Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Ajo and the Desert Rain Cafe

Posted on March 9, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

March 9 – 17, 2019

Visitor Center

We spent a week dry camping at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of it. We hadn’t either until we pulled up the National Park properties in Arizona and there it was. Arizona has a LOT of National Park properties and we plan to hit as many as we can while we wait for the snow to stop slamming everything north of us. Actually, let me correct that. We plan to hit the ones in the southern regions because the ones up north are buried in snow.

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Phoenix, Organ Stop Pizza and Casa Grande Ruins

Posted on February 25, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 25 – March 8, 2019

We had several friends hanging out in Phoenix for part of the winter so we wandered over that way. We didn’t have reservations and February/March make up a good chunk of extreme snowbird season for the Phoenix area. There are tens of thousands of people hanging out down here to escape the cold. Everywhere we looked was packed in with seasonal communities. Most have at least a few sites for “transients” like us and we managed to book a few nights in Apache Junction, spent a few nights in a casino parking lot in Chandler and shifted south for another week in Casa Grande. It all worked out just fine. We enjoyed good times hanging out and hiking with good friends.

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McDonald Observatory

Posted on February 23, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 23, 2019

Space – The Final Frontier

Amphitheater (left), Small Domed Telescopes (center), Frank N. Bash Visitors Center (right)

The visitor center had a small but interesting museum. You’ll learn a little bit about spectroscopy and why it’s so important in astronomy. You’ll also be introduced to some astronomers and learn how they use spectroscopy in their research.

One display contained several “old” astronomy tools, such as a sextant (used for celestial navigation at sea), a celestial globe (designed for classroom instruction and solving spherical geometry problems), and a micrometer (for precise measurement of star positions)

Tools of astronomy

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Fort Davis NHS & Davis Mountains State Park

Posted on February 22, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 22, 2019

Davis Mountains State Park

We shifted up to the Davis Mountains so we could tour that area. The State Park was very nice with full hook ups, partial hook ups and no hook ups. We scored a site in the partial hook up area. The park has a scenic drive up to the top of the mountain with stunning views of the surrounding area. The wind was ripping when we were up there so we had to hunker down to avoid being blown off the mountaintop. There is a hiking trail and a biking trail that run from the campground to the peak. We saw people doing the shuttle thing and dropping the biker off at the top for what must have been a wild ride down. Davis Mountains is known for its birding and the park has several bird blind areas to assist birders in finding them. They were IMPRESSIVE. One blind was like a little cantina bar with bar, stools and huge windows looking out to a little bird paradise with water features, assorted feeders and different natural perching areas. The second one is in their Interpretive Center where you can watch through peekholes outside or lounge on seats inside and view through the windows. The birdsong here in the mornings was amazing.

It was a nice, well-kept campground that served as our base of operations for our visit to Fort Davis and the McDonald Observatory.

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Big Bend West Side, Cottonwood Campground, Study Butte/Terlinqua and Beyond

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 18, 2019

Cottonwood Campground – No Generators Allowed.

You don’t know how nice that is until you spend a week with this roaring noise for twelve hours each day. Luckily we were out hiking most of the time but we had a few “camp” days and every minute we were in camp at the Rio Grande Village, smelly generators played a raucous symphony that pounded our eardrums. Even on days we would have liked quiet time in camp, we tried to find somewhere else to be where we couldn’t hear the noise.

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Dinosaur National Park – BUT NOT!

Posted on February 16, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 16, 2019

Quetzalcoatlus – so very, very cool – and BIG!

Fossil Discovery Exhibit

An excellent ranger-led tour really got us excited about this fascinating exhibit. It was an excellent program at an excellent interpretive center. We learned that Big Bend encompasses a longer geologic timescale than any other National Park, about 130 million years. MILLION!!! Watch the timeframes – MYA is Million Years Ago.

Mosasaur (just the head, which is scary enough by itself but with the body it was up to 40 feet long)

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Chisos Basin

Posted on February 14, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 14, 2019

We spent Valentine’s Day in an ancient volcanic caldera. How cool is that?

Roadrunner on the sidewalk

While much of Big Bend appears to be relatively flat you can’t help but notice the Chisos Mountains, the southernmost mountain range in the lower 48 states. About 40 million years ago volcanic episodes created the mountains that can be up to 20 degrees cooler and receive twice as much rain as the rest of Big Bend. Nature sculpted the cooled volcanic stone using wind and water and created a really neat geologic playground. The Chisos climate system supports plants and animals not seen elsewhere in the park and some not seen anywhere else in the US.

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Big Bend East Side / Rio Grande Village

Posted on February 9, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 9-17, 2019

Rio Grande Campsite

Our Home in Rio Grande Village

Big Bend National Park is BIG! We quickly learned to leave at least an hour to drive to anywhere. We started on the East Side of the park and toured that area plus the central Chisos Mountains section before we switched to a campground on the west side of the park and toured over there. This worked quite well for us and kept us from having any truly evil driving days within the park. Big Bend protects a portion of the Chihuahuan Desert, which we expected to be pretty barren. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it had lots of plants and animals to discover as we explored. However, it has very little shade in some areas and it is dry so you ALWAYS have to have extra water with you and go prepared to protect yourself from the sun. Continue reading →

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Notice – Batch Posting

Posted on February 7, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

We just posted a new batch starting with December 13, 2018 “Little River Canyon” running through January 28, 2019 “Whoopers”

One more posting for San Antonio to catch up our current postings then back to finish up that summer and fall gap. It will feel so good when we’re finally up to date.

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San Antonio, Texas

Posted on February 1, 2019 by Phoenix 2552

February 1-6, 2019

Traveler’s World RV Park

Friends recommended this campground and it worked out great. We had full hookups in a nice city/country type campground with lots of activities, level gravel sites, laundry on site, bus stop right across the street and paved access to the River Walk Trail just outside the gates. We were able to have our mail forwarded, get some Amazon purchases delivered, do our restocking at the numerous stores a big city offers and generally hang out. Everything we drove to was less than 20 minutes away. Between touring and chores we took full advantage of the River Reach area of the River Walk and definitely got our steps in every day while watching wading birds and fisherman, joggers and dog walkers. Interpretive signs tell you that the river had once been turned into a concrete channel prone to flooding. It is now a beautiful flowing river with ripples and runs framed by native plants. It connects the missions, parks and picnic areas for miles in each direction. There are bicycle rental stations at many places along the pathway so you can still ride if you didn’t bring along a bike.

Our purpose for coming here was to visit The Alamo and other Missions… and to check out the famous River Walk.

San Antonio Missions National Historic Sites

Visitor Center

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