So back in the day before I mellowed out with age, I was a stickler for planning out everything. Unfortunately I have extremely bad luck when it comes to the unpredictables like weather. I’ve lived in the desert for a couple decades and yet 3/4 of my planned outdoor activities have had a chance of being rained out. So this is another tale from the travel archives and here we go…
Let’s set the stage…I had discovered Palm Canyon on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge back in college during a field trip and instantly became enamored. Palm Canyon is a great place to visit for a nice day hike out in nature, but I noticed one time that camping was allowed. An additional benefit was that the graded gravel seven mile road from Highway 95 was easily passable in my 2004 Pontiac Grand Am unlike many other roads on the Kofa Refuge. So I planned a weekend camping trip with my friends Chad and Jared on what seemed like a lovely weekend in January.
Saturday January 26, 2013
As the trip approached the weather forecasts dimmed a bit with a chance of rain, but I told the guys to prepare for rain and continued my trip preparations. So on a dreary Saturday morning I packed up my vehicle and headed to pick up my friend Chad before heading out of town. Probably about halfway into our 80 mile drive, it started to rain lightly. As we approached the turn off for Palm Canyon, the rain only intensified. All along this drive Chad started to voice his concerns about the rain even though I had proclaimed to prepare for rain over the past few weeks. As we made the turn off of Highway 95, we could barely make out the canyon due to the low rain clouds and fog, but we continued down the gravel road. After the seven mile drive down the road, we arrived at the mouth of Palm Canyon as Chad continued to voice his reluctance at camping in the rain. As I’m listening to Chad’s protest of the conditions, I’m also having pretty much the same conversation with my friend Jared who hadn’t even left from Yuma yet over text message. So here I am battling the rain in one of the driest places in the U.S. while trying to reassure two friends that rain won’t melt them. So in my head I’m like “let me at least get some photos before this trip collapses under the weight of all the rain.” I was fully willing to camp in the rain but I was not willing to listen to a cold and wet complaining Chad throughout the weekend. So I took many photos of the rain drenched and fog engulfed canyon before we headed back down the gravel road. As we made our way down the gravel road, we started to see the canyon emerge from the fog in the rear view mirror as the storm started to past. It was at this time that Chad started to surprise me as his optimism started to reappear as the sun started to peek through the the clouds. We stopped right before the road met up with Highway 95, exited the vehicle and looked back at the fully visible canyon to our east. It was at that moment that we reached an agreement to drive back to the mouth of the canyon and see how things were down there. Upon reaching the mouth of the canyon again, we decide it was time to do some camping. Next we collaborated on convincing our friend Jared to make the drive up. Ultimately we were successful with convincing him. So we set up our campground and then did some exploring while we waited for Jared to arrive. During this exploring we noticed the small waterfalls that were falling all around the canyon. Jared arrived in the late afternoon and we spent most of the evening sitting around the campfire with the sound of waterfalls in the background.
Credit for this photo goes to Chad for snapping photos of me at my least photogenic moments. 
Credit for this photo goes to Chad for snapping photos of me at my least photogenic moments. 
Credit for this photo goes to Chad, this is actually a good one! 
Credit for this photo goes to Chad . 
Credit for this photo goes to Chad for snapping photos of me at my least photogenic moments. Well at least i look strong in this photo. 
Sunday January, 27, 2013
The next morning we arose to absolutely beautiful weather in the desert only reminded of the previous rainy weather by a few scattered small puddles. After having a light breakfast, we decide to embark on a hike. Like a previous time spent at Palm Canyon we ventured out into the open desert to an area I named “The Valley of Cholla.” I can not understate the beautiful weather on that day. During this hike upon my suggestion, we took multiple photos amongs the valleys and hills around Palm canyon. After finishing our hike, it was time to head back to civilization.
Final Words
Even though I have terrible luck with the weather, I must admit that we lucked out with being a bit persist and waiting out the rain. Even as the years pass by we often spoke of that great camping trip that wouldn’t have been if we had simply canceled at the sight of rain. So the moral of the story is when someone say prepare for rain, you should prepare for rain!
