March 28-30, 2025, Kofa Wildlife Wilderness, AZ
Kofa is about 200 miles away from San Diego and can be reached in under 3.5 hours of leisurely and scenic travel on the Interstate 8. It is barely an hour farther away than our “backyard” of Anza-Borrego Desert, and twice closer in time than Death Valley.
San Diego to King Valley
Four of us meet at Buckman Springs Rest Area off Interstate 8 on a Friday morning – one fresh Grenadier, one Land Rover LR4, one Range Rover Sport, and one Discovery 2. All of us have spent a lot of time and miles in the desert, so we have – or think we have – all we need for a three-day trip, except for gas. That we replenish in Yuma and hit Castle Dome Mine Road not even half an hour later.
Soon, we are parked on the grounds of Castle Dome City and Mining Museum, and have a quick lunch before getting in.$20 entrance per person may sound steep – but we soon realize that this place is more than Bodie and Cerro Gordo combined, and more educational than Tombstone. There are nearly 50 buildings preserved, with mostly historically true artifacts, from kitchenware, clothing, and furniture, to machine tools and mining equipment. After the museum visit, we get back in our trucks and trundle on. The road across Castle Dome City, shown as open on all and every map, isn’t – so we have to backtrack some and take a side trail (named Castle Dome Kofa Bypass) to reconnect with Castle Dome Mine Road north of the town. The road climbs gently, crossing washes here and there, and makes its merry way towards McPherson Pass. The road is gorgeous. Unlike the northern entrances to Kofa Wildlife Refuge, it is narrow and winding, and it makes a perfect ride under 15 miles an hour. Somewhere along the way, a wayward text message reaches my phone: another member of our party is battling Friday afternoon traffic fully intent on reaching the camp before 6:45 pm. He arrives closer to 9pm, with a fresh eye-watering speeding ticket on the highway, and minus a spare tire – rocky roads in Kofa are not gentle on way aired-down tires driven almost at highway speeds. We have a gorgeous campfire and enjoy life until very late. We’ve covered about 30 miles on dirt today, and we have close to 60 to cover tomorrow – so eventually the conversation peters out and we turn in.
King Valley to Hovatter Homestead
As we only plan to cover about 60 miles of moderate trails today, we aren’t in a hurry to get going. Coffee and breakfast are produced and consumed. Around 9 in the morning, we depart.
The road continues meandering along the foothills of Kofa Mountains for another ten miles or so – its surface alternates between soft sand and rocky sections where flash floods washed sand away. There are some steep climbs necessitating low range gears.
The goal for the day was Hovatter Homestead site. We have some time, though, and detour to see the Hoodoo Cabin – one of decently-maintained cabins in Kofa Reserve.
It takes eight more miles to reach Hovatter Homestead. The sun is still high above the horizon, around 5 in the afternoon. For the previously cleared, pancake-flat, area with a circular driveway adorned by Saguaros, it is amazing that you only see it when you get to it.
We cook our dinner, including rack of lamb, and wash it down with gin and tonic and whatever whiskey we have left over from the previous evening’s festivities.
Hovatter Homestead to San Diego
Sunday morning is not a timeto hurry, so we don’t. We have a large breakfast and lazily pack things away.
We leave Hovatter Homestead at 10 in the morning. The first three miles prove to be somewhat arduous – a lot of crossing of washes, a rock garden here and there. We stop at the fork and take the left turn onto Sheep Tank Mine Road.After that things change rather quickly. A second blown tire on the Defender has about ¾” gash in the sidewall – looking ugly. After spare tire inventories from all trucks, the best option is the LR4’s factory donut spare – it clears the brakes miraculously. It does look pretty dinky compared to the rest of the Defender’s rubber. Sometime in the middle of tire swapping process, we pause to jam three plugs, liberally coated with rubber glue, into the sidewall gash of the last proper Defender tire – we don’t expect miracles, but maybe it’ll hold air.
We move significantly slower than a walking pace, yet – out of the blue, I hear a dreaded “Pffftttt” from that spare. It blew a crack in the sidewall without hitting anything – probably, just from overloading. Now what? After some discussion, Steve checks the air pressure in the tire with the plugs sticking out of its sidewall – and discovers that it seems to hold air! Back it goes into its original spot – despite our dislike for questionable tires mounted on the left front corner.A couple of miles pass in near silence until we reach the stretch of the road serviced by the mining company nearby – oh how nice, flat, and wide it is! Our pace quickens to 15, then to 25, miles an hour. A few 90-degree turns, and we are on pavement – at a gas station on Interstate 10. We relocate the wounded tire to the rear of the Defender, move the good one to the front, and hit the road. Along the way, we battle a strong and gusty wind from south-west. Once we reach the altitude of 4000 feet, we roll into low clouds – with barely 200-foot visibility and rain. The traffic slows to a 20-mph crawl with blinkers and fog lights on and only lets up already on the descent towards El Cajon.
We made it home. That tire with three plugs in the sidewall carried on for over 300 miles. What a day out of what was billed as an “easy” off-road excursion.
The full, more exciting write up is available at: https://3rj.org/KofA/2025/
🏔**LRCSD Trail Leader is a volunteer position. We have leaders with a ride range of trail experience – you do NOT need to have competed in a Camel Trophy or be able to navigate narrow trails blindfolded. Interested in becoming a trail leader? Or maybe you’d like to hear more about what would entail, please Email The Board or inquire at the next club meeting!
