Desert Hikes

Staying at Hickiwan Trails has been a ton of fun.  We've gone into Ajo a few times, we've gone over to Organ Pipe Cactus National Park a few times, but we've been spending many of our days here at the RV park hiking.  We've climbed Crumplestiltskin's Castle a couple times, I've fallen down another part of the mountain (G has a name for it, but I can't remember it right now), we've explored caves, looked for painted rocks, and made friends with burros.  They let us explore the land off established trails, which is really pretty sweet.  If we hear donkeys in the distance, we can follow their tracks to find them.  We are free to find the interesting stumps that might contain the hidden painted rocks.  It has been fun.  

We have the beautiful Ajo mountains surrounding us.  I left the trailer to take pictures, and found other campers doing the same.  As I headed back to the trailer, I ran across NS, trying to escape his siblings in the trailer.  Amazing how much a 10 minute walk with your mom can calm things down.                                    

 

My saguaro buddies.  The slingshot saguaro is a common shape around here, but I particularly like him paired up with the giant saguaro--David and Goliath!  Super important to pick landmarks that make sense to you as you wander off trail in the desert!  And bring plenty of water.  Plenty.  I could help but laugh when I saw the two huddled together with the one yelling at the other.  The little one looks so dejected to me.  And NB spotted the secret sharers.  The different saguaros really do bring out different thoughts and feelings.  It's been a lot of fun being around these guys.  

 

We enjoyed running across these guys on our hikes.  I had heard their unique chatter at night a few times, but I heard them during the day for the first time while I was out looking for painted rocks with J.  J had found his painted rock, and we were headed back to the trailer when we heard them.  We continued back to the trailer, but I immediately replenished my water and asked if anyone wanted to go donkey searching with me.  NB was the only one to volunteer, so we saddled up and headed out.  NB also wanted a painted rock, so we kept our eyes open, but our journey was more about the donkeys.  And we did find them, with NB leading the way as our head tracker.  He was so excited to see the donkeys, that it didn't even upset him to not find a painted rock.  Not that he gave up that idea, but he was cool with ending the expedition at that point without one.  That would not be true on later tries.  

Our discoveries have been many on our journeys.  This particular day, we found the jawbone of a donkey.  NB and I headed back got everyone else to see this one.  We have found many other bones, but this one was the largest.            

Bill got to go with us on this particular journey.  We decided to take a hike just to search for stones.  No one liked that hike as much as our other trips.  Finding rocks takes a bit of luck, and the desert is too vast and too hot for that to be your end goal.  As a side benefit, it's fun; sole goal, it's disheartening.  But all seven of us have rocks now.                

You would think this would be a quick lesson, but we've learned (repeatedly) that cactus spines hurt.  Oh, and watch where you walk, because cacti (especially cholla), drop their spines.  And they penetrate shoes.  Yow!              

We've all learned a lot about the different cacti we've encountered here.  I love that the kids taught me the difference between organ pipes and senita.                  

The key to a good education is reading.  Lots of exploring, lots of reading.  My kids have been learning so much from both their experiences and what they read.  I'm kinda tricksy--I buy books, and then leave them about.  I find that I hardly ever need to ask them to read a book, I just leave them out.  I brought out The Outsiders recently.  I've been wanting G to read that for a couple years, but he's balked every time I asked him.  I took it off my bookshelf and put it in the bathroom.  Sure enough, I had a kid start it in the bathroom and take it to his bed.  When he finished it, the next one picked it up.  And then the next.  It stops there, because now we're down to kids who are too young to find the story compelling.  But I've had discussions on hikes in the desert about how far-reaching our actions are.  Good food for thought.