Our first destination was Lukeville on the Mexican border, our base for two days of visits to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the Sonoran Desert. In this amazing desert wilderness of plants and animals and dramatic mountains, you can drive a lonely road, hike a backcountry trail or camp beneath a clear desert sky. The National Park Service manages Organ Pipe as a living museum. At the visitor center, a captioned slide program is available, as well as guidebooks for each of two scenic drives, the Puerto Blanco and the Ajo Mountain. Posted numbers along the road correspond to explanations and stories of the desert in the booklets.
Access is by foot, bicycle or private vehicle.
It was a very different sensation from the one I have in the woods. From Lukeville we headed east on scenic routes. We took a quick trip into Tombstone, the scene of the Gunfight at the OK Corral and other Wild West lore. Then we took a dirt road to Elfrida and followed directions from a weather-beaten, fading sign promising snakeskin items. At the end of the side road was a group of trailers, displaying a collection of artifacts.