[You may view a map of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in PDF format here.]

I made instant coffee to go and we left in the Jeep at 6:35.

There was an almost solid cloud layer overhead that extended to the west and scattered clouds to the east. I had Clif Bars for breakfast as we drove.

We went to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and took North Puerto Blanco Drive. (View map: PDF.) We stopped to photograph some saguaro and organ pipe cactus in front of a mountain, and by the time I was almost in position to photograph, the sun went behind a cloud casting the mountain in shade. It would take a while for the sun to come back out, so I took the opportunity to photograph the tiny purple owl's-clover that was blooming (below left). Then I photographed some Gordon's bladderpod in the area (below right). I didn't photograph the cacti and mountain. We left and continued down the road.


We stopped to photograph some fairy duster bushes that have wonderful anemone-like flower clusters (left). We stopped at the pit toilets at the end of the road, and J said they were some of the cleanest toilets she's ever seen in a National Park Service facility.

We drove around the campground to check it out for future reference. While it would be nice to stay in the center of the park, we prefer the more dispersed, and free, place where we're boondocked.

We stopped at the Visitor Center to look around, and I watched the slide show that was just starting. It was a well done three-projector "old-fashioned" slide show. It rained while I was watching the slide show. I used the reference material in the Visitor Center to ID the flowers I had been photographing, then bought a copy of Sonoran Desert Wildflowers by Richard Spellenberg so I'd be able to ID additional flowers.

We returned to the RV at 11:15 and it was still really cool in the RV: 65°F (18°C). :) The cloud layer and rain shower had kept the heat away this morning. I downloaded images from this morning, then processed two images from yesterday for the blog.

I had lunch around 12:30 then worked up a blog entry. I downselected images from this morning in Capture One (C1) then did some computer work. We left around 3:35 in the Jeep.
We went back to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (View map: PDF.) and stopped along the main road to photograph patches of poppies. Then we took Ajo Mountain Drive. We spent most of our time just beyond the first picnic area on the map photographing fields of Mexican Gold Poppies at the base of the Diablo Mountains (below left). Before leaving, I photographed the hills to the south and the many saguaro cacti with scattered organ pipe cacti (below right).

As we were driving around the remainder of the Ajo Mountain Drive after sunset, we saw several bats flying just above the road. We also saw what I think was a common poorwill sitting by the side of the road — now that was unexpected!
We returned to the RV at 7:40! I turned on the hot water heater then downloaded the images from this afternoon. I showered then started making dinner while J showered.

We had dinner at 8:20 of Bertolli Mediterranean Style Chicken, Rigatoni & Broccoli and a light Greek salad. It was the first time we had that flavor of Bertolli, and we both liked liked it.

After dinner, I downselected the images form this afternoon in Capture One (C1) before going to bed.