Organ Pipe

 2/6- Lukeville AZ

  We putzed around for a while in the morning. It’s taking some time getting used to the new time zone so we slept in a bit. 

   The road went straight for like 30 miles. It was just miles of creosote bushes and not much else. This is desert here as well as a military training site.  They warned us at the campground last night that the ground may shake and you could hear some big booms. She told me this on the phone and also that it was on a heavy truck route, the trains would go by all night, and the was an airport next door. Then she threw in the part about the ground shaking. None of it was a big deal. 

   Anyway we headed through this military bombing zone. We did see a bunch of tanks but it was an exhibit of some kind. 

     We started to see a lot of these saguaro cacti. In fact we drove past what can only be described as forests of them. These are the big tall cactus with the arms that stick out. They morph themselves into some really intriguing designs. They can be 40 feet tall and can live over 200 years. The arms don’t start to form until they are about 60 years old. 

   We pulled into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and got settled in. We are about 5 miles from Mexico and can see the Wall. There is a very heavy border patrol presence here as this was a big route for people coming over the border. It is a nice campground and a lot nicer than we were expecting. 

    We hope to do some desert hiking tomorrow and get a look at some cacti’s. It hasn’t rained here since September so everything is a bit dry and dusty. We did see a cloud a couple of days ago but it evaporated into thin air.