RV Winter Rambling 2006-07

Movin’ On


We perched for a few days at Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino just 30 miles south of Phoenix in the town of Maricopa. As we hadn’t done any Geocaching for a couple of weeks, I was feeling a need to get out on the hunt again and we devoted a whole day to caching in the Maricopa / Casa Grande locale. It was fun as always but most of the finds were ‘micro caches’ two of them in little 1 ½ inch long vials, so there were no fun trade items. The last one of the day was going to be the most exciting one – way out in the desert with petroglyphs and caves. We got a mile down the back road to find it had been totally closed off and we were still 3 ½ miles away from the cache and we were in the middle of what appeared to be the Ozarks backwoods, so weren’t even tempted to leave our car and hike in.


In the 14th century, a tribe called the HoHokam lived in the desert near the Gila River and the present day town of Casa Grande. An ancient village was excavated in a farmer’s field and they discovered a four story clay and limestone building – the Casa Grande – in the middle of a vast chain of villages with canals linking them to the main river – evidently it was a very advanced culture. However, the Hohokam disappeared within the next century – and whether they moved on and became assimilated by other tribes or whether a drought decimated the population remains a mystery. The National Parks has resurrected the site, constructed a huge roof to protect the Casa Grande and built a visitor center – an interesting and worthwhile stop.

We drove into the town of Casa Grande to do some shopping and drove by the Sundance RV Resort. Fernie remembered that neighbours (D&D) from our Coquitlam home were staying there in their motorhome so we figured we’d come back the next day and see if we could find them. It’s a massive village of RV’s and mobile homes, row upon row with the streets named after old cowboy movie stars – Ritter, Hayes, even Redford and Newman but the gate guard looked them up and gave us directions. We were lucky – they had just returned from golfing so we visited for an hour or so. They told us a bit about the lifestyle – lots of social activities, exercise classes, pools etc. and they love it. We could hear a churning, mechanical sound in the background as we chatted and were so amazed to see a breadmaker doing its incongruous duty on the kitchen counter – and I think I’m cooking when I put a prepared frozen dinner in the microwave.

Our love affair with the desert drew us to drive down to the Organ Pipe National Monument, which sits at the Mexican border. There are vast BLM lands (Bureau of Land Management – free desert camping) four miles north of the park just south of the little town of Why. Why we asked ourselves is this three building town called Why? I guess that answers the question. This part of the Sonoran desert is full of plant life and with the bit of rain that’s fallen recently, it’s so green. We drove back into the BLM lands about a mile and found a wonderful fairly isolated spot beneath a Palo Verde tree and a large Saguaro (pronounced sawarro) cactus. What luxury, the beautiful desert – all ours for as far as our eyes could see, the dark night skies full of brilliant stars, yipping and howling coyotes circling in closer and closer after dark, hot daytime sunshine, cool desert nights and all the comforts of home in our comfortable motorhome.

This national park has corralled one of the most unusual ecosystems in the USA – an area full of many species of cacti and in particular the huge organ pipe cactus, which only grows in this part of the USA. Saguaro (pr. Sawarro), cholla (pr. choya), prickly pear, fish hook barrel cacti, ocotillo, mesquite, palo verde, creosote bushes and so many more all in profusion. We took the 21-mile loop drive up into the Ajo (pr. Aah-ho) Mountains on a one-way gravel road. As we climbed, the cacti grew thicker and larger and denser and I couldn’t stop taking photos with the majestic craggy mountains and canyons in the background. We took a couple of shortish hikes (2 miles roundtrip) but found the heat fairly oppressive and battling the cold that I brought home from Toronto didn’t make it any easier.


It was a pleasure to return to our desert home and veg out in our chairs until sunset.

posted by O'Leary @ 11:12 AM