a trip to the saguaro national Park

I went to the Saguaro National Park East this morning and was a bit disappointed. It was very crowded which made it difficult or impossible to pull over and take a picture, and the road was clogged with people on bicycles and walking. And I guess I'm getting somewhat jaded because I didn't find it as pretty as some of the places I've boondocked. I've heard the one west of Tucson is better.

I started commenting about Linda's comment on yesterday's post and before I knew it my comment was longer than my normal blog. About then my laziness and lack of ambition kicked in and I decided to use my comment as a blog post, it's a two birds with one stone kind of thing.

I have to agree the Pima County Fairgrounds would never be described as a beautiful place to stay, in less your concept of beauty includes a gravel parking lot. But there are things about it that for me more than make up for its lack of natural beauty.

The weekly rate is very fair especially for full hookups, and if your a member of Escapees they give you a pretty good discount on the daily rate.

The Saguaro National Park Eastern version is only about 10 miles away where there's all kinds of scenic stuff going on, hiking trails, picnic areas, bicycle trails, and displays.

About 4 miles away there's a Walmart, and my full-time life seems to revolve around Walmarts. And even better there's a Popeyes, which happens to be my favorite fast food joint, right in the Walmart parking lot.

About 6 or 8 miles down interstate 10 there's the Pima Air and Space Museum that's full of airplanes that I enjoy seeing and usually visit when I'm in town.

And then amazingly enough, right next door to the fairgrounds, there's a shooting range, a motocross track for racing dirt bikes, a go kart track, a dragstrip, and a NASCAR oval racetrack. And all of these venues are less than a mile from where I'm camped.

With all of that going on a person would have to make a serious effort to be bored here at the Pima County Fairgrounds.

The venue that would interest me the most would be the various dirt tracks that you can ride your motorcycle on for a small fee when they're not having races, and there was a time when I would've been over there every day. But that day is so far gone it's just a Misty memory, and the power of the dirt bikes they ride nowadays, and with the kind of skills these kids have I would be nothing more than traction if I was out there, but I would like to go watch.

So yeah you're right the Pima County Fairgrounds camping area is nothing more than a glorified dirt parking lot. I can't imagine what you experienced after a heavy rain. And the thought of spending a week here packed awning to awning during an event like the SKPs Escapade might be enough to make me sell the Arctic Fox and buy a boat. But since I boondock a lot and stay in some very beautiful places, I'm okay with a dirt parking lot every once in a while, as long as the people are friendly, and Walmarts only 4 miles away I can deal with it for a week.

PS. The folks at the office told me that the FMCA rally will be held here late March next year and they bring more RV's to town than the Escapade. So I guess the crowds will be back again.

                           theboondork

Most of the flowers at the Saguaro National Park were yellow so that was the predominant color on the hillsides.

I had to pass up some pretty views because the road was narrow and there was not many places to pull over and take a picture, and most of the places were full. I shouldn't have gone on the weekend, you would think a seasoned traveler like myself would know better.