Friday, we went for a drive about 30 mi west to Agua Caliente (Spanish for Hot Water). It is listed on the Arizona Ghost Towns site. In the little town of Sentinel, where we left the interstate, we saw an interesting yard decoration. There was a wide branched tree with pots hanging from it (the pot tree). We didn't see it soon enough to take a picture, so we thought we would take it when we came back. However, we returned on a different route.
On the drive north to Agua Caliente, we saw a coyote cross the road. A few miles north, a roadrunner crossed. We crossed the Gila River, but couldn't see any water in it. We don't know whether the reservoir at Painted Rock is low, or if the river is running below the surface in the gravel. Agua Caliente site was started as a ranch, and in 1897 a hotel was built to house visitors to the hot springs. The hotel is pretty much intact, but the ranch buildings are crumbling. Eventually, the ranch used too much water from the springs, and they dried up.
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| Agua Caliente Pioneer Cemetary |
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| Agua Caliente Ranch Building |
We carried on a bit north to another ghost town, Hyder. The business there is for sale, if anyone is interested. It is located on the Union Pacific train line between Yuma and Phoenix.
From Hyder, we followed the rail line for a few miles before taking Rocky Point Road, a decent gravel road that crosses the rises towards the Painted Rock Pictographs which we visited in the spring. We crossed the Gila River again, and there wasn't even a bridge at this point.
Sunday we headed for Maggies Cove trail in Sonoran Desert National Monument. The trail head is north of Gila Bend off highway 85. We had picked up the BLM map of the Monument that shows all of the road numbers. The road to the trailhead goes through a gap in the hills. We found a spot that looked like it was in the right place based on the hills. We were expecting to see a BLM road number sign, but the only sign we saw where we exited was the one below, which looked like it was to an ATV trail.
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| Trail Directions |
We headed a bit north, and were soon out of the BLM area, so we returned to the spot. We followed the Trail north along the fence line for about 400m, but couldn't see where it headed towards the hills. The trail didn't look attractive to drive on, so we decided to just walk to the gap in the hills. Close to the hills, we picked up the road. Signs along the edge said that a recent court order prohibited target practice in the area. We carried along the road until we go to the gap, about 4.3 k from the truck. After having lunch, we decided to carry along the road back to the highway. It hit the fence about 800 m north of the truck so we had walked about halfway to the turn. As well, about halfway to the hills, there were signs where the road crossed the power line welcoming us to the National Monument, and confirming that this was the correct road number to get to the trailhead. By the time we got back to the truck. we had gone about 8.6 km so figured that was enough hiking for the day. As well, there weren't a lot of places for two vehicles to pass one another on the route, and it was a bit sandy. But, we didn't see any places where it looked like vehicles had to move onto the edges to pass one another.
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| Sonoran Desert National Monument |
Monday we moved to Whispering Palms RV Park in Tucson, and paid for a week with Passport America discount.
Tuesday, we drove to Pima County Fairgrounds near Tucson and verified it would be an okay place to stay for a while. We stopped at the Visitor Center (sort of) in downtown Tucson. They had moved to a new location due to construction making access difficult, but still had some info for us.
Thursday we did the downtown Tucson walking tour, the Turquoise Trail. They have kindly painted a turquoise line along the route to make it easy to follow, and even have the numbers of some of the points of interest painted next to them.
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| Tucson's Turquoise Trail |
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| Old Barrio Steetscape |
Many of the older buildings have drain spouts projected from the area on the roof. These were put out far enough to prevent the water from eroding the adobe walls of the houses.
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One of the downspouts
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| El Tiradito Wishing Shrine |
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Part way through the walk, we were distracted by an RV Show at the Convention Center.
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Modern Tucson
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In a nice little park, there was a monument to the Mormon Battalion. The Battalion stopped in Tucson in 1846 on their way to California to fight in the Mexican War.
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| Mormon Battalion Monument |
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