On the morning of the 5th I left Burro Spring campground and continued south; my destination for the day were the desert mountains south of Tucson, and Gilbert Ray Campground. There's a rest stop just outside of Wickenburg on Highway 60 ("sponsored by Geico") where I usually take a breather before heading down the 2-lane Joshua Tree Byway part of the road. As I was about to pull out onto the road from the rest stop I saw a small truck in the distance in the slow lane, going in my direction . I got onto the road and, as is usual for cars pulling trailers, slowly got up to speed. There were 2 lanes in both directions, so naturally one was for slow vehicles, the other for faster ones. The truck passed me in the fast lane, then went in front of me in my lane, and slowed down. Hmmm, is he having car trouble? He's going slower than me. Then the driver put out his hand and stuck a finger up. I still didn't think anything of it, mainly because I'd done nothing wrong --- and it looked like he stuck up his 2nd finger (though I had no idea why he'd do that). Then it dawned on me that it was his middle finger. So he continued going slow, giving me the finger -- then sped off. WTF? Which in this case stands for "Why The Finger?" I'd done absolutely nothing wrong, and it's not as if there was only one lane and he couldn't pass me. I suppose I could have smiled and given him a big wave, but then he probably would have pulled out a gun. But it didn't bother me a bit what he did; I was completely calm, and drove on. Maybe he was giving me his IQ, and was proudly using his finger to show what it was...
I never like to drive through Phoenix, especially when pulling Discovery. I use the road going south from the I-10 that connects on to Interstate 8, avoiding the city mess. I arrived in Tucson and drove south to the desert mountains behind it and pulling into Gilbert Ray Campground, set right in the saguaro desert and just a few miles from my favorite of all museums, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. I needed groceries, so went over spectacular Gates Pass Road, went into a Haagen's parking lot -- then realized, as in my former home town of San Pedro, they'd closed. So I found a Safeway, and took my iPad Mini in with me as I wanted to use the Starbucks WiFi. And naturally they were the only Starbucks in existence that didn't have it. I picked up a basket, did my shopping, left, hit a massive traffic jam on the I-10 (thinking it was the fastest way to get back) and was halfway to the campground when I realized I'd left my iPad Mini back in the shopping basket at Safeway. (Well, my iPad is black, and so was the basket; it blended right in.) Argh! So I headed back to the freeway; the traffic for the offramp was backed up about a mile because offramp on the other side was cordoned off due to a 2-car crash. So I drove along city roads going north, vaguely remembering where the Safeway was -- and all the time wondering what the chances were that my iPad was still in the basket that was being used by someone else. And yes, I know the iPad has a feature where you can "find" it, but I hadn't turned it on because I never thought I'd need it. I looked through all the baskets at both entrances to the store -- nothing, of course. So I asked for the lost and found, hoping against hope that someone had turned it in -- and the young girl working the desk smiled, and handed it to me. I said something like "I want to give you some money!" -- now why did I say that? I was just so relieved I had it back that I blurted out the first thing that came into my head. She just grinned and said, "clumsy!" I should have replied "no, just forgetful", but of course you think about those smart things to say afterwards. After all of that, I felt like I needed eye candy to relax, so I took the Gates Pass Road that cuts through the mountains from Tucson to the other side; it was near sunset --
The Mojave desert, the hottest in North America, has the Joshua Tree; the higher Sonoran Desert has the saguaro, a member of the cactus family --
I read on Wikipedia that arms of a saguaro are grown to increase its reproductive capacity. It all goes back to sex; I guess Freud was right, even where saguaros are concerned.
Sunset at a lookout along the road was spectacular --
And so was the next day's predawn. I like this -- spare, simple, somewhat elegant. A very southwestern, saguaro landscape --
I went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, but to be honest there weren't that many photo ops. I actually spent more time looking at the exhibits rather than concentrating on taking pics, Though I was interested in species I might see sometime now that I'm living in Portal, so I checked out the coatimundi, a member of the raccoon family --
And a Prairie Falcon during the Raptor Free Flight program --
I was also interested in the snake exhibits, particularly the Mojave, Western Diamondback, Black-tailed, and Coral snakes; there's a chance I may encounter all of those here. I'd prefer to look at them with a pane of glass between us.
But my main interest here was in the saguaro desert. Here's an early-morning view, looking toward Kitt Peak and its famous observatory --
I did a hike up Black Mountain (more like a glorified hill) in late afternoon. Here's a saguaro forest --
The view along the trail up Black Mountain, looking towards the Santa Rita Mountains with Madera Canyon, one of the world's premier bird areas (along with the Chiricahuas, of course) --
It seems like EVERY plant in the desert has sharp spines -- spines to the left of me, spines to the right of me...And the hiking paths seem way too narrow in spots. Like going through this cholla garden; I was very careful that I didn't stumble and end up with a fateful of needle-like spines --
As it turned out, I didn't come through it unscathed; I'd brushed up against some spiny plant and a tiny burr latched onto my palm; I spent most of the evening trying to get a small sliver out with a needle. (I think it's still in there. Here's coming back down the trail. The buildings on the right are "Old Tucson", where many Westerns were filmed --
I stepped up the pace as I wanted to be at a good area for the sunset; the clouds off to the east looking promising. And I wasn't disappointed --
The sunset colors lasted a good half hour. What a memorable end to an all-too-short visit to the saguaro desert. But the great thing is I can always come back here with my trailer; it's only 200 miles from Portal (and the gas prices along the way were sometimes as low as $1.40 a gallon.)
Next stop, Portal and Faranuf...
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