Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

 

 

I went to visit this national monument yesterday with two other solo women RVers, and a cute little dog belonging to one of them.  Robin and I had been through this park before but not on this road.  Parts of the road were paved - the steep areas.  Most of it was dirt and rock, but some parts were better than others.  There were lots of saguaro cactus as well as the organ pipe, which are less prolific - the photo below shows a really nice group of the organ pipe.

 

I wanted to do some hiking, so we found this arch formation and hiked around to the back of it.  Unfortunately, there was no way to get on the back side of the arch.  As small as it looks in this photo, the arch itself was 36' high, 90' wide and 720' long, I just zoomed in it.  If you look closely at the photo, there is a small arch on top of the large one.  One day, that will fall in as will the larger one, although it will take more time.

In the area behind the arch formation, there are some other interesting rock formations.  And of course, lots of cactus all over the area.

 

 

In this part of the country, they have these little shelters called ramadas.  I'm not sure, but I'm thinking that's where Ramada Inn got its name.  The provide just enough shade to make it more pleasant to sit outside. 

Shortly after we got home, this beautiful sunset happened just before the full moon came up.  My full moon photo was not as impressive, but this was a great end to a fun day.