Tuesday we decided to go to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument located south of Tucson on the Mexican border. We traveled through the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation to get there, about a 2 hour drive south into the heart of the Sonoran Desert. But - an amazing thing happened about 1/2 hour into our drive on Indian Route 15. We were stopped by State Highway Patrol and told to move off the road. That was done by hand signals through the windshield at us. Okay, we did - but why? Then - b
am! A humongous tractor rig pulling something enormous flashed by us. Talk about stunned. And, this thing was also being pushed by an eighteen wheeler truck. We got our senses and started up again. And then - bam! same thing happened. Now we understood the 'peace' sign the patrol offer gave us - he meant there are two of these things. By the time we realized the second one was coming by I whipped out my camera and tried to get pictures. After we got back home and Dave to
ok a look at it - this thing was 18 feet tall, weighed over 165 TONS!!!! and was obviously heading north into Phoenix or somewhere but the size and weight - it could not travel by the normal roads. We think this thing had at least 48 tires on the rig! We figured it came in through Puerta Penasco shipyard which is about 15 miles beyond the US border into Mexico. By the way, the Sonoran Desert is one of 4 deserts in the United States - the others are, Mojave in California, Chihuahuan in southern New Mexico, and the Great Basin which is all of Nevada, much of Utah, parts of Oregon, Idaho, and the northern part of Arizona. The Sonoran desert is unique because the winters are mostly frost-free and there are two significant rainfall periods - one in winter and one in July/August. If you want to see alot of flowers and such - this isn't the place. However, you will get to see the Organ Pipe Cactus which is only found in this southern most part of Arizona but is very wide spread in Mexico. The picture above left shows the daddy of them all - this organ pipe cactus has a crest forming inside. They don't know why this has happened - but it is quite impressive to see. Another milestone which would happen sooner or later - we ran over a rattlesnake on the way to the Ajo Mountain drive - and when we circled back later, the snake was gone - we think the buzzards got it. Sorry rattle guy. Lots of different cacti and lots blooming, and we heard alot of birds, but didn't see any other wildlife. We saw saguaro, prickly pear, my favorite - the teddybear cholla (choy-ah) which is shown below,
am! A humongous tractor rig pulling something enormous flashed by us. Talk about stunned. And, this thing was also being pushed by an eighteen wheeler truck. We got our senses and started up again. And then - bam! same thing happened. Now we understood the 'peace' sign the patrol offer gave us - he meant there are two of these things. By the time we realized the second one was coming by I whipped out my camera and tried to get pictures. After we got back home and Dave to
ok a look at it - this thing was 18 feet tall, weighed over 165 TONS!!!! and was obviously heading north into Phoenix or somewhere but the size and weight - it could not travel by the normal roads. We think this thing had at least 48 tires on the rig! We figured it came in through Puerta Penasco shipyard which is about 15 miles beyond the US border into Mexico. By the way, the Sonoran Desert is one of 4 deserts in the United States - the others are, Mojave in California, Chihuahuan in southern New Mexico, and the Great Basin which is all of Nevada, much of Utah, parts of Oregon, Idaho, and the northern part of Arizona. The Sonoran desert is unique because the winters are mostly frost-free and there are two significant rainfall periods - one in winter and one in July/August. If you want to see alot of flowers and such - this isn't the place. However, you will get to see the Organ Pipe Cactus which is only found in this southern most part of Arizona but is very wide spread in Mexico. The picture above left shows the daddy of them all - this organ pipe cactus has a crest forming inside. They don't know why this has happened - but it is quite impressive to see. Another milestone which would happen sooner or later - we ran over a rattlesnake on the way to the Ajo Mountain drive - and when we circled back later, the snake was gone - we think the buzzards got it. Sorry rattle guy. Lots of different cacti and lots blooming, and we heard alot of birds, but didn't see any other wildlife. We saw saguaro, prickly pear, my favorite - the teddybear cholla (choy-ah) which is shown below,
palo verde trees, creosote bushes (even smells like it), gold poppies in bloom, saw Gila (Hee-lah) woodpeckers, roadrunners - those boogers are fast, saw kangaroo rats, but didn't get to see the Quitobaquito (kee-toe-bah-kee-toe- LOVE TO SAY THIS!) fish in ponds which lives here and no other place on earth. We were looking for tortoise, javelinas (wild pigs), Gila monsters, bighorn sheep, diamondback rattlers (thank goodness not), and coyotes but never saw them. They say early evening is the best time to see these animals/reptiles. Would we come back here or bring guests here? No, for the amount of time it took to drive here and then add in the 2 hour Ajo Mountain drive we did which was within the park, we could be better served by visiting a botanical garden in Tucson or Phoenix. We did learn alot and were surprised that we actually can start to pick out types of bushes and trees and flowers. I guess we are becoming more Arizonian than we thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment