With a month to fill between Thanksgiving in San Diego, and flying from there for to Omaha for Christmas, I didn’t want to just sit in an RV park. I needed a short excursion that didn’t repeat territory I’d already covered. Though I’d crossed the state before, there was still plenty I hadn’t seen in Arizona, so I set out on the most intentionally unplanned trip I’d taken yet.
I had a vague notion that I’d visit a couple that I was friends with near Prescott, AZ, then head north through Sedona to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, which I hadn’t seen in many years. However, the day before I left, I got word the couple were having health issues. Also, temperatures for Prescott and points north were predicted to be unseasonably cool, with lows in the 20s. So I stayed over an extra day at my first stop in Blythe, CA, just enjoying some idle time.
My next stop was Quartzite, AZ, which I’d heard is a winter Mecca for RVers. Instead, when I arrived, it was practically a ghost town. I found out Quartzite doesn’t really get going until January - snowbirds staying north until after the holidays. On the upside, it was easy to get a nice RV spot right in the middle of town. I had a view of a very nice cactus garden, and I particularly liked that the RV park offered a free RV washing station.
By the time I left Quartzite, the predicted low temperatures to the north had set in, so I had to improvise for my next destination. I had a couple sets of friends in the Phoenix area, so I headed in that direction. I had recently installed a new app on my (Mac) computer for finding public campgrounds - Ultimate Public Campground Project - and with its help I decided to try Cave Creek Regional Park, near Carefree, northeast of Phoenix. That turned out to be a truly beautiful and peaceful place and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay there. I regret that I didn’t think to take any photos.
The park was also my base of operations for seeing my two sets of friends. On Saturday I drove to Surprise, AZ northwest of Phoenix to visit Bud and Gaynor. I had some trepidation about this visit; Bud and I had been acquaintances at church in San Diego years ago, never what you’d call close friends. But we’d reconnected through social media and Bud had become an active well wisher for my travels. We had that much in common: Bud and Gaynor had spent an adventurous year living in Andalusia, Spain, and Bud had just finished writing a book about their experiences, "A Year in Andalusia!". Gaynor, I had never met, since Bud married her after I lost track of him in San Diego.
Any misgivings I’d had were quickly allayed, they both welcomed me warmly, even Gaynor treating me like an old friend. We traded travel stories, talked about Bud’s book and his professional work in education. They made their signature drink for me, an incredibly delicious hot toddy (I hope that’s right), and we shared a wonderful pizza around their kitchen counter. It was a great visit, and by the time I left I felt very comfortable calling them good friends.
The next day, I got together with my college roommate, Barry. Barry and I had reconnected just a month earlier at our college reunion after not being in touch for the forty intervening years. I’d made a loose commitment to visit him in Phoenix on my travels, but I’d had no inkling at the time it would be so soon. Barry drove up to meet me at the park and we went out to lunch together at a nearby restaurant. That was a great chance to reconnect at a deeper level than the hustle and bustle of the reunion permitted. After lunch, we went for a hike in the park. Barry had been on the college track team, still runs, and spends his vacations hiking the Grand Canyon and the wilderness of Alaska. Needless to say, he quickly wore me out, but it was still a great time together.
With cold temperatures to the north, it was natural on Monday to head south. I had never visited Kartchner Caverns, southeast of Tucson, and several friends had recommended it. There’s a park campground close to the visitors’ center and it was easy to get a space at this time of year. Having seen Carlsbad Caverns less than a year earlier, I was prepared to be underwhelmed by Kartchner, but that was not the case at all. There may not be the huge open spaces that Carlsbad has, but there are plenty of formations to see. The special charm of Kartchner, though, is that it is a very ‘natural’ cave. By that, I mean that it was only recently discovered (1974) and it was kept a secret until access could be controlled and visits limited to ranger-guided tours. The result is a very different feel than what you get in Carlsbad; you feel you’re seeing the cave in its original natural state - plus the necessary tourist walkways, which, by the way, are all wheelchair friendly.
The downside to Kartchner Caverns is that no photography is permitted inside the cave. Instead of some reasonable justification, such as flashes damage the formations, they offer the lame excuse that people stopping for photos clog the pathways. What? That was never an issue in Carlsbad which had much more rugged paths than Kartchner. Still, I had a great time there, taking one of the offered tours on Monday afternoon, and another on Tuesday. I got a couple photos in the visitors’ center: this exhibit, which really does let you hear things tens of yards away:
and this map showing the extent of the caverns:
Thankfully, the park website offers a preview video of the cave formations, so you can use this link to see them. Finally, I can’t resist sharing some ranger humor. We saw where bats roost in the cave, and the ranger made the point that only females and offspring enter the cave, no adult males have ever been observed in Kartchner. He then waited patiently until someone asked, “So where do the male bats go?” He replied, “We really don’t know, but they're probably off in a man cave somewhere.” (Groan from the crowd.)
Leaving Kartchner on Wednesday morning, I had no clear destination in mind, but decided to stay at Gilbert Ray Campground just west of Tucson. What a great choice this turned out to be. It was like camping in the middle of a desert botanical garden; so many types of fascinating plants, and mountain views too:
The sunsets there were particularly spectacular:
When I arrived at Gilbert Ray Campground, I had the idea of visiting the Old Tucson tourist attraction, where many westerns have been filmed. However, the on-line reviews of Old Tucson were lukewarm at best, and admission is not cheap, so I decided against it. Instead, I pulled out a camp chair for beside the RV and just enjoyed relaxing in this beautiful environment for the rest of Wednesday and all of Thursday. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum was nearby, but I felt it couldn’t be any more beautiful than where I was. I used my time to get restarted on writing posts for this blog after far too long a hiatus.
I had formed a plan to travel west to Kitt Peak Observatory on Friday, but it rained all day, so after checking that observatory tours ran on Saturdays, I felt justified staying put for one more day at Gilbert Ray. Saturday morning was clear and it was not a long drive to the base of Kitt Peak. At an altitude of 6877 ft, the observatory is nearly 4000 ft higher than the desert floor I’d been driving across. As my van climbed the winding road, it was no surprise the air was getting cooler. It was a surprise when I rounded one of the last turns before the observatory and saw snow on the shoulders of the road. When I reached the parking lot, this was my view:
In fact, snow was still falling, almost obscuring the largest of the observatory’s domes:
Snow was already accumulating on the van:
I headed for the visitors’ center nearby:
which had a nice mural next to the entrance:
Inside, it was just me and the shopkeeper of the museum store. She was doubtful that the 10am tour I’d hustled to make would be run in these conditions, but noon and 2pm tours of different telescopes might go.
Waiting for the tour guides to arrive, I had plenty of time for the center’s exhibits, which turned out to be quite good. There was a 3d map of the observatory grounds:
Of course, the obligatory “Benefits of Astronomy” poster:
Some drawings and models of telescopes at the observatory:
The model immediately above is of the solar telescope, which has its viewing chamber far underground. There was a 1/10 scale model of one of the telescope mirrors:
and the core that was sawed out of the center of the actual mirror:
I estimated it was about 15 inches across and 18 inches high; a truly massive piece of glass. If it looks cloudy to you, remember, for a mirror, no light passes through the glass.
Other exhibits I really liked included a 3D model of the stars surrounding our sun (the yellow spot in the center):
a large meteorite that had landed in Argentina:
and an infrared image of yours truly:
I was also fascinated by a set of items in the gift shop: models of solar system planets that slowly rotated on their stands though there were no other visible moving parts, cords, or batteries. However, I wasn’t fascinated enough to shell out the price you see:
I think I did eventually figure out how it works, but I won’t ruin it for you. Kitt Peak is considered sacred by the local Native Americans, and in the museum was their signature design, the Man in the Maze:
I would have liked a t-shirt with this design, but the museum shop didn’t carry a single item of any kind. I thought maybe the tribe prohibited it, but in a gift shop the next day I saw many baskets, rugs, and so forth with the design, but still no t-shirts.
By this time, two tour guides had arrived and they quickly confirmed that all tours for the day were canceled. The falling snow turned to ice on the sidewalks, making it too dangerous to be walking around, let alone climbing ramps and stairs. As disappointing as this news was, I had to agree; I’d gone outside briefly and every step was a struggle to stay upright. Touring the telescopes would have to wait for a future visit. However, the guides were quite happy to give me a private presentation (I was still the only visitor in the center) on the history, technical details, and inside politics of the observatory. They were quite knowledgable, one an amateur astronomy enthusiast that had worked as a guide for over 15 years, and the other a retired Professor of Astronomy from the University of Arizona. Since it had come out during our introductions that I’d been an engineering professor, they skipped over the simple stuff and gave me a high level presentation.
Driving away from the observatory, less than a half mile down the road, the snow turned to rain, and in another half mile there was no sign of precipitation at all. Back at the main highway, it was balmy and warm in the early afternoon and I had plenty of time to make it to my next stop in Ajo, AZ.
Along the way to Ajo, I passed this sign:
What other state has towns named Why, Surprise, and Carefree? Just south of Ajo, I stopped to take a photo of this unusual geological formation:
Turns out, it’s not geological at all, but man-made. It’s the tailings pile from a large copper pit mine in town:
Ajo itself is a pleasant town with a pretty central square:
It was easy to forget in this desert setting that Christmas was approaching:
Across from the square is a pair of southwest-style churches:
The next day, I headed south to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. The mountains along the way are quite interesting:
Across from the visitor center is a loop road that is passable in a van-based RV such as mine. Even so, the road varies from paved asphalt to rough gravel washboard:
Not surprisingly, there are a lot of cacti along the route:
Gradually, the road rises and the scenery becomes more mountainous:
The highlight of the loop tour is a rock arch - barely visible in the photo above - and a canyon trail for hiking closer to it. Here are some views at a higher zoom:
In the photo above, it’s obvious there’s a second fragile arch above the large one.
After having lunch in the RV with a view to the arch, I completed the loop road, taking in a few more mountain views:
Although scenic, after 21 miles of slow, bumpy road, I was glad when the loop arrived back at the highway, and I returned to Ajo for the night. The next day, I had a fairly unremarkable drive to Yuma, and the day after that, I left Arizona for San Diego.
It had been a very successful walkabout. I’d visited friends and seen new sights. Best of all, it had given me confidence in being more spontaneous in my travels, and had deepened my appreciation for staying in state and national parks when the opportunity arises.
Back in San Diego, I had a few days until flying out to Omaha to spend Christmas with my sister’s family. That visit, and seeing some sights around Omaha, are the topics of my next post.
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