Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

We awoke today to a beautiful sunny clear sky. I got up and took the dogs for a walk into the desert. The only sounds I could hear were the different calls of the birds and the shuffling of our feet.





There was a slight breeze and the warmth of the sun was just perfect. Every so often I had to stop and turn my face up to the sky and soak it all up. I felt like I could understand why desert people are often mystical.

I felt the peace and happiness invading every bit of my body, running through my veins and deep into my muscles and bones, right into the very depth of me. This is what pure happiness feels like. I wished I had time for some yoga.

We had planned to drive to Tucson today, but since we lost a day with the torrential downpour storm, we decided to stay an extra day. Instead we drove down to Organ Pipe National Monument.

The campground there is just beautiful and has a
really good Verizon signal. There are a number of hiking trails that start right from the campground. We traipsed into the visitor center where we paid our fee ($8 for 7 days) to a very handsome ranger. In return he gave us a receipt and a map showing the trails and drives through the park.

Twin Peaks campground: Tent and RV camping, $12 each night, no reservations only first-come, first-served basis.

Alamo Canyon Campground: Primitive tent camping, $8 each night, first-come first-serve. Register in person at the Kris Eggle Visitor Center on the first day of your stay.

We decided to take the Ajo Mountain Drive, a 21 mile, one way, gravel road through the desert and up along the mountains. We saw a number of different cacti and plants which we learned about in the handy dandy brochure we were given by the ranger. The landscape was so gorgeous and colourful, I kept oohing and aahing around every corner.






There were so many different birds and it was so soothing to just stand silently and listen to the absolute calm with the only noise being the different calls from the birds.







Our biggest excitement came near the end, when a small tusked pig creature came running across the road in front of us. The smell it left behind was musky, kind of nasty, skunk like. We learned this was a Javelina, a musk hog, indigenous to the American southwest.