Last day of hiking of 2024

 

An interesting observation from our arrival in BLM land last night: as we parked, poured a glass of wine and began to walk around the area to watch the sunset, we saw that everyone else had their hoods open. Now, you can't tell me that a dozen other camping rigs in a camping area are ALL having engine trouble AT THE SAME TIME. So I got to researching. 

Turns out, pack rats are a problem around here - they like to huddle in the warmth of engines after dark, when the temperatures drop, building nests, and possibly chewing on wires because they are so tasty. Open the hood cools the engine, and makes it less inviting for the rodents to want to crawl up inside. Needless to say, we followed suit. This morning, as we prepared to leave, Mario checked, and no pack rats. Go us! Off we drove to our next hike!

We drive the Ajo loop trail in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to the trailhead for the Bull Pasture trail. We have mixed berry oatmeal and cold brew coffee, prep our bags and tie our boots, and by the time we leave on our hike, not a single car has passed, except one ranger. Maybe it's the holiday, this being the last day of 2024, but it's incredibly quiet in the park. On to another epic hike! 

We follow the Bull Pasture trail up the sides of a canyon, amongst the cactus. This area has more moisture hidden in its depths, so we take notice that the vegetation is definitely more GREEN here. In fact, we spot some hollows in the rocks of the canyon where here is clearly water drooling down the walls. We also see the Organ Pipe Cactuses up close for the first time. Rather than one majestic, massive stalk, these cactuses look more like an octopus, reaching up from the sandy depth of the desert with its many, many arms. The fact that they reach straight up into the air is what makes them more ressemble organ pipes than a creature from the deep.

At a significant intersection in the trail, we make the decision to continue on, climbing even higher up the canyon walls. The hike is going well, most of the trails are still shielded from the sun by the towering mountains, and Mario has extra incentive to hike even further this morning: while researching the trails last night, he discover that this park is one of only 4 that host a "Hike for Health" program. If you successfully hike 5 miles(8km), and PROVE you did so, you are awarded a pin for your efforts! Even on a bad day, there's no distracting Mario from a hike, so you can imagine how the idea of this PIN lights a fire under him to get hiking! I, on the other hand, am a little more indifferent to the cause at 7:30 in the morning.

So we hike on, the trail becoming a little more steep, winding its way through switchbacks to the top of the canyon walls. We emerge on the top, breathtaking views surrounding us on all sides. This is Bull Pasture, but I feel seriously sorry for any bulls that had to endure that climb just to get to THIS small pasture. I am *hoping* the name is just that, and no ACTUAL bulls even had to spend time up here! Impressively, we can see all the way to Mexico from our perch, as well as the thick black line of a wall that delineates where the two countries butt into each other.

We descend back down the same switchbacks, a little more carefully to avoid sliding down the rolling gravel surface, and stop once again at the intersects for some PB&J sandwiches. You heard is here, folks - smushed PB&J sandwiches are the ultimate hiking food.

At the bottom of the valley again, we switch directions, taking the Este Canyon trail, which is much more flat and feels more like a stroll through the desert than a hike. It dips down into every dry riverbed, every run-off, then weaves in between the great Saguaros, the multi-armed Organ Pipes, the tree-like hanging fruit Chollas, which we've noticed are very abundant in this valley. There are Creosote bushes aplenty, but we also spot Mesquite trees, a good indicator as to the amount of water this valley must get, even though we cannot see it. There are tons of birds flitting in between all the vegetation, and we spotted little desert hares and a flock of quails on our drive in - the desert is very much alive. I think it helps that the trails are so quiet today. I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that today is a holiday, but we've only passed 6 other people on our hike, and the trail register confirms that number when we get back to trailhead and our sun-baked red van in the parking lot.

Just to make up those 5 miles, we next head past the campground to the Desert View Trail, an 1.2-mile educational loop through the desert ecosystem, before making our way to the visitor's center. Achievement Unlocked! Mario gets his pin(and so do I), and I get my "passport" stamps. 

A few more chores to finish up the year with a campervan in tip-top shape: We make use of the available(and free!) dump station in the National Monument to clean out our tanks. Then, we drive north through the town of Why, to the town of Ajo, where we stop at an RV park that offers coin-operated showers. If you've read along in the past, you notice that Love's Travel Stops have been remarkably absent from our travels, which means that showers, too, have been remarkably absent. Let me tell you that today's shower, especially after all that hiking, was probably the BEST 75 cents I have even spent. Finally, we fill up the gas before hitting the I-8 on our way west, into the setting sun. 

Somewhere around Sentinel, AZ, next to the Chevron in the middle of nowhere(look it up, it's a thing), we pull off the highway, pull off the pave road, and venture into the desert, bouncing down a washboard trail to a site marked only by GPS coordinates. This is the fun of camping on BLM land - you have to put your total trust in someone else's experience, and hope that they got the location right. This time, we win, and find ourselves in the middle of a lava field to celebrate the end of one year of adventures, and the start of another. We marked the celebration with garlicky shrimp linguini, a bottle of Mumm Brut sparkling wine, and the ball drop in NYC. And though we may have celebrated the start of 2025 on the East coast, we were very much asleep by the time it hit here.

Happy New Year, everyone - here's to a 2025 full of even more adventure!

Missile Silo Day!

We learned that, even if your best intentions are to makes plans on the fly and plan the trip one day at a time, you might lose out on some of the fun things you really wanted to see. On our way out of Tucson today, we had planned to stop at the Titan II Missile Silo, and then at the Kitt Peak Observatory. A couple of nights ago, we were looking over the rough sketch of our itinerary, and thought we should probably reserve our tickets for the tours of the two locations. And lo and behold, Kitt Peak was completely sold out for the day of our visit. For all their tours. And there is no museum, no visitor's centre there - you either get a tour of the site, or you don't show up. Next, we hit a similar brick wall with the missile silo, with one silver lining: Two spots were still available, one for the noon tour, one for the 1 pm tour. We'll take it! And so that's how Mario and I found ourselves with a morning to take care of some #vanlife chores before separately viewing the decommissioned silo of the last Titan II missile in the United States.

Postcards from Arizona!

First, we discover that the Speedway not 10 minutes away from our campsite the last two nights, offers both bulk propane AND a water spigot as well as the usual gas fill-up, so we take advantage to top up all our tanks at the same time. Next, as we drive south of the Saguaro National Park, we stop at a post office so I can pick up stamps to mail postcards back home. The curious little mall where the Post Office is located has a couple of art shops, a laundromat, and plenty of room to park off to the side, overlooking a dry river bed. We settle in for a moment while I make pancakes with some roughed-up bananas that took a little tumble on our first night on the road. 

To the Missile Silo!

Flag at half-mast for President Jimmy Carter

The tour is excellent. Mario gets a tour guide who actually used to work IN the missile silo when it was still operational, so he has even more knowledge of the inner workings, and can relate his own personal experiences. My tour guide is a little more relaxed in his delivery, but just as informative, and a bit of a comedian, too. Here's some of the things we learned: 

View of the missile silo from above ground

- There were 54 total silos built, in 3 separate locations, to cover the fact that not all the launches would be successful, as no rocket was ever test-launched out of a silo. 

The Control Room

- The program was terminated in the late 1980s, with all the silos being blown up, and the decommissioned missiles ultimately used as part of the Gemini Space program by NASA - without the warheads, obviously. 

- The one silo left semi-intact is in the form of a museum south of Tucson. It, too, is decommissioned, launch doors permanently cemented in a half-opened state, and a Russian satellite actually passes overhead 3 times a day to confirm this fact.

Corridor to the missile silo

- Officers would work in teams of 4, on 24-hour shifts, to man the control room tied to each missile silo. It would take two of them to receive the order, input the launch codes and confirm them, then turn the keys to fire the missile.

- Each silo had 3 set targets, labeled "Target 1", "Target 2", and "Target 3", and the crew was instructed which of these to select. To this day, the location of those targets is classified information. The reason for this was to keep the officers neutral, thus NOT giving them a reason NOT to turn the key to start the launch sequence.

- The current museum site has been used as a movie set a couple time, including Star Wars : First Contact, with LeVar Burton doing a scene in from of the Titan II Missile - the hydraulic platforms in the silo were lowered for this film shoot, and are permanently stuck in that position as a result!

Finding beauty in something so loathsome

-Mario's tour guide believed that the Titan II Missile Program was a deterrent of Peace. That it was necessary to keep peace, as the ability of one country to completely annihilate its enemy, with the certainty of an equally devastating response, ensured neither would want to be the first to fire and ultimately destroy BOTH countries.

Lunchtime!

We both got so much out of the tour of the facilities, and agreed that we were glad we had managed to get those last 2 spots today. We finished the visit by making sandwiches and having a picnic at a table just underneath the giant ham radio antennae on site. Ham and cheese sandwiches, if you are curious.

We spent the rest of the afternoon travelling down a rather empty stretch of highway between saguaro cactuses, chollas, creosote bushes and other nature, between mountain, enjoying the beautiful scenery passing by in the golden light of the setting sun. I scanned the radio for any Mexican station I could find, which seemed like the perfect soundtrack to the drive.

Mario loving the drive	Hazy Cactus scenery

Tonight, we are parked in Gunsight Wash BLM just north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. You can guess what awaits us there - more hiking. And *maybe* cactuses.

 

Sunset at Gunsight Wash BLM

Happy hour at the campsite!

Applied Knowledge

Starting the hike

Okay kids, it's time to see how much you were all paying attention during yesterday's visit to the Desert Botanical gardens. Today, we are hiking through Saguaro National Park - that's right! It's named after the Saguaro cactus, the large cactus only found in this area of Arizona. We awake with the first rays of the sunrise that are peaking through the broken back window shades of the van. A brief walk outside to enjoy the warmth, and to listen to a far-off pack of coyotes greeting the day, and we'll be off to the trailhead!

So many Saguaro cacti

What's that? Where's breakfast, you ask? Why, you *know* by now that breakfast awaits us in the parking lot of the King's Canyon trail, where we will be hiking today. We'll make some oatmeal with mixed berries(frozen, thanks to the mini freezer!), and eat that up while preparing our backpacks and making some PB&J sandwiches. Honestly, there is no better lunch for a hike - they are full of protein and carbs to keep you going, they get better with heat, and can sustain a good crushing at the bottom of a bag. In fact, I think PB&J sandwiches actually taste better the more abused they are! A quick coffee, slather on lots of sunscreen, and we are off!

Feeling fulfilled

We are taking the King's Canyon trail - not the wash - up the valley to the Man-a-gah picnic area. You'll see, this place is fantastic, with its massive picnic tables, and large stone firepits for grilling. I'm not sure they've been used *ever*, but imagine how much fun a BBQ would be up here, after having hiked all of your picnic gear 1.5 miles from the nearest parking lot! But that's for another time - we have so much more trail to cover!

We're heading across to the opposite side of the wash now, and starting our ascent up the Sendero Esperanza trail, which will take us all the way up to the ridge of mountains leading to Wasson's Peak. Don't worry, we're not hiking UP Wasson's Peak - that's a bit too far for our visit today. We're keeping this challenging, but achievable.

Take a look around! We are surrounded by a "forest" of Saguaro Cacti! Admire how the majestic green columns ascend into the sky! Check out their crazy arms, pointing out in every direction! I know those Teddy Bear Cholla cacti look so very soft and cuddly, but I would avoid hugging them - Chollas bite! And yes, those are the tall, slender stalks of Ocotillo, but they are not dead, even though it might look like it. They are in a dormancy period, due to lack of water, but look closely, and you might spot the fiery red flower tufts that some of the Ocotillo still have - a sign they are still alive. 

Look at that view!

Keep climbing, winding along the rocky path between so many spiney plants, and look - we've made it to the top! From here, you can look down both sides of the ridge, and see how sprawling the landscape is, and how many Saguaro cacti are everywhere! I can understand your reactions - I too cannot stop repeating the word "WOW", and I think I may have expressed, "This is crazy," more than once. 

Don't try this at home.

Let's take a break for lunch, sit on a shady outcropping of rocks, and eat those well-smushed PB&J sandwiches. Did you know that the trail running along the ridge is called the Hugh Norris trail? I like to call it the Chuck Norris trail. Just because. Feel free to insert your own Chuck Norris joke here. 

Or this. Just don't taunt cacti.

So beyond this point, we just keep climbing up to Wasson Peak, but the views of the valley, the Western "flats" and all the neighbourhood we drove through this morning will be the same, only from a higher point, so enjoy the views a bit more, and we'll start the hike back down. To make thing a bit different, we'll follow the Gould Mine trail back.

Cactus skeleton

Look out for birds and chipmunks on the trail - it's getting quieter now that we are at the hottest time of the day, and so the creatures are venturing out. I hear chirps and cheeps in the low creosote bushes and Palo Verde trees - one even sounds like a fax machine calling out! 

Beautiful trail

Not much longer now, then we'll be back at the parking and heading to the Visitor's Center, where you can collect you park stamps and stickers, ask any lingering questions you might have about the lifecycle of a Saguaro cactus, or even fill up your water bottles. Make sure to stop by the washroom, too, since we'll be heading back to the Ironwood National Monument and Dispersed Campsite after this.

Can't get enough of this crazy landscape

Don't forget that we'll be having happy hour, with wine and snacks, outside the campervan for sunset!

Sunset views

All the spikeys

 If I can make one suggestion to anyone visiting the south of Arizona, it would be to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Not only is it one of the coolest botanical gardens I have been to, but I guarantee anyone will feel they are an expert on cacti afterwards. Of course, you know that Mario and I spent half of the visit making up new names for the spikey plants, most of them lewd, but we also learned about all the benefits of the Mesquite tree, from flavour to food to construction. We sat in quiet corners and watch as hummingbirds flitted above overhead, often just out of sight of the other visitors who were desperately trying to find them. We had a nice lunch in the middle of the garden, and experienced a random quail invasion, where 20 or so of the chubby little birds invaded the dining area, scoured the ground for snacks, and then disappeared back into the desert vegetation just as quickly. I maybe shrieked a lot. 
I present, for your viewing enjoyment, a selection of spiney, and not-so-spiney, views from the Desert Botanical Gardens:

	Flowering Fishhook Cactus
Saguaro Cactus	A hummingbird evading the crowds
Queen Victoria Agave	Golden Barrel Cactus
	Desert Oasis Cactus Collection
"Frumpy Sport Sock" Cactus	Mario taunting the climbing cactus
	Aloe tree
Cactus "skeleton"	Bees loving the Rosemary
Saguaro Cactus with a perm!	Arrival of the Quail invasion
Male quail with his fancy top-knot	Organ Pipe cacti

A few errands, including getting Mario some reading at a used book shop(success!), and filling up the propane for cooking in the van(failed!), we made our way south, to Tucson. I watched the sun setting behind the mountain range outside my window as we drove towards our camping spot for the night in the Ironwood National Monument, also BLM land. Even though the sun was below the horizon, its rays cast light up into the hazy sky above, setting the sky ablaze with light, and we had the most spectacular show when we finally stopped for the evening. Mario grabbed the folding chairs and bottle of wine, and we sat down to enjoy the show.