Our First Full Day at Why, AZ

And a beautiful day it was! Today was probably the warmest day we've seen in some time. We had the door and windows open. So what did I do today? Laundry as well as most of the other people in the park. There are four washers and dryers and I needed all of them so I was in the laundry room for what seemed like forever since I wasn't able to get all four at one time! On our way out, we met Kelly and had a chat with her about things to see and do in the area.

I saw these contrails when I started out on my walk this morning. They must be from the fighter jets that fly over now and then from the Barry M Goldwater Bombing Range.


I had a nice walk this morning. First I did a walk around the park so I could run on the pavement and then I picked up my walking stick at the RV and hiked into the desert. I didn't see much but it was a nice walk. I took some photos of the scenery along the way.

While I was doing laundry Gordon went to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument's Visitor Center and drove to Lukeville on the Mexican border.

Our high today was 70F (21C). After getting the bed made, the clothes put away and lunch we headed off to the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. When we arrived we watched their film which told you what to be prepared for, what you should have with you, what you shouldn't do etc. The Wildlife Refuge is part of the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range so as well as being a dirt unmaintained road, you also have to look out for unexploded ordnance that has been dropped in the desert and lots of other things that we weren't particularly interested in so we decided to forego the Wildlife Refuge.

Someone in Why has a sense of humor. This 'air mail' box is way up in the air!

Here's an odd looking little house in Ajo. We also stopped at one of the stores in Ajo called Sue's Souvenirs. It was mostly artificial flowers. It seems she makes up crosses and things to put in graveyards. She also had some T-shirts and postcards and the like but nothing we couldn't live without!

Instead we stopped at the copper mine in Ajo. It hasn't been in operation since 1985 but you see piles of tailings and rocks everywhere as well as the unused mine pit pictured here. We saw another one a couple of years ago in Bisbee, AZ. These mines were closed due to the unions. The workers were asked if they would take a drop in salary to keep the mines open. Since they're closed, you know what the answer was. The quarry at the bottom is 40 feet deep!


The man at the Visitor Center at the mine told Gordon about a scenic road that goes around Ajo (outside of town) called the Ajo Scenic Loop. It too is a dirt road but well maintained. We saw lots of dry campers (photo below) out there on BLM (Bureau of Land Management land). It was very scenic. We saw lots of organ pipe cactus there!

Pretty rocks against the bright blue sky


After that we drove into the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, not as far as the Visitor Center as it was closed by then but saw the Ajo Mountains which are very pretty, not as pretty as the Superstitions in Mesa but pretty anyway.

This is the part of the Ajo Mountain range as seen from one of the waysides in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Tonight I was trying to get my photos ready to upload to my blog while I was on the rv-dreams chat and I got a message that said my hard drive was nearly full. It wouldn't allow me to transfer my photo files to my blog folder that I keep on my desktop for easy uploading to my blog so I had to cut my chat visit short. Gordon then took over and backed up my computer with much difficulty however it got done overnight. This morning I deleted my 2007 photos as they are now backed up in 3 different ways and I have 22.32 gb free again! Thanks to my wonderful husband!

It was a long, busy day today. I'm ready to have a rest!

For Gordon's blog, click here.