Jan 29, Organ Pipe 2016

 Friday, January 29

45 degrees and sunny this morning.  We decide to do the 20+ mile Ajo Mountain Drive early.  There are park guided tours offered, but they are totally booked for the next few days. Surprisingly busy place!

The drive is a graded gravel road which winds first through the vast Sonoran desert.  We have a guide book, with numbered stops and descriptions, so we follow that – mostly.   This is a surprisingly green desert!

This is really the first time that I looked at the desert and thought “It really is beautiful”.  Still, I don’t think Greg and I have fallen in love with it the way some people seem to. 

Greg with organ pipe cactus

phainopepla(black)

At one stop we see these beautiful “crested” organ pipes. 

This happens when the growth cells get out of whack and grow straight instead of the usual circular.  It happens to saguaro too, though no one is really sure why.

Here is another skeleton, this one a saguaro

We are 7 miles from Mexico and there are occasional signs posted with “advisories”.

 We stretch a bit at a stop that has a trail to this arch,

but decide we will wait and hike the Estes Canyon Trail, coming up.  We arrive there about 10:00, pack our camera stuff, hats, water and an orange. And set out.  The trail is pretty steadily uphill, into the Ajo Mountains. 

Very rocky, with the mountains made mostly of a pinkish to chocolate color rhyolite.  Lots of switchbacks.  We run into three other couples over the course of the 3 miles, from Alaska, Idaho and Washington State. The most talkative is Bill, a 69 year young man from Washington State, who asks us to take a photo of him and his climbing buddy and then takes one of us!

We noticed a helicopter as we arrived at the trail and as we walk there are several more crisscrossing the rugged terrain. 

  When we reach the high point, we celebrate with an orange ---sooooo good --- and begin the descent.

Cholla cactus skeleton

This joint from a cholla "jumping" cactus, jumped right onto my shoe.  No, really!  Very difficult to remove!

We have lunch at a small ramada at the trailhead, with sandwiches, oranges and chips.  It is 76 degrees now, at 1:00. Absolutely beautiful day!

We finished Ajo Mt Drive about 2:00, the second half faster because it is hotter and lighting is harsh.

Greg notes that without our senior pass, entrance is $12 and camping $16.  We only paid $8 for camping, what a deal!  We decide to stay for another night and use the solar shower again.  Generators can only be used between 8AM and 6PM, so we charge up the battery and make some dinner – salad and worsts. Stop at the Visitor's Center to see the displays we skipped last time and ran into Sardius Stalker, the ranger who did the talk last night.

Chatted for a bit and he told us they didn't know what was going on with the helicopters, but border patrol were recommending NOT crossing into Mexico today.  We found out later there were joint US/Mexico raids and arrests of 24 supposed drug cartel members in Lukeville, right at the border, about 7-8 miles away!

Instead of going to the ranger talk, we opt to walk the Desert Trail, which has a nice spot to watch the sun set.  Not so spectacular tonight, but a nice walk.