A new achievement

Once we left the outskirts of Tuscon, route 86 took us through the Tohono O'odham Nation Reservation. The road was fairly straight, flat, and quiet with very little traffic. So, when I suggested to Michael that perhaps this would be a good opportunity to take over the wheel, he promptly pulled over to the side of the road, and handed me the reins.
I drove all the way into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and to the campground. It was a first for me, and I am glad I did it. Finally. The Alpine handles beautifully, and after an hour and a half I was more used to gauging the width of the coach, and staying well within the center and shoulder lines.

This morning, I continued to drive out of the park and through Ajo before handing the reins back to the usual driver who has more experience negotiating lanes on the highway.

We continued westbound along I-8, back to Westwind Resort in Yuma for the night.
Much of Westwind has emptied out, the park models closed up and boarded shut. There were many empty RV spaces now, and they put us in a pull-through site in a different area of the park.
After dinner, when it was a bit cooler, we went for a stroll around the park and decided to walk past our previous site where we had stayed for the month in February. Coming around the corner, we couldn't believe our eyes that there was another Alpine in our very spot.
We met the folks, Jeanne and Terry, and spent a good hour or more chatting with them. They are not members of any Alpine groups, but they are Escapees and were also at Escapade. We plan to stay in touch and when their schedule allows, they may join us at one of the Alpine rallies.
Tomorrow we continue the remaining 180 miles to Chula Vista, which is just south of San Diego, California.

Exploring Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

the approach into the park

After Saguaro National Park, we moved on to explore another cactus preserve, the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and UNESCO biosphere preserve.
Located in southern Arizona, adjacent to the Mexican border, this stunning landscape encompasses over 517 sq miles. The drive into the park was simply spectacular, the green cacti, flowering ocotillo, and yellow blooming brittlebush creating a bright and colorful canvas.  Timing is everything and we were extremely lucky to time our visit here after an abundant winter rainfall when everything was in bloom. This desert is known as a green desert because it has two wet seasons. The result is a lush landscape and spectacular flowering plants.

organ pipe cactus

The park's namesake, organ pipe cactus, is native to Mexico. The park's population of organ pipe cactus migrated just a little further north over the border. This National Monument protects the organ pipe cactus found only in this area of the US. The name "organ pipe" originated because to early settlers the dead cacti resembled organ pipes.
Several other cactus varieties thrive in this Sonoran desert terrain as well, like the saguaro, agave, cholla, barrel cactus and buckhorn. Ocotillo are abundant too, as are palo verde, mesquite, creosote and brittlebush, among other native species.

our Organ Pipe Cactus home for a couple of days

The Twin Peaks campground is terrific and accommodates larger RVs like ours. The sites are spacious and well laid out, absorbed into the natural surroundings, with a concrete pad and picnic table.
Our Alpine was surrounded by saguaro, flowering ocotillo, and palo verde. What a stunning setting, overlooking the Ajo Mountains to the east and the Sonoyta Mountains to the south, with several more ridges in between and the Ajo Valley beyond.


We spent three nights here, and could easily have spent longer. As we have learned, there is always a lot more to learn and see. Once we set up, we went to the visitor center to find out about recommended drives and hikes, and also watched the movie about the park.
In the evenings we went to the ranger presentations. One was about the challenges national parks face trying to balance the environment with the people who come to see and enjoy the wilderness, while also preserving the fauna and flora as well as the history of the settlers who were here prior to the national parks being created. It left us with a new perspective on national parks, their historical evolution and their focus on the future for younger generations. Another ranger talk was about bats and in particular the Lesser Long-nosed Bats that pollinate the saguaro and organ pipe flowers when in bloom. Here is a link to more information about these hard-working night creatures:
https://www.nps.gov/orpi/learn/nature/lesser-long-nosed-bats.ht
The third evening two rangers set up a telescope for us to view the night sky as they pointed out various constellations. We were also able to follow the path of the International Space Station for several minutes, observed the nebula in Orion's scabbard, and also saw three of Jupiter's moons.

We took a short hike along the campground perimeter trail and also the Desert View Trail. We learned more about the native flora and how the Indians and the Mexicans used various plants and pods as food sources and herbal remedies. They also used the tough skeleton of dead saguaros to build shelters.
I especially enjoyed spotting the cactus plants in bloom. The flowers are so delicate and their colors so vibrant that it's surprising that such a spiny, spiky plant can produce such fragile beauty.

There were many other plants in bloom. Their bright colors were easy to spot among the predominantly green and brown background. My favorite were the minute poppies that seemed to cluster in groups.

From atop the hill we were able to see the campground below and to the south across the valley, the town of Sonoyta in Mexico.

our campground and beyond that across the valley, the town of Sonoyta, Mexico

On Monday we drove along the Ajo Mountain Loop drive and stopped along the way to learn about the various  aspects of the desert using our handy self-guiding booklet from the Visitor Center.  We also did a couple of short hikes into the wilderness. The entire 21-mile drive was beautiful and the vistas stunning.

there is an arch on this mountain 

flowering brittlebush lined the roadway

fascinating formations and mysterious canyons

organ pipe cactus  among the saguaro

enormous chain fruit cholla along this path

a green, blooming desert 

The Tohono O'odham have a deep respect for the saguaro. There are a number of creation stories familiar to these desert people which involve humans turning into saguaros.  In the movie we watched at the Visitor Center, one elder explained that if you look hard enough at a group of saguaros, you will begin to see humans and human families. He continued to caution that saguaros need to be respected and treated like our family, and since none of us would want to harm a family member, the same holds true for the saguaro.
It's certainly easy to attribute human-like qualities to the saguaro with their interesting arms that seem to wave and beckon.  During our hike into a canyon, I spied this saguaro which to me looked like a dancer with arms in first position.

saguaro ballerina standing  with first position arms

driving through a cactus forest

a panoramic sweep

organ pipe cactus (and Michael)

The next day we drove part of the North Puerto Blanco Drive up to the picnic area. We enjoyed the cactus forest along this drive too, although the organ pipe cacti were fewer but the saguaro and cholla made up for it.

A few years ago, there was an unfortunate incident when one of the park rangers was killed while attempting to help the authorities to apprehend illegal drug smugglers. Because the park is adjacent to the Mexican border and because this is a remote wilderness, it attracts illegal activity like smuggling and immigration. For that reason, in certain areas, you will see signs like these posted:

However, we never felt threatened at any time and certainly the more popular touring roads and trails are avoided by persons who try to remain inconspicuous.
Our experience in the park was definitely memorable and we would like to return here in the future to spend a little more time exploring more trails and other areas.
Tomorrow, however, we move on to continue west towards Chula Vista to join our So-Cal group for the 15th anniversary rally.
To end a perfect and memorable stay at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, we enjoyed a pretty crimson sky as the sun was setting.

Saguaro National Park, Arizona

There are two sections to Saguaro National Park: Saguaro East - Rincon Mountain District and Saguaro West - Tuscon Mountain District. They are roughly 30 miles apart, with Tuscon in between.

We stopped at the Rincon Mountain Visitor Center in the East Park first to pick up a map, view the movie about the park, and buy a patch (I still collect patches from the National Parks and plan to incorporate them into some project one day.)
Next, we followed the 8-mile Cactus Forest Drive through a dense cactus forest. It was  surprisingly scenic, a landscape filled with a variety of cacti and desert shrubs, many in bloom. The tall stately saguaro dominated the landscape.

Saguaros are the symbol of the Sonoran Desert and inhabit only this desert. The Sonoran Desert covers 120,000 square miles (260,000 sq km), an area about the size of New Mexico, and is  the most diverse desert in North America.  Because winters are mostly frost-free, and there are two rainfall periods, one in winter and one in summer, it is home to over 4,000 species of plants and animals.

I learned that saguaros have been here for over 10,000 years and as some scientists suggest, either returned from an ice-age refuge or advanced as the climate warmed up. Although they have adapted well to their current conditions, saguaros still face many challenges. They must survive periods of cold and drought, and need to find nutrients to bear flowers and fruit with seeds for the next generation. Viable only for one summer, the seeds must have the summer rains and warm temperatures to germinate. These conditions need to continue for several consecutive years for the young saguaros to continue to establish and thrive. Ideally, a seed will begin life in good soil under the protection of a plant that can offer shade, protection from hard rain, and cover from being seen and eaten. It is quite common to see young saguaros growing up between branches of a palo verde tree, which in effect acts as a nurse tree to the growing cactus, just like like in the photo here. Eventually as the saguaro matures, a battle for the water source ensues between both plants, and typically the palo verde tree loses to the saguaro. 

We learned from the movie that years ago when settlers began ranching here, the cattle trampled the new saguaro plants to the point where the population diminished greatly. Today, the saguaro is protected.

a young saguaro, surviving and thriving

desert in bloom

barrel cactus in bloom - these cacti always grow towards the sun, therefore lean towards the south, so are known as the "compass cactus"

Tuscon Mountains in background, and me with a buckhorn cholla cactus

The Saguaro is the tallest and largest cactus in the US, growing as high as 50 feet and weighing several tons. It can live to be 200 years old. I was surprised to see so many saguaro in the National Park without their recognizable iconic limbs, looking more like fuzzy, green branchless trunks. I found out that saguaro might produce their first arms at approximately 90 years of age. Growing arms is related to age but also dependent on water supply. 

The following day we drove to the west park, which we toured 15 years ago. We stopped off at the Red Hills Visitor Center first, then continued along the scenic 5-mile Bajada Loop Drive along the Tuscon Mountain District foothills. These are some of the more memorable photos:

saguaro forest,  a very different  type of forest  than what usually comes to mind

these must be really old saguaros with so many limbs

ocotillo in bloom

it's not that Michael is short ... 

The saguaro flowers for the first time at approximately 65 years of age. The pretty white flowers appear in May and June, near the tops of the stems and arms. The blooms last less than 24 hours, open at night and remain open the next day. Bats pollinate the flowers at night while bees and birds, like the white-winged dove, pollinate them during the day. 

Once the flowers are pollinated they mature into bright red fruit that ripens by July and is a source of nourishment for many birds and animals like coyote, javelina, and tortoise. Each fruit contains up to 2,000 small black seeds, which are spread by the birds and animals that have eaten the fruit.  The seeds then take root, and if conditions are good, they eventually grow into mature cacti. 

The Tohono O'odham have strong cultural ties to the saguaro. The first saguaro fruit harvest coincides with the Tohono O'odham New Year, when the summer monsoon rains fall on the parched desert floor. The O'odham use woody ribs of dead saguaros to create a tool, called a ku-pit, to reach the fruit clustered at the tops of the arms and crowns of the cacti. 

the ribs of a dead saguaro  

At the Valley View Overlook, we walked the trail that climbed a ridge to a superb view of the Avra Valley below and Picacho Peak to the north.  

Avra Valley and Picacho Peak, the same Picacho Peak where we watched the civil war reenactment

On Signal Hill we viewed prehistoric rock art created by the prehistoric Hohokam people. These petroglyphs are more than a thousand years old, a legacy left in several areas of the desert by the ancient people living and passing through. 

the petroglyphs

In keeping with the cactus theme, tomorrow we will be off to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.