Cactus & cristates at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Spent a few days exploring with a friend at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument searching for wildflowers and cactus cristates, an unusual growth that I’ll tell you more about.

However, before leaving the Mohawk Mountains boondock in Owl, Arizona I caught the moon set with better luck than the dark of the night before.  Back on Interstate 8 east to Gila Bend, taking video along the way.  Absolutely scored finding diesel at $3.99/gal.  Though that’s still too much it was the first time all winter I found under $4/gal.  Sure does limit the miles I drive.

Lupine surrounded by Bladderpod

From there I got off the interstate and headed south on SR85 through lush Sonoran desert to Ajo.  The shoulders on both sides teased with strips of wildflower colors in yellow, blue, orange, purple, white, and shades of green.

Made a stop in Ajo for a few last minute groceries and lunch at Tacos El Tarasco at the Plaza.  Travel days I don’t make time to prepare meals so usually treat myself.  Why not?  Flowers continued to line the road for the 30 minute drive to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument visitor center, passing through Why, Arizona along the way.

A Facebook photographer friend as yet unmet, Richard Strange, had a campground reservation for two nights.  I assumed I’d be able to get a first-come campsite at Twin Peaks Campground when I got there.  But of course now everything is reservations that MUST be made online through rec. gov.  (More about them through links at the bottom of this post.)  I should know better, but don’t frequent campgrounds on public lands preferring to boondock nearby instead.  With barely a signal at the visitor center I managed to signup with the reservation site and get two nights camping, with my pass $10/night.  It’s a beautiful campground (here’s my site view) with over 200 sites nestled privately amongst the desert vegetation.  Richard hadn’t arrived yet, being distracted for over an hour by a couple large Caracara birds along his drive from the Phoenix area.

I took a short walk on one of the many trails that leave from the campground and felt immediately immersed in this dense and diverse Sonoran desert.

Richard & Rocky obviously not outside my door

After dinner Richard texted me.  What I didn’t realize at first was he was right outside my door with his walker and dog.  I went outside, we met, chatted away like old friends, and made a plan to meet in the morning to explore Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Richard, and his dog Rocky, rearranged the minivan so I could sit in the passenger seat.  Rocky is the most loveable Pitbull I’ve ever met.  He’s a rescue from dog fighting, and now a service dog.  Of course he thinks he’s human so really didn’t understand why I didn’t sit in the back.  But he shared the seat and immediately moved when I wanted to sit there.

We started with the North Puerto Blanco Drive for the miles allowed non 4x4s.  I almost immediately saw a Red-tailed hawk perched and Richard understood the command to “STOP”.

We saw some flowers but not endless views of colors.  The yellows of Brittlebush and Bladderpod were most prevalent with a few orange patches of Poppy.  In fact as we drove by an area of orange along the banks of a dry wash I saw a vehicle I thought looked familiar.  And sure enough more known photographers were set up to shoot complete with reflectors.  We chatted briefly before moving on.

Next Richard shared some awesome crested Saguaro cactus not too far off the main road.  Referred to as a mutation, or abnormal growth, the crest or cristate, is certainly unusual and not all that frequently seen.  I suppose first, you have to be actively looking for them.  There is debate about what causes these typically fan-like shapes.  We spent a lot of time speculating on various growth patterns seen over the day.

From Wikipedia: “Fasciation (or cresting) is a relatively rare condition of abnormal growth in vascular plants in which the apical meristem (growing tip), which normally is concentrated around a single point and produces approximately cylindrical tissue, instead becomes elongated perpendicularly to the direction of growth, thus, producing flattened, ribbon-like, crested, or elaborately contorted tissue. Fasciation may also cause plant parts to increase in weight and volume in some instances. The phenomenon may occur in the stem, root, fruit, or flower head. Some plants are grown and prized aesthetically for their development of fasciation. Any occurrence of fasciation has several possible causes, including hormonal, genetic, bacterial, fungal, viral and environmental causes.”

A very short jaunt took us to the border where neither of us wanted to be distracted by the wall.

We spent the rest of the afternoon lollygagging along the 21-mile mostly one-way Ajo Mountain Loop drive.  We searched for flowers and cristates, and ended up with a whole lot more.

At one point Richard stopped because of seeing some weird growth on a cactus barely visible from the road.  I walked out to get a closer look and took photos with my camera and his 300mm lens Nikon.  It was at least two feet long.  Found out later from the Crested Cactus Society this anomaly is called a glomerate.  You may have seen nursery grown plants and cactus hybridized to create this look.

Red-tailed Hawk

Cactus wasn’t the only sighting.

Stopped for lunch at an actual picnic area with table—few and far between—offering an awesome view into a valley and another crested Saguaro not too far up a hill from the road.  If you get the guide for the Ajo Mountain Loop drive it’s #7.

We took advantage of almost every spot wide enough to park, and a few that weren’t.  Though I’ve taken this drive several times, I see it differently every time.

Yet another unusual growth with wavy patterns are known as “spiral” or “checkerboard”.  Made us wonder if that was a sign for more crests to come.

And then there’s bifurcation, when the cactus, or an arm, divides into a split instead of the usual arm growth with a ring-shaped joint.

Finally we got to #9.  Exactly six years previous to the day I saw this most amazing growth which I named the “octopuses’ garden”, my first ever crested Organ Pipe Cactus.

I’d been told by a Ranger friend it had died since then.  I was sad.  Yet I’ve seen a lot of these Organ Pipe Cactus dying or dead during this visit.

I was still anxious to see it, and got a closer look at the skeleton which clearly shows a very different growth pattern for the flatter cristate versus regular columnar cactus arms.

We continued with our drive-stop pattern, joking about the “plethora” of poppy patches, NOT.

Richard shared a known-to-him/new-to-me crested Organ Pipe cactus that grows almost on the road.  It has several bifurcated and cristate growths.  How did I miss this one before?

As we came around the last third of the loop drive more flowers appeared.  Finally, some poppies.

And a Cactus Wren too.

We returned to our respective campsites exhausted from a long and wonderful day exploring Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Richard and I pulled out of camp at 9am then slowly made our way north to Why for breakfast at Granny’s. Had to stop a few times for pics and Richard was scolded by Border Patrol for parking on the road.

We parted ways after a delicious breakfast at Granny’s Kitchen and I continued north towards Ajo and my next camp.

All this happened weeks ago and I’ve been busy so am way behind real time.

Rec. gov & film permits

Did you know that rec. gov is a private company with a government contract that makes a bundle of money but not much reaches the feds?   I highly recommend Todd/Park Junkie’s explanation about who is rec. gov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9ab9frl8zE & about a Lawsuit Against Rec. Gov https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7vYpSeAn6U .  This could be changed during the renewal of the Federal Lands Recreation & Enhancement Act.  Which also includes the issue of needing permits to share videos and photographs on social media for commercial purposes including YouTube, Istagram, and others.  So even though I don’t personally make any money on my social media platforms, somebody does, so legally I should have a permit.  Every park’s permitting system is different and the process takes time.  There goes spontaneity.  I’m going to do it anyway as my constitutional right to free speech and freedom of the press.  If I go to jail, I hope you’ll consider bailing me out.