Hikes around the campground on Friday

Rain was predicted for Friday, but not until later in the day and not very much (0.1-0.2"), so we decided to take a couple of hikes that are around the campground area and stay closer to the rig today.

We planned to do the Campground Perimeter Trail over to the area near the Group Campground and then do the Desert View Trail, and come back to finish the Campground Perimeter... and maybe take the Palo Verde Trail over to the Visitor Center if we were ambitious.

 

It was quite windy this morning, so we took our flag down before we left - it was really flapping in the wind!

We started on the Campground Perimeter Trail...

We headed over to the Desert View Trail.

Obligatory picture at the beginning of the trail for our "Hike for Health" documentation.

Even though it was a little chilly, it was a beautiful morning.

There were nice signs with information about what we were seeing.

Mexican Jumping Bean plant (we didn't see any beans!)

View down through the valley

Carl stopped to take a picture...

This is the picture he stopped to take -- so pretty up the hill against the brilliant blue sky.

And he took a picture of me too!

The trail ended up climbing to the top of the ridge and we were able to look over.

We read this sign and then looked for the cactus and initially didn't see it, then we re-read, "The Little One"...

This variety was only 4-6" tall, and a dull color that blended in to the desert floor and rocks. We realized as we continued our hike that they probably have been along all the places we have hiked but we haven't noticed them before!

Hiking along the ridge -- the wind was really blowing while we were up there.

You may be able to see some non-plant things down in the valley -- that's the campground and Gracie is down there.

This Organ Pipe Cactus had a strange growth on it - we took a picture... if we end up seeing a ranger, we may ask what it is.

This was a cute small barrel cactus (about a foot tall) with fishhook like-barbs near the top and flowers on the top.

When we finished the Desert View Trail, we headed back to complete the Campground Perimeter Trail.

The campground is at one edge of a very wide valley (that you saw in the pictures we took when we were on the ridge on the Desert View Trail) -- this is looking across that valley.

We finished up the two hikes and came back to the rig for lunch. The rain came at about 3:30pm, and it rained pretty hard for about 2 minutes, and that was it. I guess there may still be more rain coming, but it is supposed to clear out by tomorrow. 

I posted a link to the Cartwright blog yesterday from our visit in 2015... Carl also blogged about their visit in 2015:

http://cands-rvadventures.blogspot.com/2015/02/organ-pipe-national-monument.html 

The odd thing is that the blog entry he posted indicated it was posted in February, and yet he included a picture that he attributed to me (and which is also from the Cartwright blog) which we didn't take until March! (https://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-desert-is-amazing.html) Neither of us is sure how that happened, though he indicates that he sometimes wrote a blog entry later and backdated it when he posted... I didn't even know that was possible!

We are enjoying our stay at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument!