Sonoran Desert Wildflowers

Spring has come to the desert.  Birds are singing and flowers are in bloom.  We traveled the 21 mile Ajo Mountain Road for the last time a few days ago.  Everything is just beautiful.  It is around 80 in the afternoons and the sun is very bright.  Now the only thing I need is a WOW sunset.  I have not seen one in a few weeks.  John has his last talk tomorrow night and I will pack up my paints on Monday.  We met Lauren and hubby for lunch in Yuma last Thursday so the family visits are over. The VIP campfire in our honor is on Wednesday night. Thursday we are going to Sonoyta for dinner and Friday morning we leave.  Goodbye beautiful Organ Pipe National Monument.  We are off to new adventures!!!!

Lupine and brittle bush along the road



I think this is called desert poppy. It is very tiny.

Brittle Bush is everywhere and sooooooooooooo beautiful

These daisy like flowers are as small as a pinky nail

Brittle bush even makes the rocks happy

As well as prickly pear



Lupine are creaping up against a bush



This is a cristate but I thought it a neat picture

Globe mallow in blossom also

The fence at the border

We feel very safe right next to the border.  We see NPS law enforcement daily and border patrol vehicles go by all the time.  Our tour to Quitobaquito was escorted.  We have seen a few men called "quiters" waiting for patrol to pick them but they just look very beat and sad.  We have watched a dog do his thing finding drugs and being rewarded by his master.  We go through checkpoints every time we head north.  It is just a fact of life to live with the border patrol in this place but we always feel safe and do not know why the media of the country makes this so dangerous. I would be more uneasy in one of the big cities!  Do not believe what you read or hear!

This is the fence along the border.  It is a concrete and steel vehicle barrier. 



This is the Lukeville border crossing and a patrol truck.

John at the Lukeville restaurant.  Note the menu saying "25 miles from water and 3 foot from hell"

This is the fence going west to east on monument hill.

It is almost time to leave and I am sad.  We have had great experiences in this place.  It is just breath takingly beautiful and peaceful.  Our time has been spent wisely but time went by quickly so next week will be our last here.  Maybe we will return someday.

Quitobaquito Van Tour

Organ Pipe Cactus is giving tours to a historic pond in the monument.  It is right along the border so we were escorted by law enforcement and they were with us for safety at Quitobaquito.  It is an spring oasis in this desert.  A town was here and someone farmed the surrounding land after building a pond to irrigate crops of figs and corn.  Now it is in a closed area right next to the border fence.  It has interesting history.

Is this the desert?

 

The surrounding landscape is like this.



The Ranger is explaining to us about the history of the pond.

More Visitors

Our daughter Lisa and husband visited us while we traveled from Phoenix to the Karchner/Bisbee area and Tucson. Then we traveled through the Tohono O'Odham reservation back to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument where we park the rig until the end of February while we continue volunteering. They met Buffalo Soldiers and saw a living cave.  They met the characters in the infamous OK corral gunfight and desert animals up close at the Sonoran Desert Museum. They saw mine tailings the size of small mesas and lots and lots of desert cacti at Saguaro National Park and Organ Pipe. They now have a taste of traveling the Sonoran desert country. 

Look who is coming down the street in Tombstone. It is the start of the OK Corral gunfight!



Jim became a tortoise at Tucson Sonoran Desert Museum

Back at Organ Pipe we met the cactus up close and personal

 

Spring is sprung in Organ Pipe National Monument.  We counted at least 18 different wildflowers in Bloom on our Bull Pasture Hike.

Lisa and Jim's proof they climbed to the pasture

Lisa was trying to find me where I stayed behind on the last leg to the pasture.