We’ve been very lucky here in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. This is in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, which tends to get a bit more rain than the other deserts in North America. A bit more rain means there’s enough water for the big cacti to grow, so there are many saguaros and organ pipes. The saguaro cactus is more frost hardy than the organ pipe. Organ Pipe is about as far north as its namesake cactus can stand to live.
The huge cactus is a saguaro. The organ pipe cacti are the clusters to the left of it.
Why are we lucky? Because blooms of flowers in the desert don’t happen every year and hasn’t the past two years. Right now it’s happening and the desert is positively green. Even the ground is carpeted with stubby grasses and wildflowers. The ocotillo are green sticks instead of brown, and many have bright red flowers at their tips. Near the Ajo Mountains that make the eastern border of the park, there are little meadows of bright orange and yellow flowers. With daytime temperatures in the high sixties and low seventies, it’s easy to forget this is a desert.
We drove safely and uneventfully through the Tohono O’Odham reservation on our way from Tucson. Rich gave me the sage advice of filling my tank at a pump on the reservation because it would be cheaper, and it was, by 12 cents. That adds up!
Yesterday, after a spirited game of Monopoly (that I won), we drove along a gravel loop near the base of the Ajo Mountains and then walked a three mile loop that took us into a beautiful valley surrounded by the low, craggy Ajo range. In the evening we went to a ranger talk about the lunar eclipse. We watched the eclipse progress about 90% before cloud cover kept us from seeing the full red moon. That was disappointing, but it was the first time I have spent awhile looking at the stars and moon through binoculars. They really help.
This morning we did a mile walk with two rangers, learning about the geology and plant life of Organ Pipe. After a Monopoly break (Danine’s winning), it is now homeschooling time. For Elise. Mostly.
A Year About 
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