Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Sunday: (02/03) We prepared to roll and headed off to Fortuna for some grocery shopping before headed East on Hwy 8. We stopped in Gila Bend for lunch. We then caught Hwy 85 South into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We settled into our new campsite. We had rain from Gila bend and at the park. We attended a ranger talk at 1400 and then relaxed at home the rest of the day. We learned that the park is much more open now. Last time we were here the Southern portion of the park was closed. This time we should b able to do the Puerto Blanka Road drive. Granola for breakfast. Ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. Broccoli beef for dinner.

 

Our campsite at Organ Pipe NM.

Monday: (02/04) I made pancakes and Lou made bacon for breakfast. We then made sandwiches for lunch and hit the road for a tour. We drove the Puerto Blanco Road, a 41 mile loop through a beautiful portion of the park. We hiked up to Dripping Springs along the way as well as stopping many times to greet cacti. We reached the border with Mexico, and took another short hike around the pond at Quitobaquito Spring. Nice spring fed pond with pupfish and turtles. About 15 miles of the drive was next to the barrier fence along the border. Last time here, 5-6 years ago when I visited Quitobaquito, it was a guided hike with armed guards. Nice that the park and border are back to normal, even without s fence now. We stopped in Lukeville for gas before heading home. Lou fixed tacos for dinner.

  

 

 

 

 

 

A turtle at Quitobaquito lake.

 

The fence on thee Mexican border. Seems to work just fine.

Tuesday: (02/05) Granola with a banana and a sausage, a hikers breakfast. Lou dropped me off on Puerto Blanco Rd at the Red Tanks trailhead. I hiked past several mines after visiting the Red Tanks. Not very big tanks and little water. First mine was the Baker mine, just a tunnel and shaft. The tunnel was open and a fool could enter.  This fool didn’t. The desert on the way there had singing birds and good looking cacti. After that mine, the trail went up and over the mountain. On the other side was the Milton Mine, it was an open pit mine. There were several other unnamed tiny mines along the way as well. On the way into the Senita Basin there was a gorgeous cactus forest which even included some senita cactus. There are only about 150 of that cacti in the US, all here in Organ Pipe NM. The rest are in the Mexican Sonoran desert. My final mine was the Victoria Mine. It was the biggest mine.  It was a little over three miles more to get back to the campground, a 13 mile hike in all. That was plenty of hike. Lou made BBQ ribs with baked potato and a green salad for dinner.

 

 Many of the cacti are labeled like on the right.

 

 About half of the trail was on old mine roads. A saguaro cactus skeleton on the right.

 

Most organ pipe cacti seem to only branch from the base. ome do like the above and branch and look like balloon art.

 

 A nice rat nest on the right.

 

Several old mines along he trail.

 

 

 Most of the mines seemed to just go down. This one was a walk in.

 

 These water tanks with a blue flag flying over them were scattered along the roads in the park to help save lives. On the right above is a disposal site by one of the mines. All the cans were opened by a church key with a triangular opening. Seems like only liquids were needed?

 

 

 These rock buildings seemed to be the norm. The park service has upgraded the mine shafts with corrugated plastic pipe. The shafts are not just closed because the bats use the old mine shafts.

 

On the right is the old water tank above the cabin at this mine. Inside the cabin ruins was a bathtub. Seems like a couple of baths might use up a years supply of water.

Wednesday: (02/06) PBJ toast for breakfast. We headed out the 21 mile Ajo Mountain Road this morning. It’s a one way road through more cactus forest. And up into the mountains. As soon as we couldn’t go back, I noticed I didn’t have my phone. So no pictures by me today. We hiked out the Arch Canyon trail. Lou and Dawn hiked out the flat section. I attempted to get to the top. I stopped about 100 feet down form the ridge because the trail became too overgrown for me in my short pants. Of course, no pictures. After this drive we drove down to the border and drove the Camino de Dos Republicas which headed East a couple of miles from Highway 85. We also drove out to Senita Basin which i hiked past yesterday so that Lou and Dawn could see some of the interesting cacti there. Lunch was ham and cheese sandwiches. Lou made salmon soup for dinner.

Thursday: (02/07) Granola for breakfast. We pulled out from camp by 1000. We drove up to Ajo and started East on Highway 86. We stopped shortly at a casino. Lou and Dawn lost their dollars and I had a second breakfast. We continued on to Sells. Az and stopped for a walk. While there we picked up an indian fry bread taco which Dawn and I shared. And then on to Tucson. Along the way we remembered we forgot to dump our RV holding tanks. Not worth a 30 mile return trip but did necesitate a stop at an RV park in Tucson, at a $20 fee, before parking at the BLM site off highway 86 at San Joaquin  Road. (GPS: 32.156610, -111.115531). We setup our camp then head off into heavy traffic to find a AAA club office where Lou picked up guidebooks and maps. Then we were off to dinner at the U-Like Chinese buffet. Really good. After dinner we located the Apple store where Dawn has an appointment tomorrow morning to have her phone looked at. It was fun finding our campsite after it got dark.

Inaugural New Jeep Trek

Saturday: (03/26) We got up early showered and had breakfast and were on the road by 0900. We headed up to the North Road which was supposed to be one of the good flower sections. Really not too much to see. Much thinner than I remember for our last visit here. We stopped and looked at the Ubehebe Crater, just a look, no hike for this visit. Looks interesting though. We then headed out a gravel road to the Racetrack, the place that has walking rocks on a dry lake bed. From there we could either return the 27 miles of gravel road we had just come out or continue on, a possible shorter route to a paved road but on a more severe jeep trail. Of course we took the trail. It was the New Jeeps first real trek. It got at least a couple of tests of the skidplates. Having the new Jeep with Hill Descent mode really helped going down the really steep, rocky road without having to use the brake much. We ended up doing about 60 mils on gravel roads and 120 miles of paved road today getting a good look at some big sections of the North end of the park. Along the way we say some nice flowers on the Jeep road, some of the healthiest Joshua Trees we’ve seen, a rattle snake, a desert iguana, and more. Granola for breakfast, Ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch and leftovers for dinner.

Red Rock Canyon SP

Friday: (02/27) Leftover chili for breakfast. After our last unlimited showers we prepared for launch. Helen's son Jay stopped by and then Helen was off to a class and we were on the road by 1000. We stopped at Camping world to get a new plug for the sink and LPG. We also filled the gas tanks in the RV and Jeep then headed out Highway 58 to Tehachapi. Clear skies and nice weather. Lunch at the Apple Shed. Lou had soup and I had the soup and salad bar. Then we continued on to Highway 14 and up to Red Rock Canyon State Park. there were high wind warning signs for the highway as there seems to always be. No problems though. The campground was about 1/3 full. We chose a nice site next to the cliff with a view of the valley and no sigh of water flowing through it recently like several campsites had. clips and salsa for dinner. I have joined Lou with her cold. she thought she had an allergy attack this past week but I don't catch allergy attacks. We binge watched the TV show Weeds.
(GPS:35.372222,-117.997144)

Saturday: (02/28) Granola with strawberries for breakfast. We walked the campground then took a drive. We drove some Jeep roads East of Highway 14. Came to the end of our path where the road headed  up a steep bumpy rock. Some Jeeps more capable than ours coming the opposite direction wouldn't come down. Some ATV's an motorcycles made it with difficulties. We drove backtracked around via another road to the other side then further out the roads until the road condition an threat of rain turned us around. Ham an cheese sandwiches for lunch. Roast chicken baked beans and broccoli for dinner. A little rain in the ex evening and overnight.

Sunday: (03/02) Granola for breakfast. Lou's hot and sour soup for lunch. Chorizo sausage and onions for dinner. A rainy day while we nursed our colds at home. Exciting! More binge Weeds watching.

Monday: (03/02) Skillet chorizo eggs and potatoes for breakfast. We started with a short walk around behind the bluffs up the wash. Lou did quite well. After some tea at camp overlooking the valley I took off for a walk along the bluff edge. It was only a little over 2 miles but occasionally quite exciting because parts of it were on the knife edge of the rim and other parts just along the bluff edge. Good views! A quick hike for someone recovering from a cold. After hot and sour soup for lunch it was time for a nap. We then walked across the valley to the visitor center but it was closed. Seems like it should have been open. So, we headed off in the Jeep to Dove Springs then West through the Blm lands on jeep/ATV roads coming out on a paved road that took us North to Weldon. We stopped use the cell phone since we had signal. We continued East on Highway 178 to Highway 14, the South to our camp at Red Rock Canyon SP. Chili sizes for dinner. We listened to radio mysteries in the evening.

Kane Creek , Chicken Corner, and Lockhart Basin Roads

Monday: (04/29) Corned beef hash and eggs for breakfast. We got an early start for our drive today. When I got to the road we wanted to explore, I finally remembered we needed to fill the gas tank. Not because we were too low but because I don't like going into the wilderness with less than the fullest gas tank possible. Since we stopped for gas, we also stopped and filled our water bottles at the market nearby. Then, I remembered I forgot my camera/phone so off we went back home to get it. Now 1.5 hours later than our early start time we were off out Kane Creek Road. There are several campgrounds and lots of other campsites along the road. most might be good for future stays. We climbed up Hurrah Pass, the road that was just below our viewpoint at Anticline lookout a few days ago. Frankly, it wasn't as bad driving it as we thought it might be when we were watching the cars slowly travel the road. When we got out near the river we stopped at the Base Camp Lodge. We chatted with the proprietor for a while  then continued on out the Chicken Corner Road. It was a total of 28 miles from Moab out to Chicken Corner. The road just ends on a cliff above the Colorado River. The name of the destination seems to be the short trail along the cliff to the mesa on the otherside. Many people chicken out and don't go around the corner on the narrow trail several hundred feet above the river on the edge of the cliff. We enjoyed out ham and cheese sandwich lunches there. We then returned about seven miles back on Chicken Corner Road to where the Lockhart Basin Road we'd off of it. We attempted to find a road that went anywhere . Three times we crawled over impossible rocky spots and steps, between narrow spots only to end up at the ends of box canyons. Obviously other people get lost too because there were lots of tire tracks going our way. At 3pm we decided to call it quits and return. Actually Lou did. She was getting tired of having the jeep cling to the steep hills and ledges.When we got back to Kane Creek Road we took the primitive extension of that road a couple of miles out to a point we didn't want to continue on. It was a real jeep road and rather fun as well.The we returned to town and stopped at the Moab Brewery for dinner. We both had the BBQ tri-tip dinners. I had one of their brews as well. All very good. We stopped by the market for some bread then returned home. We had tea overlooking the river. then retired for the day. I did some work posting photos. Lou worked puzzles.


The road never looks as bad in pictures as it feels when we negotiate it. I also never seem to stop to take a picture at the really interesting spots in the road.


There are some interesting rocks like the columns on he left. Also some early flowers. Judging by the flower buds, we came out just a few days too early for a real flower show.


The scenery is grand. On the right is the trail at Chicken Corner.


Above left is a picture from the trail back to where the road ended and where  we had lunch. On the right are more of the early flowers.


A couple of the rough spots in the road.


One of the box canyons we ended up at.