Sedona was amazing. We were sad to leave, but ready to move on to our next destination. We woke up at the Hilltop Inn… Damn, that bed was comfortable! Wish I’d slept a little better, but it is what it is. We woke up, had some coffee in the room, read books for a few, and went to breakfast. 

French toast, eggs, and bacon were on point at Creekside across the street from the hotel. We went back to the room, finished packing our stuff, and were off. 

Before we left town, Matt felt obligated to take a picture with the blue McDonald’s “M” in town – and it turned out we weren’t the only ones with the idea! A kid was also getting his picture taken…

We hit the road and headed south. Found a place to refill the propane tank, got dumb about how much .8 gallons of propane is vs. how many pounds the tank is…

We drove through the mini towns of Ajo and Why. Finally, we got to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We found the campsite we’d reserved and pitched camp.  

We went out the trail that started at camp and walked through the desert for a bit. So. Cool. Saguaros everywhere! More so than organ pipe, which are the ones the park is named for… In any case, it was beautiful out there. 

We got back to camp before sunset and I indulged in my time lapse obsession. And my photo obsession. SO many pictures taken! I can’t wait to look at them. 

Dinner was mac and cheese and the rest of the broccoli from the past few days. Then some LavaBox time and bed. Lovely day. 

For some reason, that night I woke up around 2:30 am and looked out at the sky. We’d opted not to put the fly on our tent since it was going to be plenty warm, and I could see out the mesh at the top of the tent. Wow! The stars were INCREDIBLE. So much so that I actually put my glasses on my face and just stared for a little bit. 

I woke up for real and got up about 6:00 am. Made some coffee, stuffed my sleeping bag, shot another time lapse… Matt got up shortly after me and we had breakfast pretty quickly. 

We were on the road by 7:45. We decided to drive the Punta Blanca road out until it turned one way, past which it was not recommended to go. More saguaros, more ocotillos, more amazing mountains… 

We got to the turn around and headed back to the other side and the scenic drive around the Ajo Mountains. 

We got to our first stop, Arch Canyon. It was exactly what it sounds like, a canyon hike to an arch that actually became less visible the closer you got to it, until you couldn’t see it at all. 

We got to the signpost that looked to mark the end of the trail once upon a time, and went a little beyond that. We ran into a guy that said he thought the trail went all the way up, but he’d made a wrong turn and wasn’t sure. We were not really in the mood for a huge adventure, so we went a little bit farther and then turned around. 

Back at the car, we chugged water and kept driving. I kept yelling for Matt to stop the car so I could take more pictures. We finally found the organ pipe cactus the park was named after. There were TONS of them on this side of the park. 

The next pull off was our next hike. We climbed up to Bull Pasture and got a good view of Ajo Peak (Ajo Mountain? Not sure.). We went back via the Estes Canyon Trail, which had – you guessed it – more organ pipe cactus. And saguaros. And cholla and ocotillo. So cool. 

We (okay, I)  were tired after that one, there was a good bit of up. It’s been a long trip and I’m kind of over it at the moment. We finished the drive and then we were Tucson bound.

Here’s the video: