Hike Kofa Dam and Kofa Butte Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, AZ

Jan 30, 2022 — Kofa Butte is a cliffy butte deep in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. To reach the trailhead Drive along King Road if coming from the west and take a left here (33.17939, -114.02172), now heading north. The road is almost all excellent graded dirt. Turn right here (33.28254, -113.975) and legally pass through an active mine on a short bit of private property. Veer left here (33.27097, -113.9552) and take this less good road up Yaqui Wash, where high clearance is necessary, but not 4WD. Follow this road up Yaqui Wash to its end.

Matt and I first wanted to check out a feature labeled Kofa Dam on maps. A short detour from Kofa Butte, we decided to head over to check it out before heading to the peak. We walked up Yaqui Wash (aka Kofa Dam Wash), which had some light Class 2 obstacles and a couple of interesting formations along its sides. The drainage housing the dam pops in on the left, but there's a significant dryfall that we had to get over. We stayed above the drainage on its east side and ascended Class 2 terrain to the area above the dryfall and then dropped down to the dam. I always love finding weird desert stuff like this.

Rather than backtrack and take a more direct route up to Kofa Butte, we decided to just stay high and wrapped around to the north side of Kofa Butte. From here, the slope progressed from flat and easy terrain to small boulders, and finally to Class 2 as it ascended. The route wraps to the northeast side of the peak, following the base of the more significant cliffs. We noted cairns along the route, but they were not helpful. A weakness in the cliff band allows for Class 2 access to the flattish top of Kofa Butte. We headed generally south and up to the high point. There's a false summit to the north that has great views of Polaris Mountain and others to the north. The true summit is located along a narrower stretch of flat mesatop to a perch above sheer cliffs.

We backtracked off the top of Kofa Butte and rather than follow our ascent route, we decided to take a more direct route back down to Yaqui Wash. To do this, we hugged the base of the northern cliffs and side-hilled a bit until reaching a sloped spur ridge. This took us down on mostly pleasant terrain, headed northwest. Short Class 2 sections were the only obstacle.