Day 21 - Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument - Superstition Wilderness

With good intentions the night before, I set my alarm clock for 6 am to be sure to be up when the sun rose. 6 am came and went as I continuously pressed snooze. I checked out the sunrise from my bed, then went back to sleep until around 8 am, regretting my sleep in as soon as I was up and functioning. I got ready for the day as quickly as I could, then left to walk the Palo Verde Trail before it got too hot. It was a lovely little trail and despite how early in the day, Luna was not impressed by the heat, she dragged along slightly behind me panting away, jogging up in front of me anytime I asked if she was doing okay.

We drove on, getting stopped for a passport check right outside the park; of course I thought I'd put my passport in a different place than I did, so I had to pull over and search while the officer said "Uh-oh" in tantalizing manner. I found myself glad I had not gone in to Mexico for the day; a man at the campsite had recommended a beach 60 miles away, but the idea of adding 120 miles on to this already blisteringly hot drive and spending the day stressing that they wouldn't let me through for whatever reason they came up with didn't seem appealing despite the call of the ocean and the magic words "dog beach". There are border guards everywhere, more than half the vehicles I saw for over an hour of my drive were border patrol vehicles; what the US citizens 'save' from not having government health care must go to patrolling the Mexico border! After another hot drive, we arrived at Gold Canyon. It is absolutely beautiful here, if only photos would do these places justice. I started off on a hike, but it was 30-degrees-celsius and the sun was beating heavily down on us, I was managing fine in the heat, but was growing worried about Luna's state. When I ran in to a lovely couple returning from the top of the trail, they told me at was a good 45 minutes at least uphill to go yet, so I made the decision to get Luna to somewhere cooler and return in the morning.

Luna and I both momentarily thought that the cactus closest to the front was a person.

As soon as I finished taking her photo, she turned back to look at the human-like cactus with great interest.

I loved this heart shaped bird home in this very tall cactus in the campsite.

Leaving Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Superstition Wilderness

So hot and very little shade!