Saturday Oct 22, 2022 - Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to Patagonia State Park

 

Great night's sleep and welcoming sunrise. Coffee and tea then a 2.6 mile hike on the Desert View Trail which took us up to a ridge where you got, well, desert views. You could see the entire park as well as the next valley over, Mexico and the border wall cutting through the mountains and desert floor. They do a good job of marking all the plants and the history of how the native Americans used them. 

We started breakfast (yogurt, cereal, cold stuff) and an older man who we’d met the night before came to check out the van. He and his wife live in New Mexico and they have a place in Mexico, so they drive their old Toyota T100 back and forth each year. They also have a pull behind camper that they store in the US before going to Mexico. They look very experienced at this annual migration. They have e-bikes they use on the dirt roads wherever they stay. Modern times.

Then we closed up shop and headed north toward Ajo. Gas down here is $1 more per gallon so we got just enough in Why, AZ to get us to Tucson. Deb saw on YouTube that the seatbelt issue can be fixed with a larger magnet so we headed to Harbor Freight. I bought a couple of them but no luck. So back to the credit card trick and sitting just right in the passenger seat.

We stopped at McD’s to publish the blog, and then headed south on RT 19 (highway) to Nogales, where the cutoff to Patagonia sent us north again on Rt 82. We pulled into the park at 4:00 and hunted for our campsite. We’d reserved the last available spot in the park and it was ok, but this park is very crowded, which I take as a good sign. We hiked around the entire park to check out rigs and equipment. Fun to see lots of young families with kids riding their bikes and scooters around. I remember those great times at that age. Lots of folks with fishing poles. We picked up a bottle of wine at the store since we ran out of everything alcoholic the last couple of days, and sipped wine while watching all the kids playing as the sun disappeared.

There is cell service here (a little) so we could catch up on stuff (a bit). Then dinner inside and hot drinks after. I am typing this listening to the kids running around outside in the dark. I remember those years for sure!!