Las Cienegas Nat'l Conservation Area

March 25, 2022

Rolling grasslands of Las Cienegas NCA (aka, Empire Ranch).

March 22

After leaving Ajo AZ, we returned to the area outside Madera Canyon (near Green Valley AZ) for a few days.

With some cool days coming, the elevation near Green Valley (about 3000') made for warmer temps than Empire Ranch (4900').

March 22 site outside of Madera Canyon (Green Valley AZ)

March 25

Empire Ranch site.

Now the elevation was working to our advantage with mid 80's in the forcast (mid 90's in Green Valley and Ajo).  There's also plenty of roads and trails to explore in this 45,000 acre site.

This is still a working cattle ranch so it's not unusual to have visitors in your site.

On one of our bike rides we came across a small herd, this must be the Nursery Tree!

March 28, 2022

After a few nice days there was more weather moving in.  We put the bikes away and took a drive to scout for future campsites.

Pronghorn Antelope

March 29, 2022

Tuesday was a hunker down day with high winds, cold temps (high in the 40's) and intermittent rain.  Even a few claps of thunder.

The end of a blustery day.

The day after...

A fresh coat of snow on the Santa Rita mountains to the west.  Madera Canyon is on the western side of the Santa Rita's.

More to come from Empire Ranch.

A week IN Ajo AZ

March 14, 2022

We came into town for laundry, dump and fill tanks ($10) and a little grocery shopping.  With the Pasport America discount, it cost $8.50 more to stay the night at Shadow Ridge RV park and get an early start the next morning.

We had two destinations picked out, both with unsettled weather. Then we thought, lets just stay here a week and do some urban exploring.  We've walked a lot of  Ajo on previous visits.  On the bikes we covered just about all of it.

Here's some pictures ...

The plaza.

"Here's looking, looking, looking at you kid..." 

New Cornelia copper mine "The Pit", operated from 1917 -1983.

Some of the many ghost statues located around Ajo.

Local artists Stained Glass hanging in a coffee shop.

A relatively new entry, dated 1-5-2021.

Shadow Ridge site.

A week IN Ajo AZ

March 14, 2022

We came into town for laundry, dump and fill tanks and a little grocery shopping.  With the Pasport America discount, it cost $8 more to stay the night at Shadow Ridge RV park and get an early start the next morning.

We had two destinations picked out, both with unsettled weather. Then we thought, lets just stay here a week and do some urban exploring.  We've walked a lot of  Ajo on previous visits.  On the bikes we covered just about all of it.

Here's some pictures ...

The plaza.

q

"Here's looking, looking, looking at you kid..."

New Cornelia copper mine "The Pit", operated from 1917 -1983.

Some of the many ghost statues located around Ajo.

A relatively new entry, dated 1-5-2021.

Shadow Ridge site.

More from Ajo AZ

March 9, 2022

After almost 2 weeks, went to town (about 6 mi.) to dump and fill tanks then moved to a different location outside of Ajo.

Early morning sun at our new site.

The desert south of Ajo is known for mountain biking.  

Stylized mountian biking trail map you can get at the visitors center in the plaza.

Here's some pictures from one of our rides.

The "trails" are a combination roads (in various degrees of maintenance), trails and washes (dry river bottoms).

Some are nice and smooth...

... and some aren't.  We usually walk rough gullies like this.

A weather station along one of the roads, out in the middle of nowhere!

Another interesting sunset.

Boondocking near Darby Wells Rd., south of Ajo AZ

Feb. 25, 2022

I've posted this entry many times but I never received the notification. The cell signal is weak and maybe that caused a problem. So, I recreated the post with a slightly different title hoping this one will stick.

Feb. 18, 2022

This patch of the Sonoran desert south of Ajo is one of our favorite places to be. We're here a little earlier than usual and all our favorite spots were occupied. There's still plenty of sites available and this one is new for us.

It's on a high spot with nice views in all directions.

A rather mangled example of an Organ Pipe Cactus next to site.

This is how it should look.

Happy hour... it's 5:00 in Florida!

Another beautiful desert sunset.