2006/02 Southwest USA trip (NM-AZ) - Alamo Canyon in Organ Pipe Cactus NM |
|||
Monday February 13th
We decided to stay another day as there were a couple of roads we hadn’t yet explored. First though we made a short trip down
to Lukeville at the Mexican border, to mail out postcards and buy some essential fluids like milk and White Zin. I was wearing my “Chicken, Alaska” T-shirt, so I explained to the post lady how Chicken got its name and she explained how the guy that owned the town in the 1920s named Lukeville after his brother who was a hero in the first world war. I hope you guys got the postcards (of us mining on the mountain), as this was a somewhat strange post office. It had a machine for franking the mail, but no stamps. Lukeville was our closest point to the seaside, 50 miles south of us at the Gulf of California and the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. That is close to where what is left of the mighty Colorado River dribbles across the border and disappears into its river bed. There is so little water left after all the irrigation use that the river no longer makes it to the sea.
Back in the park, we drove the small piece of Puerto Blanco Drive that is still open to the public. This gave us access to a few more trails that led to the area we’d been in the previous day, but we decided to hike in different scenery. There was one more road to explore, if we could only find it. There were no road signs but
we eventually found the gravel road that lead to a primitive campground and the trail head for Alamo Canyon. It was almost as if the park staff is trying to keep the canyon a secret.
We walked the trail to a few old ranch buildings, and then bushwhacked our way up the canyon. The scenery was great but we eventually got to a point where we were battling both climbs and cactus and we decided to turn round.
On our way back we surprised a group of peccaries, wild pigs, called javelina in these parts. Sandie said there
were about six of them but I just saw the tail ends of two bouncing their way through the brush. Sandie went back to the truck while I hunted pigs, with a view to getting some pictures. I walked down the stream bed, through chest-high grass, fumbling from rock to rock looking for the pigs. I could hear them grunting but I never saw them again. They were hidden somewhere under the bushes in a maze of thorns and cactus spines. What I did find though was the deepest part of the canyon where there was a seep of open water, the only 
water we’d seen since we arrived. The water was buzzing with flies and butterflies and teeming with birds, there for the water and the bugs. Just downstream were some old stone walls and these led me up to the old ranch buildings and out of the canyon.
I’ve included a picture of a javelina here, though it came from a zoo, not from the wild. Wild javelina are easily
spooked and they panic and run in all directions, but if they are cornered they will fight as a group and can be very dangerous. There is a story told in Big Bend about a lady who showed up with her poodle for a guided hike and was told that her dog couldn’t go. So she tied the dog to a table and went on the hike. When she came back she found the javelina finishing off their meal.
On our drive back to camp the sky was full of streaks of cloud and we had hopes of a great sunset but the sun just slipped away into heavy cloud to the southwest.
Tuesday February 14th
We left the park the next morning. This was the longest we’d stayed in any one campsite on this trip. We’d had a good time there with all the hiking and scenery, but we felt like we’d gone to a rather crowded geriatric camp, as everyone camping around us seemed to be a decade or two older than us! The park is very popular with retirees because of its warm climate and its low price. As a result, nobody is allowed to stay for more than 14 days in a season. Many other parks have this rule, but this one actually marks your “total days used” on the camping permit.
However, with the batteries charged, and the tanks dumped, and fresh water on board we were now good for a few days of solitude in Arizona’s back country.
This was the end of our sixth week of the trip, and about our furthest point from home, so on leaving the park we felt that we were beginning the return trip. That would take us about another two to three weeks, so this is a good point to end Part 2 of our Southwest story.
Love to you all from
Pete and Sandie