Borderlands

From Joshua Tree, I steered south along the east side of the Salton Sea into what has to be one of the most apocalyptic-feeling areas of this country. Border patrol SUVs, agents, and helicopters crawling all over the place. A smell so horrible I thought my car might be on fire, until a mile or so later I drove past an enormous CAFO--the first time I've ever seen one so up-close, I think. I was tempted to stop to take a picture to remind myself why I should never, ever eat meat that's not of the highest, most responsibly-raised quality, but I was afraid I was going to start retching any minute from the stench, and had to drive on. Vast fields of unidentified crops growing, big-ag style, supported by all the immigrants the border patrol was trying to monitor. Once I hit I-8, I went past an area of sand dunes, dotted with daredevil ATVers, that looked almost as out of place as Great Dunes in CO always does.

With a stop in Yuma, things started to feel a bit more comfortable, and the drive through the Gila Mountains was so beautiful I barely registered the drug-sniffing dogs employed at the border patrol checkpoint leading up to the pass. Down on the Sonoran Desert side, though, a nefarious column of dark smoke was rising up from the flats and creating dark cloud that made the mid-day sky seem like twilight. Back to apocalypse!

The reward for this strange journey was a trip to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which sits right on the border with Mexico in southwestern AZ. Spectacular in the sunset.

There were actually a lot more saguaro and accordion cacti than there were organ pipe cacti, but it was never too long between spectacular specimens of the species that gives the monument its name.

Though the park service discourages solo hiking or wilderness wandering at dusk or after dark due to the area being an acknowledged border crossing that is intensely monitored by the border patrol, in my too-short time there I got to take two spectacular scenic drives and a short hike near a set of amazing natural arches, plus camp for a night under a dark sky brilliant with stars and the distinctive sounds of the desert. Not bad, not bad at all….