Our Volunteer 50 Mile Day Trip

We went to an old line shack of the Gray Ranching era.
 Since I talk about ranching to the public on the VC patio, I was especially interested in this.

We saw an old mine that has been closed for a century.
  This is one of many on the monument.  Now it is bat habitat.



We saw man made Quitobaquito pond made from a spring in the middle of the desert.
 Once the land next to the pond was a farm that grew pomagranates and figs.
It was also an infamous stopover on the Devil's Highway to California.

The pond has a dying old cottonwood tree, fish and ducks

We saw Puerto Blanco Gate, a outcropping that turns white at certain times of the day.

We made a day trip out of it.  We traveled along the 50 mile, closed to the public, terrible washed out road that circled the monument. The southern edge was along the border of Mexico where the pond was and you could see the border barrier fence (sorry no pictures).  We were a caravan of 5 high clearance trucks, one of which John drove.  It was a treat in that it was the first time we (the volunteers) got to go to this part of the monument. We were escorted by Law Enforcement Rangers.  We did not see anything amiss.  The road in washes was very steep and washed and I felt like we should shift our weight to keep our balance, just like on a motorcycle.  We saw Senita Basin, where special Senita cactus grow and other desert cacti that only are on that part of the monument.  It was a wonderful outing!