"I hear music when there's no one there ... (except this funny looking cactus)" (Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument)
"That's not a desert, it's a garden!" said a Saudi prince as he overlooked the landscape from Pinkley Peak to the Ajo Mountains in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. And I have to agree with him, as I mentioned in my last blog, the character of the desert had changed as we traveled in a southeasterly direction. There were more plants, more birds, more animals, shrubs, and more and different cacti. It was more diverse and it was, dare I say it, sort of green. Yes, green. I mean, not green like Vermont green, but when I looked out over the landscape, brown, shades of brown with an occasional rust or mustard or tan thrown in, were not, I repeat, were not the predominant color! Well maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, let's just say they were not the only color.
We were in the Sonoran desert.
I'm embarrassed to say how old I was when I learned we had deserts in the United States. And let's just say for this blog, I'm talking about environmental/ geographic deserts (not food, or fashion or any new trendy definition). I'm talking about the kind you learned about in geography class. Let's just say, ahem, I learned we had deserts after college. Now in my defense, I thought a desert was only mile after mile of sand dunes, but …that doesn't really help, does it? 🤷 Embarracement aside… using the definition, that a desert receives less than 10" of rain per year and the evaporation rate is greater than the rainfall. It turns out we have four: the Great Basin, the Mohave, the Chihuahuan and the Sonoran. (We have additional "minor" deserts, but for whatever reason, too small, too "something", they don't qualify as a classically recognized deserts.) Each of the four is, of course, unique with its own characteristics. The Sonoran is unique because it has five seasons: winter, spring, summer, summer monsoon and fall. So the Sonoran has two seasons with precipitation, winter and summer monsoon, and that, as they say, makes all the difference. It allows it to support this diverse plant life and in turn more birds and animals. It really is a garden. Due to Organ Pipe Cactus NM's location along the very southern border of the US with Mexico, it also supports some plants, animals and fish that can only be found naturally here in the US. They prefer a warmer habitat typically found south of the US like in Mexico, but this little spot of the US is warm enough to support their existence. So that's pretty darn cool too.
While we were at Organ Pipe Cactus NM, we did the usual: hiking, biking and exploring. There was so much to see. So completely different from Vermont, but so uniquely beautiful in its own right.
There was one view that I had never before seen in person and it was striking. The wall along the border between the US and Mexico. From afar it looked like a thin healed scar cut across the land or a line drawn on the landscape with a sharpie. It looked like it was another "man tames nature" sort of thing, but instead it's a "man tames man" sort of thing. From afar it didn't look all that bad, but knowing what it represented not only made my flesh crawl but also made me nauseous.
Here's the thing though, people were crossing the border. They often crossed through the park. The cacti are very slow growing, it can take ten years for them to grow even a few inches tall. The movement of people not following official trails resulted in numbers of these young cacti being lost. The whole purpose of a national park or monument is to protect the natural resource. The movement of people (asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, those just trying to find a better life for their families, as people moving to our country have done for generations, however you want to label them) the movement of these people through the park was causing damage.
The wall was built. The cacti are safer and should continue to grow and thrive. But what about the animals and their territory and natural ranges? They didn't know if they were from Mexico or the US. They didn't have rules about when or if they could cross the "border". What border? The only rules they followed were rules of survival, wherever the water and food sources were located at different times of the year dictated where they should go. The wall has disrupted their very existence.
And I'm not even going to touch the whole social, moral and political morass of why or whether or how or should or should not people be crossing the border.
Was it the best choice to resolve the issues? I don't think so, but I don't live with these problems on a daily basis nor have I spent the time to really do a deep dive into the subject. I only dove off the side of the pool, deeper than the surface, but certainly not the full scrutiny it deserves for me to go on a rant, so I try to remember that when I look at the wall … and shudder.
All that being said, I don't want discussion of the border wall to overshadow this park. It is a beautiful part of our country with the most incredible sunsets and I loved every minute we were there (except when I was looking at the border wall 🙄)
Enough talking, let's get on to the pictures!
The park with the Ajo Mountains in the background
There's Myrtle, hanging out amongst the cacti 😂
The next few pics are of some of the plants, trees and cacti.
This is a Palo Verde tree. I loved the green bark.
Mistletoe! It was very common to see it in the mesquite and ironwood trees.
A fishhook barrel cactus (I think?) I called the little guys on top, pineapples 😂
Chain Cholla (choy-a) cactus. Each of those little guys easily break off and attach themselves to animals (or hikers) going by.
Engelmans Hedgehog cactus
This was one of my favorites, it was so tiny. I called it the wee one.
Here it is, an organ pipe cactus. This is one of the species only found at this park in the US and interesting only on the south facing slopes and valleys, never on the northern ones.
This one is so crazy with all its arms, Martin quipped that it was a Bach fugue!! 🤣🤣
A prickly pear getting ready to blossom
An ocotillo. This amazing plant loses all its leaves and looks like dead brown spiny branches until it rains, then leaves come out and it has beautiful red blossoms on the end of each stalk. After a bit it dries up, the leaves fall and it waits for the next rain to go through the cycle again!
An agave
I found the inner structure of the cacti fascinating. Very strong. Practically like wood. Indigenous peoples and early settlers often used inner "stalks" as framework for building.
Below is a saguaro.
These are the " bones " of an organ pipe
And these are Cholla. My personal favorite. I love the pattern.
A close up of the ocotillo
Don't tell anyone, but I think I have a Cholla catching a ride on my hat 😅
The next pics are of some desert flowers
The ocotillo blossom
a fairy duster
And on to wildlife …
A raven
A phainopepla
So this guy hung out on this saguaro looking for something yummy to eat. Thank you Mr Red-Tailed hawk for being so photogenic.
This little guy is a Black Phoebe. He was hanging out around Quitobaquito Springs, a natural spring that has supported human habitation for at least 16,000 years. It is located right on the border and it's also home to a mud turtle and pup fish going only here.
And here we have a Costa Hummingbird. For size comparison, he's sitting on an ocotillo stalk.
We hiked to a couple of abandoned places. The dryness of the desert preserves interesting features. Apparently, I was in a "fences of the west" motif, haha
The sunsets were spectacular.
The spines caught the light in a way that made the cacti glow with a reddish aura.
The chollas caught the last of the sun and seemed to self illuminate with a bright platinum gold.
The silhouettes of the saguaros …
Lots of spectacular hiking and views
The three amigos
Look, it really is green-ish...
We even had a full moon
An ocotillo in silhouette
Beautiful mountain silhouettes ... and the border wall
We came upon this sign a few times while hiking. There were also several "social" trails. Not official park trails that were clearly used for some type of travel.
A few more close-ups of the wall
The next few pics are of the spectacular skies. They were beyond words.
More hiking pics.
Look at that color, it is sort of green when you look out. Not just shades of brown.
tee hee! Sometimes Martin gets a little annoyed with me when he thinks I'm spending too much time taking pics or talking to other people on the trail or just … looking around … at things … that … I think … are … interesting … or … might be
And one more glorious sunset
❤️
Next we took a brief detour home for Ben and Grace's glorious, gorgeous, majical winter wedding. Then we scooted back to Arizona to discover more of this Sonoran desert.
Next stop: Gilbert Ray Campground, just outside the Sonoran Desert NP, west of Tucson.
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