Memories of AHHHHHHHHjo..(Ajo, AZ)

  My brain is in serious need of a boost, so I am drawing on one of our favorite Winter trips…Ajo, AZ (Jan and Feb of 2010)..I know that Al and Kelly and Bob (Mountain Man) will remember this place…

We arrived on Dec. 28th, 2009…in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the Sonoran Desert…We campers gathered around a huge campfire where we roasted hot dogs, and watched the beautiful moon come up over the mountains.  We had music…and some people karaoke sang…and some people even danced…I believe I was guilty of the dancing part, and if I would have had one more cocktail I was going to Karaoke sing.  Lucky for the campers, I couldn’t find my derriere with both hands so Dennis took me back to the camper about 8PM and put me to bed. Yep..I don’t think I  have been that over served since that day!..I vaguely remember Dennis heating up some left overs for dinner..Me? I was snoring ..

We stayed at Hickiwan Trails RV Park, and I hear now it isnt’ near as good as it was..We could walk out into the desert anytime.  At night you could hear the wild burrows baying outside, but we never seemed to find them in the daylight.  Finally, on one of  our gazillion walks into the desert we discovered them..As you can see, it doesn’t take much to excite me..a few wandering donkeys can make my day..HEE HAW!

The town of Ajo (pronounced Ahhhho) is very pretty.  The Spanish influence is evident, as we are only about 32 miles from the Mexican border…We found much evidence of Hispanic citizens who had come through the desert..milk jugs, serapes, shoes, backpacks…but we never encountered anyone.  The U.S. Border Patrol Station was only about 2 miles from us, and the helicopters were always in the air..

If  you ever go that way, make sure you get a permit to drive onto the Cabreza Prieta Wildlife Refuge (permit is free and good for one year)…One of our favorite day trips was the 16.5 mile road trip to Charlie Bell Pass…which took us about 2 1/2 hours.  This is NOT for your average car…You will need a 4 wheel drive vehicle for this one.  Once you arrive at the end of the road, you have another mile and 1/2 walk down to the old Charlie Bell Well…and some very old Indian petroglyphs…

 

 

Here we are at the beginning of our walk..If you look over my cap, you can see the view across the pass.  No, we didn’t go across.  I didn’t bring my jammies and wine. 

 

 

We had been told that the petroglyphs were not easy to find.   They had been painted on some dark rocks down in the wash by the well..  We began walking around the wash area and then went up the other side…I was just about to give up when MacGyver  (no surprise to me) found a couple…This was sooooo very neat.  We were the only human beings (that I knew of) around and it was so quiet.  If you know me, then you know I was touching every rock, thinking/hoping I could to channel some ancient Native American History into my humble spirit….

 

Here is a link to the Charlie Bell Road, written by one who has been there.  There is some great information on this link. I wish we had found that info before we headed out, but I think our trip was made even more fun by us floundering around looking for the petroglyphs….

One of the other things I loved about that Sonoran  Desert was looking for  Sonoran Desert Rose Chalcedony.  Every time took our walk amongst the cactus, I would fill my pockets with little and big “roses”…Here is a picture of some of my finds..

Rose Chalcedoney has many characteristics, but the one that stands out is the similarity to a rose shape.  I loved finding these little gems…That big one on the right has many roses in it. I just  happened upon that one by kicking over this rock with my shoe.  The other side of that big rock is just nasty and looks like any other rock…I hope to someday try my hand at making some jewelry out of some of those smaller ones…

Our campground South of Ajo was on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Nation.  Our park had a unique rock formation recently made by some natives ….This is called “The Man In The Maze”…

If I had wings, I could have taken above pic from higher up and you could actually SEE the labyrinth..…Alas, I am vertically challenged, so I will show you the decal I bought out there to may further explain it…

I absolutely LOVE  this … I keep this decal on our Hiker as a reminder of those ancient first Americans.  Here is another of my famous “hyperlinks” (hyper being the key word in describing my excitement about this)..Man In The Maze…

Just in case I  haven’t bored you to “nodding off” and snoring yet , I will attempt to further drive you to snoozing and drooling with a couple more pictures of this favorite place of mine!!

The Bayfield Bunch and Bob (Mt. Man) will surely recognize Ol’ Flattop Mountain on the right….  While camped at Hickiwan for those two months, I made it a habit to watch for the sun to begin setting from our camper window (in my jammies, naturally.)   Then I would throw our camera around my neck,  jump on my bike, (Rum and Coke in hand), and without spilling one drop I would high tail my Schwinn to the Western edge of the park to catch those sunsets.   I wanted pictures without camper tops and other man made objects blocking my view…I must say, I got some very rewarding results.  I feel I should get extra Kudos for this.  I think I deserve extra credit just for the fact that I’m darn sure I was the “twilight entertainment” for others in the campground…”Look, Mabel…Here comes that lady in her clown outfit, camera flying…I wonder what she has in her Christmas mug?  Maybe we should alert Border Patrol”…

                                                                  There is absolutely NOTHING like an Arizona sunset….This photo above, with that mystical stream of light coming from the Heavens, took my breath away…

OK! OK!! I’M FINISHED!!…DON’T FORGET TO WIPE THE SLOBBER OFF YOUR MONITOR BEFORE YOU TURN ME OFF!!