Saturday, March 24, 2018

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, AZ

        , I am captivated by the desert, whether it be Mohave, Great Basin, Chihuahua or our own Sonoran Desert. I love the wide open views, the sparse flora, the equally sparse and ornery fauna, the warmth and chill of a desert morning, the majesty of the saguaro or the coarse obstinance of a Joshua Tree yucca. I feel unworthy of the sheer toughness required to accept the difficulties of residing in one of the harsher environments on Earth, and yet I enjoy the benefits of a clear, cool spring evening in one of the best government operated parks available to the American people. And more than a few people are taking advantage of it.

        This park is bargain. The entrance fee is a mere ten bucks; camping is only sixteen dollars a night. If one, like I, has an old fart pass the entry fee is waived and the camping dues are halved, a bargain by even Mr. Scrooge’s estimation. Parks run by the National Park Service tend to have fewer amenities but Organ Pipe has many including flush toilets and solar showers, trash pickup, tables, grill stands, ramada shading and full RV sites, some with pull-through accommodations. Not available are cell phone service and wifi in the campground although weak wifi is sketchy but possible at the visitor center.

        One thing of note is the campsite patrol pairing, an older couple driving around in one of those odd little two-seater carts with a truck bed, policing the recently vacated campsites The woman checks out the site picking up any pieces of left-over trash while the gentleman, get this, sweeps the tent pad with a broom. I don’t know if they are paid part-time or volunteers but they do their work cheerfully and effectively and the tent pads and campsites look positively pristine. Not bad for eight bucks a night.

        I even managed to sneak in shower, yes, a shower, at one of the restrooms that has a solar shower, there being three such in the campground. It’s kind of a different experience since the solar heater doesn’t really get warmed up until midday, so earlier than that the showerer might expect to get a coolish sort of shower. Mine was tepid at best. Plus, the showers are push button for both a higher and lower shower nozzle. You push the upper button to receive about 5 seconds of shower. Several pushes are needed to get suitable wet. Lather up, push a button to rinse, then lather again, push a button to rinse, lather up, push the lower button to rinse. The lower nozzle may be for kids but works perfectly fine for washing one’s backside. All in all, it takes a bit longer to get clean but eventually gets the job done.

        The park offers desert hiking at its finest with many longer or shorter hikes through the amazing Sonora desert landscape and a teeth rattling ten mile drive to an oasis hard on the Mexican Border, Quitobaquito Spring. Quitobaquito is a miracle in the southern desert, It’s a spring fed lagoon, hard on the border of Mexico, maybe an acre in size and maybe 4 to 7 feet deep. It is fed by a spring putting out about fifty cubic feet per second of fresh water and is inhabited by various waterfowl (a squadron of coots on this day) and a population of desert pupfish, little bitty guppie-like piscines that only live in this particular pond in the dez, kind of like the pupfish that live in a small pool in Death Valley. The question have is how the hell did they get there. For further info: https://organpipehistory.com/orpi-a-z/quitobaquito-springs-2/. It is a marvelous oasis in the desert.

        I stayed 3 nights at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and should have stayed a week. I love this park and will be back.