Yesterday we took a trip to the Organ Pipe National Monument.
To get there we drove south on hwy 85 thirty four miles. The entrance to the campground is on the right and the 21 mile loop trail entrance is on the left. We turned left and drove east for about a mile where we came to a fee station. The day use fee is $8.00 or if you have a Golden Age pass it is free. The funny thing is all three of us have a Golden Age pass BUT none of us had them with us.
The road is very good and any car can make the drive.
The area is very scenic and the trip takes about two hours.
Here are some pictures from our drive.
Below is the cactus from which the monument gets its name.
There were some wild flowers blooming but no blooms on the cacti.
We came across this picnic area with a shade cover made of Ocotillo branches.
We didn’t see much wild life. Only a few squirrels and chipmunks but they were too fast to get a picture of.
Patti did get a picture of a mouse that must have been sick because it was moving very slowly.
We have plenty of Cholla cactus around Quartzsite but down here they have Cholla trees.
We drove by a couple of arches.
The whole area is very scenic.
We stopped for lunch at a turn out along the road.
It was a beautiful drive and worth the trip.
In the last blog I mentioned the “mountainous tailing piles” at the south end of Ajo I didn’t have a picture of them so I asked Patti to try and get a shot of them as we came into town yesterday.
The piles are on both sides of the highway.
Yesterday evening on the way to dinner at Marcela’s we went to see the open pit mine where all the tailings come from.
Ajo has some old Spanish style architecture especially in it’s churches and public buildings.
We had a good time down here but since all the roads are closed for the Pronghorn fawning season we decided to head back to Quartzsite. We will be leaving this morning around ten-ish.
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