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Organ pipe

Organ Pipe is the quietest place we go. There are no hookups. The only electricity is from batteries, generators, or solar panels. Generators are only allowed in the RV section of the campground, and the hours for use are very limited. There are four hours each day when generators are permitted, but basically, you run on batteries and only run your generator for an hour a day if you need to recharge. Our closest neighbors, in a fifth-wheel trailer, never ran their generator; don’t even have one. Three solar panels and careful control of power drains provide all the electricity they ever need. They never hook up to anything. They dump and fill once every two weeks and never plug in to electricity. Only a few people in the campground this time of year; maybe 10% occupied. It will get busier later as it gets closer to January. The campground is far from any roads, so very quiet during the day, and totally silent at night. Brilliant stars. First night I woke up and thought it was daylight, only to discover is was the moon at midnight, a couple days past full. It was great to get there after all these years. It got better each day, sitting outside at 75 degrees, retreating to shade during the heat of each day. Sit quietly for a few minutes and a half-dozen quail come out of the bushes to cluck and scurry around your feet. Another half dozen curve billed thrashers in your site, and curious cactus wrens inspect everything. Two different times we had to shoo a cactus wren back down the steps and out of the motorhome hoping to avoid any messy confrontation between Annie and a bird inside the house. Cool at night, 40 degrees. We finally pried ourselves loose this afternoon and headed back closer to civilization. We’re at Gilbert Ray Campgound outside Tucson Mountain Park. Happy Birthday Judy.
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Organ pipe

There used to be a 35 foot length limit at Organ Pipe. They finally raised the limit to 40 feet last year, so we’re staying right in the National Monument, at the same campground we stayed at all those years ago. It’s a little tight, but we’re in. Dry camping (no hookups). We did it a lot when we were driving the VW bus; all the time in fact. As we moved to bigger motorhomes we still dry camped, but a little less with each larger version. We’ve been in this motorhome over a year, and this is the first time we’ve dry camped in it. It is so electronic, turn off the lights at night and there is a forest of glowing lights all through the rig. Turn off everything you can and there is still a steady draw of about 20 amps. I know this because, finally, we have a motorhome that will give us some clues about battery condition and amp usage. It also give us a breaker panel with a main switch to turn off everything that runs through the inverter to make 120 volt power. Flip that switch and we’re totally on 12 volt, and with everything turned off, we draw zero amps. We have a solar panel on the roof that will charge us back up at the rate of 4 or 5 amps all day long. We can dry camp in this thing.
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Organ pipe cactus national monument

Judy doesn’t feel really good yet, but she decided she could feel not really good yet out in the desert as well as she could in an RV Park in Mesa. We headed south. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the place we went on Spring Break every year with the kids. It was too cold to camp in Colorado in March/April every year, so we went to the desert. Sometimes we just went to Organ Pipe. Sometimes we went all the way to the coast for family, Disneyland, Sea World, or the San Diego Zoo, but we always went to Organ Pipe too. The first year we did it, we didn’t even know where we were going to end up, we just kept driving south until it got warm. We got all the way here, within five miles of the Mexico border in Southern Arizona, and it was magic. A new favorite place. Sonoran desert, Quitobaquito a desert oasis, scorpions under rocks, cardinals, quail, cactus wrens, and curve billed thrashers for background sounds. Trails to follow, hills to climb, interpretive signs to read, and a visitors center with interactive displays. Pretty much everything but clouds. It’s an easy drive from Mesa. West through Phoenix, hang a left at Buckeye and follow Arizona Highway 85 south through Gila Bend, Ajo, and Why. One hundred seventy miles. It’s nice to be here.