Organ pipe cactus national monument

Judy doesn’t feel really good yet, but she decided she could feel not really good yet out in the desert as well as she could in an RV Park in Mesa. We headed south. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the place we went on Spring Break every year with the kids. It was too cold to camp in Colorado in March/April every year, so we went to the desert. Sometimes we just went to Organ Pipe. Sometimes we went all the way to the coast for family, Disneyland, Sea World, or the San Diego Zoo, but we always went to Organ Pipe too. The first year we did it, we didn’t even know where we were going to end up, we just kept driving south until it got warm. We got all the way here, within five miles of the Mexico border in Southern Arizona, and it was magic. A new favorite place. Sonoran desert, Quitobaquito a desert oasis, scorpions under rocks, cardinals, quail, cactus wrens, and curve billed thrashers for background sounds. Trails to follow, hills to climb, interpretive signs to read, and a visitors center with interactive displays. Pretty much everything but clouds.

It’s an easy drive from Mesa. West through Phoenix, hang a left at Buckeye and follow Arizona Highway 85 south through Gila Bend, Ajo, and Why. One hundred seventy miles. It’s nice to be here.