Cactus, Cactus Everywhere

We stopped overnight at Dome Rock in Quartzsize on our way to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and then onto Mexico. It is another nice free for 14 day boondocking site, on the west side of Quartzsize and near the Hills.

                                                        



Organ Pipe Cactus  National Monument was our stop before heading into Mexico. We arrived on Tuesday and will leave for Puerto Pensaco on Friday morning. This was a time for us to get our paperwork and registration done for the Mexican Connection, the escapees group, we are going down to Mexico with. We stayed at the Twin Peaks Campground, which is part of the Park. It is a lovely spot with cement pads and beautiful landscaping

      We had a meeting on Tuesday night to go over things we needed to know before our Mexico trip begins. One thing is to get visas, which we did on Wednesday morning. We took care of that as well as registering and getting our packets of information. We  had another meeting that afternoon . We are going down in groups of around 8 or 9 vehicles each spread out over 3 or 4 hours so we don't all arrive at the campground in Puerto Penasco at the same time. Our group, D, decided to meet for a happy hour at our Tailgater's site to get to know each other. D was an appropriate letter, as we all had dogs which we brought to the get together so they could socialize as well. Chris brought some makings for margaritas which were excellent.

Thursday we took a drive through the National Monument. There are lots of drives and trails to explore this awesome area. We took a 21 mile drive on some paved road and some unpaved but not too many rough spots.   In 1976 The United Nations designated Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument as an International Biosphere Reserve, confirming its status as an outstanding example of the Sonoran Desert. There are 28 types of cacti in this area, including the Giant Saguaro, Cholla and of course the Organ Pipe Cactus. Flowers are starting to bloom as well and adds to the beauty of this desert land.

There were even some arches.

                                                              
   Thursday night we had a catered navajo flatbread tacos dinner and spent more time getting to know those in the group. Tomorrow Mexico here we come. Buenos Noche.