Exploring southern Sonoran Desert by foot and 4×4

Been really busy exploring the southern Sonoran Desert with Bob.  Now I know why he posts on his blog every day, because there’s a daily story with loads of photos.  But I don’t have that together, especially now that I’m also taking videos for YouTube.  This post only covers five days exploring in the southern Sonoran Desert including a massive amount of photos.  Sometimes it’s hard to pick just a few shots and believe me, I took hundreds more.

Settling in to a new camp is different than settling into a new camp.  The first temporary camp was a necessary find after a full day on the road.  The place was obviously part of a corral complete with windmill that now works off solar providing water for grazing and wildlife.  Even had a trail-cam pointed at the newer stock tank that’s not pictured.

Several cassette tapes and stuffed animals

Exploring happened more thoroughly the next day with a morning walk around camp.  We were intrigued by the sight of a defunct windmill (no top) in the near distance but decided to wait another day to further explore that site.  Yet there was certainly other “artifacts” around including a five-acre mining claim.

I so love the density and diversity seen in this southern Sonoran Desert.  The Saguaros are tall and stately often with the many arms of age.  Takes 50-75 years for the arms to start growing.  Plus this area has some Organ Pipe Cactus with it’s many arms coming up from a common base.

And of course have to watch out for the Jumping Cholla cactus that set out a large skirt of spikey segments that truly will live up to their name if you walk within less than 12 inches.

Then there’s the little things to also watch for like the round holes no bigger than a quarter, the burrow of Antlions who lay below waiting for an unsuspecting insect to stroll by and become lunch.

Later in the day we went for a ride further into the desert looking for another potential camp a little further from the main road.  While stopped at a wide spot with a view of a presumably abandoned ranch or mine buildings a truckcamper pulled in next to us and the driver asked Bob “who’s taking care of the chickens?”  Then looked at me and asked “How will the Park Service survive without you?”  We were both confused but realized these people must read our blogs.  Sure enough, Bob and Cathy, calling themselves “BobCat” recognized Bob’s iconic old Chevy van.  They’d just arrived in the area and were headed for camp not far off Bates Well Road.  No sooner did they pull away and up comes a truck towing a 5th-wheel and turns out to be my friend Paul, also headed to camp in the same area.  Go figure.

We drove a little past that turn off then turned around to check it out and it’s lush and not close to the main road. Looks like a nice location for shooting the full moon next week.

Light on spider web brighter than no lights on camper

Bob had noticed when following me from Kofa that the camper lights weren’t working.  Damn, wonder how long that’s been a problem.  Checked the cord that connects the camper to the truck, reached through a door inside the camper, and seems I must have bumped it loose when storing spare gallon bottles of water.  Lucky me for an easy fix.  Nice to have lights when I returned to the town of Ajo the next morning to dump and fill tanks, water and propane.

Downtown old Ajo

Once again I took way too long in town, but not all my fault. First stopped at the Plaza market with booths of local vendors and bought a $20 tie-dye t-shirt from a delightful young woman who is going to Medford to buy a friends trailer then working the summer in the Crater Lake gift shop.  Next stop, Belly Acres RV Park to dump and fill.  Still the same old guy managing the place and he seemed to remember me from two years ago.  Did a small shop at the IGA then decided I was hungry and going to treat myself to Mexican food at the Plaza. Drove back across town and they were closed because the power was off on the south side of town for a transformer repair. So I drove back across town to the other Mexican place. Of course they were busy even at 1pm and with only one young guy working the front. Was good food but didn’t leave there until almost 3pm.

Finally back to BLM and found Bob parked by Bob and Cathy. Hung there just a bit then drove down the road a bit and found a new camp within sight of them but not too close. Have a great view and signal too.

Took a short walk exploring the new southern Sonoran Desert yard at sunset.

Lots of Turkey Vultures in the area, a sure sign of Spring.

Spent the next morning backing up photos and videos.  Videos are huge files and take up way too much space on my laptop.  Bought more external drives including a 4TB just for videos.  Will have to learn new routines for storing, using and making final videos for YouTube which takes a lot of time, at least until I figure out a good pattern.  I feel like I’m whoring myself a little, pushing for subscribers to reach that 1000 monetizing goal.  But once there, I’ll just keep posting and YouTube can do the marketing/advertising.

After lunch, Bob and I took another walk into the desert.

Saw a lot of Saguaros with broken tops.  I recognize stress lines on cactus arms that look like an indentation around the entire arm or trunk.  These are typically caused by drought.  I later discovered that high winds in excess of 70 mph will snap the cactus at those stress lines, called topping.  I figure this happened long ago as the breaks tend to be about the same height and diameter on older cactus.  There is a lot of heavy scaring and often many new arms right below the break.  Also, the tops are no where to be seen on the ground below.

And there are plenty of cactus skeletons laying around.  Seeing what lies under the spikey covered skins of cactus is like having an x-ray machine.  Saguaros have woody spines that mimic the outer shape including arms with a dry spongy material inside that slowly rots away.  People often use the spines as walking sticks, light yet strong.  When birds peck into their living skin after insects or to make nesting holes, the cactus creates a cup-shaped scar tissue, known as a boot, which ultimately makes a great bird nest.

Cholla cactus have a woody center that is full of holes and quite beautiful yet hangs onto those nasty spines for a long time even in decay.  And the small spine covered segments are strewn far about the original plant.  All to be respected.

Later that afternoon I sat outside in a shady 80° watching Black Mountain to get an idea where the full moon would rise in a few days.

The next morning an unidentified hawk perched on the nearest Saguaro for over fifteen minutes.  I took pics through the window so I wouldn’t scare it off.  Of course that means the photos are not very good.  But was still a delightful way to start the day.  I also heard the lovely sound of coyotes’ howl even during the day.

I love this place except when the military does low flyovers.  I’m told they are A10s, called Warthogs, which really means nothing to me.  The noise and vibration makes my body hurt.  Bob reminded me they mean safety.  But do they have to buzz by only measurable feet above the roof?  Bob’s drone can fly higher than that.

In the afternoon, Bob took me for a ride to explore more of the southern Sonoran Desert in his 4×4 van.  So many gravel roads to choose from, many with BLM numbers but we don’t have their map.  We did use a couple map apps to follow us around but they didn’t even show all the roads we found.  When we came to a closed yet unlocked gate the road appeared to continue into the Valley of Ajo and on to the “town” of Why.  We could have gone on, closing the gate behind us, but instead turned around and tried for another side road.

Doesn’t make any difference where you go, the desert holds beauty everywhere.  Though some of these roads cross some rather steep and rough washes, nothing Bob’s van couldn’t handle.  We stopped regularly for photos and got out to wander as well.

One place called to me for a future camp but my truck wouldn’t make it over much of this rough road.  I finally heard an Organ Pipe cactus hum, lovely harmonics.  And a Saguaro’s dry ribs accompanied clacking in the wind.  Quite the desert symphony.  Startled mule deer a couple times.  A good day for wildlife sightings.

Returned to camp after four hours and a very wiggly long U around the southern end of Black Mountain.  Have now almost circumnavigated that mountain over the years.

With delightful temperatures in the mid 80s we went for another afternoon walk, this time around the building site we’d seen before.  Parked at that wide spot were we’d met Bob and Cathy then walked a little down hill to explore human occupancy in the southern Sonoran Desert.

The place appeared currently abandoned but the evidence showed many generations of use, even some relatively new stuff.

I didn’t go inside any of the buildings as it felt intrusive but even looking inside doorways I had the feeling people had just walked away leaving everything behind.  Maybe they planned to return.  Hard to say what the whole story is.  Couldn’t find any information online.

Make and model?

Bob walked ahead on old roads and into the surrounding landscape so I could take video that once I get on YouTube will show more of the buildings and stuff scattered everywhere.

He lead me to a place of at least experimental mining.  This area is known for copper and lots of other beautiful semi-precious gems like turquoise, azurite, chrysocolla, and malachite.  This piece was only fist-size.

After returning to camp we walked to Bob and Cathy’s camp not too far away and chatted a while before the sun started down.

Bob said he was leaving the next day and I will miss his company.  However,  I needed the down time to catch up on photos and stories.  In fact, this last week will take two posts as I’ve been so busy.  Not complaining, just need more hours to the day.  Besides this post is wordy and picturey enough.