I think John and I have had about all we can take of cactus and deserts! This is a nice park with a great campground (all pull thru sites) only 4 miles from the Mexican border. We hiked up to the Victoria Silver Mine on Saturday afternoon. It was an easy 4.5 mile hike. As we were headed back to the campground, the wind started to blow in the promised rain storm. And it did blow and rain most of the night.
Today dawned bright and sunny but not warm (high of only 55)! We had a very lazy morning and then took off to hike up into the Ajo Mountains (pronounced ah-ho). The 4 mile loop trail climbed 800 feet up to Bull Pasture overlook before dropping back down into Estes Canyon. It was a fairly steep climb with lots of loose and fairly large rocks to walk on. The trail was well marked and maintained but still only about 3-4 feet wide. We did not get to the very top of the Ajo and happy not to since they were covered with a dusting of snow! The view was spectacular from here with snowy mountains on one side and a very wide plain leading to Mexico on the other.
Once we got into the canyon we were walking thru a forest of Saguaro cacti, organ pipe cacti, large cholla cacti, ocotillo, mesquite, jojoba and creosote bushes, and Palo Verde trees. For a desert, there was a lot of vegetation and a very lush feel to the canyon. Too bad we are here in the winter as I understand that the cactus blossoms are beautiful in late March and April.
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