Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Start of Victoria Mine Trail hike

Palo Verde trees & Saguaro Cacti

Buddies for life Saguaros

Creosote plant bloom

Part of building of mine

Part of wall of mine

Looking out of mine building toward the east

Goodnight Organ Pipe Cactus

                                                       
 A bit of trivia....Who knows the difference between a National Park and  a National Monument?  I just learned this myself at one of the outdoor programs that the park gives each night at 7:00PM in an outdoor amphitheater.  A National Park is created by an act of Congress.  A National Monument is created by a President.  Of course there are other differences; who administrates them etc but that was one little piece of trivia I learned at the presentation on Friday evening.
I really believe that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is one of our nation's best kept secrets. It seems less and less people are going there

This is our third visit to the Organ Pipe Cactus Monument.  Each year the weather has been different and we have run the gamut of hot to freezing to just about right this year.  This park's camping area is set up in such a way that there is natural habitat between each camp site.  There is no electric or sewer hook ups at this park but there is a dump station and a water fill area.  We added two solar panels this past summer which enables us to run just about everything inside the camper without ever having to turn on the generator to fill our bank of batteries.....even on a cloudy day.  The solar energy is wonderful. 

The reason I said that this park is a well kept secret is because out of the 150 sites I don't believe 10% were filled.  Some believe it is the park's proximity to the Mexican border and the warnings about drug smugglers.  We believe it may be a combination of that and the economy.  We did notice more tent campers and less really big Class A motor homes this year.  Those are the ones that get 4-6 miles per gallon of gas...if they are lucky and are not also towing an SUV.

This year the weather was very conducive to hiking and I took full advantage of the trails and the weather.  On Saturday I did a trail called the Victoria Mine Trail which is a 4.5 mile hike to an old gold, silver mine.  It is a somewhat strenuous hike with a lot of steep rocky grades but absolutely beautiful.  It is truly  another world.  It feels like a jungle all through the washes and  arroyos The whole area is so  filled with vegetation with  several types of cacti, Palo Verdi trees.  One feels so close to the earth hiking this trail.  The literature tells the camper to not hike alone but I took enough water, my walking stick that Richard made for me and took off.  It was great.  I only ran into two other people the whole time and that was back at the mine area when I was down on my hands and knees checking out Quartz rock when I looked up to see a young man and woman walking into the area.  I immediately felt guilty with the rock in my hand as it is clearly stated "Do not remove vegetation, minerals or other artifacts from the land".  I gently dropped my prize, smiled and said hello!

This part of the Sonoran desert is not quite at the blooming stage yet.  That will come at the end of February and beginning of March.  The first year we visited here we were fortunate to see the blooms and each day we were there the desert became a carpet of green  and flowed into several colors as each cactus bloomed.

We left Sunday morning to head north and eventually once again west.  Tonight finds us at one of our favorite boondocking (dry camping) places in the desert just north and west of Gila Bend, AZ which is near the Painted Rocks Petroglyphs park.  Lots of deep dry washes (when there is no rain) to look for rocks for me and birds to capture in a picture for Richard.