With California a few hours behind us, we pulled into the desert town of Ajo Arizona. A tiny little town of 3,000 in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Once populated by workers and families of the New Cornelia mine, Ajo is holding on with a mix of retirees, border patrol agents and young families. The mine obviously brought some wealth here at one point, and the current residents have done well to keep a bit of that charm. We are planning one night on the town later in the week. Food, bowling and maybe even some music at the old time fiddlers contest.
Church in Ajo
Spanish Colonial Revival style Ajo Plaza
We set up camp just south of town on a little slice of BLM land off Darby Well Road. If it wasn’t for the broken glass and metal trash strewn about (no doubt left over from some past era when land like this was not as appreciated) this would be our favorite campsite yet. It is the desert with rocks and scrub brush, but we are smack in the middle of an enormous field of saguaro cacti. Literally thousands of these huge guys in every direction. You’ll get a lesson on them once we visit the actual Saguaro National Park in the next few weeks. For now, just a few pictures of these impressive desert dwellers will have to suffice.
This saguaro must be 50 feet tall and 200 years old
Saguaros are awesome
Our backyard for the week
Nestled amongst the saguaros
This area is was once used for cattle grazing and just down the road from our campsite I found a beat up 1946 Chevy Truck next to a windmill that was still pumping water. Think the Airstream would look good behind this beast?
