Why, Arizona

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

It rained during the night, but when we got up this morning, the skies to the west were clear.  As the morning went along, the skies cleared and the sun was beating down, drying everything.  We decided it was the right day to head towards Ajo, Arizona, 110 miles straight west on highway 86.

Not far down the highway, we saw a sign indicating Kitt Peak was 16 miles down the road.  As we got closer, we could see there was an observatory at the top of it and a road leading up to it.  If it hadn’t been so late in the day, we would have stopped, unhooked the jeep and driven to the top.  I am sure it is well worth the trip.  I hope I can figure a way to get back there sometime this winter.  If not this winter, for sure next time out.

   

This highway goes through the large Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation running from Tucson all the way to Why, Arizona.  It is a remote road and not a lot of traffic and only a few small towns.  We rolled along at a leisurely pace for about two hours and we reached the fork in the road named Why.  If we go left on highway 85, we enter the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.  We turned right toward Ajo, ten miles north. 

      

We had decided that we would stay in a RV Park in Ajo so we could dump tanks and fill our fresh water tanks.  When we turned right on highway 85, we saw a number of RVs off to our right behind a small Casino.  We decided to drive in and take a look around.  The name of the park is Hickiwan Trails RV Park and I stopped to ask about the park and the lady I talked to was very nice and it was not crowded, so we decided we would stay here instead of going on up to Ajo.

Spent the rest of the day, walking around talking to people, taking photos and setting up camp.  Nice to have full electricity and water.  It is supposed to rain tomorrow morning, so we may stay two days and get laundry done too.  After tomorrow, there is no rain in the forecast.  Tomorrow afternoon, if it is not raining, I will drive the jeep up to Darby Well Road and check the boondocking spots to see if they are muddy.  Hopefully, they won’t be.  The ground dries rapidly in the desert.

 

See you later.