Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on Thursday

We have limited generator time at the campground at Organ Pipe, so we stayed around to make sure that our generator shut down at 10am (the beginning of daytime quiet time), and then we headed out. We wanted to drive around the Ajo Mountain Scenic Drive and do one or two hikes along the way. We stopped at the visitor center to pick up the driving guide (with explanations about the various stops along the drive) and headed out.

We had both done this drive before... in 2015... but at separate times. Carl and Sue went on the drive with Pastor George and Mary while the SKP Christian Fellowship Rolling Rally was stopped at the Group Camp area of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument before the Escapade in Tucson. Dwayne and I visited Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument later in the spring (March) after the Escapade.

Carl does a good job of including the Jeep in the pictures to provide perspective.

In these first pictures there are more saguaro cacti...

But then we started seeing the namesake of the park - Organ Pipe Cacti.

We also saw Cholla - this is a chain fruit cholla with the fruit hanging down.

I snuck into the picture as Carl was taking one of a large Organ Pipe cactus (can you find Patti?).

The mountain formations were so pretty... and the Jeep gives perspective...

... that you don't have in this picture!

Organ Pipe and Saguaro cacti

This was at an overlook of a wash where there would have been dry-country farming done many years ago.

Looking back toward the west where our campground and the visitor center are located.

Some of the Ocotillo were in bloom...

This one was a little off the road but we saw the red flowers against the sky so stopped to take some pictures.

So pretty!

There were some Saguaros and an Organ Pipe right next too.

There was also a Prickly Pear -- the information noted that they grow with their pads (leaves?) vertical to limit the amount of moisture loss to the sun.

This was one of the sights I was most wanting to see, but it is now collapsed. It was an Organ Pipe Cactus with a crested part...

You can see part of the crested remains. I'm not certain why it collapsed.

I blogged about this plant when Dwayne and I were here in 2015: https://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2015/03/more-of-amazing-desert.html

I'm not sure why I liked the crested cacti so much... but I was really looking forward to seeing it again and disappointed that it is no longer standing.

We headed on to where we were going to do the Arch Canyon hike:

We are trying to get a "Hike for Health" award -- hiking 5 miles within the park while we are here. To get the award, we need to have a photograph of each of us on the trail hiked... this was the start - you can see the arch behind us.

Carl is reading up on the trail...

Description of the trail -- note that we were taking the Arch Canyon Trail... not the trail *to* the arch!

I was glad that I had taken this picture because when we got to the end of the Arch Canyon trail, there was a sign for the trail to the arch... and we started to follow that but quickly realized that we were going into the "primitive", "steep", "unmaintained" path and turned around!

More information about the trail.

On the hike

Some of the views on the way in.

At the turn-around spot

Looking back out as we were hiking back to the parking area.

We decided that we would forego the second hike we had planned -- since we had gotten a later start, we think going back for the longer hike on another day would be wise.

We stopped at the area of "Teddy Bear Cholla" - They may look soft and cuddly, but they are anything but!

Carl went over to take a picture of this one with flowers / fruit on it. He warned me to watch my step as they would attack!

Unbeknownst to us... Carl had caught a part of a Cholla on his shoe (not visible in the picture)...

Thankfully he had his Leatherman tool with him with a pair of needlenosed pliers that he could use to pull most of the spines out of his shoe. It was amazing how deeply embedded they got so quickly!

Just a reminder that the desert is a beautiful place but can also be dangerous. But, of course, that's the way that the cholla spread to new locations!

After we got back to the campground, we took a walk after supper.

The sunset was so beautiful in the west...

... while the moon was starting to rise in the east.

This was down near the amphitheater in the campground. Unfortunately, there are no ranger programs going on at this time.

Another view of the moon rise.

We ran the generator for the allowed two hours this morning (8-10am), and were home in time for it to run in the afternoon (4-6pm) but it turned out that the solar panels had continued charging, staying ahead of the load on the batteries, so we were at 100% state of charge by 4pm when we could turn on the generator. We still ended up using the generator to bake a pizza for dinner, but we were really happy with how the solar panels kept the rig charged today. The monitor from the charge controller indicated that we received up to 644W at one point during the day, which, considering that we have 4 160W panels (so a rating of 640W) means that we were getting *really* good charging!