So in order to make that happen, I think this schedule will work:
 
10:00 Meet at Steve & Judy Allen’s Casita (near where the music will be)
10:15 Leave to drive to Palm Canyon Trailhead
11:15 Arrive at “KOFA Palm Canyon Parking Lot” (see pic)
11:30 “Hit the trail”
12:00 Arrive at the viewing point to see the palms
12:15 Lunch (find a rock to sit on while we’re up there)
1:00 Hike back to parking lot
1:45 Arrive at parking lot
 
Suggested things to bring:
-a packed lunch!
-water
-hat
-sun block
-sunglasses
-closed toed shoes (think hiking boots or tennis shoes)
 
GENERAL DIRECTIONS:
Take Hwy 95 about 19 miles south from Quartzsite to turnoff to KOFA Palm Canyon at about Mile Marker 85; go about 7 miles on this dirt road, towards the big mountain! (GPS:33.360502, -114.106170) - but we are still going to try and all leave together.
 
Point of contact: I am your point of contact. I don’t want to put my phone number on this public site, but you will be able to find me somewhere in the near vicinity to the music area and to Steve and Judy Allen’s Casita. I will be in a Red Tacoma pickup with a topper and a Thule carrier and solar panels on the roof (No RV), just a Lady and her truck!
 
Please indicate your interest, so I get an idea of how many people are interested. We will leave promptly at 10:15 in order to make it to the top by Noon, as explained in the post above.
 
To learn more about Palm Canyon at KOFA National Wildlife Refuge, go to this link:
https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2025-01/palm-canyon-trail-kofa-national-wildlife-refuge_jan-2025.pdf