It was raining hard when we left Tucson, and it rained on us on and off until we crossed the border at Sonoyta. We did more or less the same trip we did in 2004. We left Hwy 2 at km and visited the popular East side of the Pinacate reserve -- we met two other vehicles there. We saw Crater Cerro Colorado, Crater Elegante and the lava flows along the road. Roads in the reserve were dry as most of the rain had passed north of the border. We went back out to Hwy 2 until km 72 where we turned on to the West side of the Pinacate reserve. We note that we saw it snowing high up on the volcano which must be a fairly rare sight for this area. We camped the first night near Crater Macdougal in case Bob was going to catch up with us. It was partly cloudy and windy in the evening, but cleared later to reveal a nice Milky Way before dawn.
The next two days were crystal clear, sunny and warm. We didn't see another person for the remainder of the trip. On Saturday morning, we visited Crater Trebol/Molina, and Crater Grande/Sykes. The highlight of the trip was seeing 5 bighorn sheep in the bottom of Sykes. They appeared impressively tiny. We stopped briefly for lunch at Tinajas de los Papagos which had only a little water in the pools. Then we crossed over to Pozo Nuevo for the loop around the southern end of the Pinacate range. There were lots of wildflowers near Pozo Nuevo including a lot of Ajo lilies. However, there was nothing like the spectacular displays of 2003 and 2004 when there were fields of waist-deep orange flowers. Those same fields were covered with yellow flowers this year, but only 3-inches tall. We still have seen no trace of the legendary road across the dunes - perhaps the legend is all that remains not covered with sand. We saw Crater Luna in the afternoon. We camped on Saturday night near the lava flows on the south side of the range, and then headed on out to Hwy 8 on Sunday morning. The sky was perfectly clear, although star-gazing was hampered by the waxing gibbous moon. We crossed the border at noon on Sunday with a wait less than 5 minutes.
Vehicle damage included a flat tire (John) and a drained battery (Ron). The trip would be rated 2.5 as 4WD was only occasionally needed. The lockers and winches went unused. We did about 130 miles off-highway on the reserve roads. Signage on the East side is new and excellent. Signage on the West side is completely non-existent (although they have put up new posts), so a bit of feeling your way with GPS and old maps is needed.
John, Ron and Gail did the Ajo Mountain loop in Organ Pipe on the way home on Sunday afternoon and saw a nice display of poppies.
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Crater Cerro Colorado.
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Crater Elegante.
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Crater Cerro Colorado.
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Twin microwave towers at the west entrance from Highway 2.
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Crater MacDougal
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Crater MacDougal.
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Crater Trebol.
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Crater Sykes.
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Tinajas de los Papagos.
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Crater Sykes.
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Ajo Lily on the road to Pozo Nuevo.
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Yellow and purple flowers along the road to Pozo Nuevo.
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Desert Globe Mallow on the road southeast of Pozo Nuevo (almost nothing compared to the displays in 2004 and 2005).
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Along Highway 8.......
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Poppies along the Ajo Mountain loop drive.
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Last modified: Tue Apr 1 22:29:15 2008