We arose early and headed to the Ajo (pronounced ah-hoe) Mountain drive, a dirt gravel road that went up into the hills.
There was beautiful low morning light and the desert looked so lovely with the pink sky.
We stopped to cook bacon eggs and coffee cake for breakfast, and then hiked up the Arch Canyon Trail. It was supposed to be an easy out an back, only we missed the turn off and accidentally went all the way to the top. It was a lovely view and we saw a Kestrel perched at the top, swoop down, catch a large locust and eat it. The arches were anticlimatic when viewed from above, but the hike was nice. My knees suffered on the way down, but the boys were unaffected by the hike.
Back on the loop drive, there were many scenic spots to photograph.
We drove out of the park at dusk and headed toward Tucson. We were surprised at the number of border control stops we had to make, even several miles from the border. The stops consisted of cones telling us to slow down from 55 to 45 then to 35 and so on down to 15 mph. We drove through several cameras and more cones, often with a canine sniffing sign and/or dog visible. Several armed border patrol agents flanked either side of the road and watched us with a casual intensity. Most of the time they simply asked a few admiring questions about our truck. Two times they asked if everyone was an american citizen, make a comment about how they wanted an earthroamer too, and waved us through. Not once did anyone ask to look inside. Overall, between Organ Pipe Cactus and Tucson, we went through about 5-6 of these stops. I felt sorry for hispanic people who lived around here and had to endure being stopped all the time.
Outside of Tucson, we found an RV site that was open late and let us in. It was a huge facility with 1200 sites. many full timers and people who just escaped cold weather came to Tucson for the winter.
