Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

We took a relatively short road trip down to Tucson for a few days to visit friends and then went on over to Why, AZ to spend a couple of nights and visit Organ Pipe Cactus NM. This park is a showcase for the Sonoran Desert with 28 cactus species including the organ pipe. The organ pipe cactus is rarely found in the United States although it is common in Mexico. The monument protects the bulk of the US range. There are two loop drives in the monument and we drove the 21 mile Ajo Mountain Drive which, even on a cloudy winter day, was pretty and showcased the desert ecosystem combination of flat desert and mountains. With the abundance of various cactus and other plants we were thinking we need to come back when everything is blooming after a raining season.


There is a 3 hour van tour to visitors (call ahead for details and reservations) on the same loop road that we drove if you don't want to drive the dirt road in your own vehicle. We were reserved on this but a government shutdown hit that morning so everything was closed to the public except this drive.