Week ending Jan 31, 2019 Ajo, Arizona

Saturday, we had heard that there was a reprieve in the federal gov funding issue.  We drove up to the Cabeza Prieta visitor centre, but it was still closed.  We figured that we could head down to Organ Pipe to do the Alamo Canyon trail from the campground there.  However, the area closed sign was in the middle of the road, so we decided not to proceed.  Instead, we returned to the area just south of New Cornelia Mine, on Darby Wells road.  We found a place to park off the road near Locomotive Rock.  We hiked along a BLM road past a few boondockers to the base of the rock.  Then we carried on past it and noticed a red post.   The post was labelled SAMM LOCATION MONUMENT.   We couldn't find any reference to it on the internet.

Locomotive Rock

Sunday we started on the Roller Coaster, which parallels the mine property on the south side, near where we have been hiking.  The first half of the 1.5 mi was fairly flat but the rest lived up to the name.  Near the  end, we started seeing a lot of little open pits.  At the end, we crossed Alley Rd to go on another section called Piece of Pie, to distinguish it from the Cowpie Loop.  There we had a chat with a couple from the San Juan Islands near Victoria.  They had seen a lot of coyote tracks, and even some mountain lion tracks at a mud hole. North of the Cowpie, we climbed a large flattened out pile of rocks, which didn't have a mine shaft on it.  However, we watched a little orange butterfly for a while.

the Cowpie

We cut the Piece of Pie route in half, heading south to the main cross road.  On our way across, we saw a hare coming up the road a distance ahead.  Then we watched it run up the hill above us.

Monday, we walked over to the visitor center to pick up a cap for John, since the sun is starting to get higher, and we might be doing longer hikes.  Then we walked up to the mine overlook again and had a bit of a chat with the couple hosting it.   He had worked at the mine most of his life, and now opens the overlook center for about 3 hours every day except Sunday.

Tuesday was an overcast day.  We did another hike of about 4 miles from the scenic loop road to Valentine Well.   Along the way we came to a fairly large cemetery in the middle of the desert with a raw stone engraved marking it as the Darby Wells Cemetery. 

Darby Well's Cemetery

Then we continued to Valentine Well.  It had what was at one time a well fenced corral.

Valentine Well corral, windmill and tank

Valentine Well pool

Wednesday, we did the mile walk to the grocery store for a few items.  The rest of the day we got prepared for heading to Yuma on Thursday. 

Thursday, we headed to Yuma.   On our way north from Ajo to Gila Bend, we went through another Border Patrol immigration checkpoint.  The officer asked the usual question about whether we were American citizens.  When we said no, we are Canadian, he asked us 'what is the best coffee in the world '.   When we replied 'Tim Hortons', he waved us on.
We arrived at  Southern Mesa RV Park in about 8 miles south of I-8 in Yuma.  We paid for a month here, but at $220 a month for first time visitors plus electricity (regular $299), if we only stay for two weeks, it is still a decent rate.