theboondork's RV blog

Ajo

3/1/2018

You can't believe how happy I will be to get away from the crowds and be out in the desert again.

I had an easy drive into Ajo today only 80 or 90 miles and the traffic was light. But I have to tell you Ajo is really out in the middle of nowhere and why would I say that, because it's neighbor is a bombing range. how far away from civilization do you have to be to be close to a bombing range. I even watched some Air Force jets flying low making their bombing runs.

As is normally the case when I go to a place I've never been before I checked into an RV Park for one night and then got in my truck and scouted out the boondocking possibilities.

I visited two well-known boondocking areas that are three or four miles from town one was at the rodeo arena and the other was just down the road at a county park. From what I understand the rodeo arena charges three dollars a night for boondocking and the county park is free but has a two-week stay limit which is okay by me because that's probably as long as I want to stay in Ajo anyway.

The rodeo arena boondocking area was mainly a big dirt parking lot with two RVs in it but it looked kind of dusty. The county park which is only about a quarter of a mile past the rodeo arena looked a lot better, dirt roads winding through the brush and cactus, with picnic tables and shelters. There was one other RV boondocking in the park so there's plenty of room for me. So tomorrow morning I plan on dragging the Arctic Fox over there.

Right near the rodeo arena on a dirt road I saw a sign that said shooting range I didn't go down the road to check it out but I definitely will before I leave.

I'm really looking forward to getting out of this crowded RV Park I'm in right now, I guess this is Ajo's busy season because the RV parks on Main Street look pretty full.

I had planned on going to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument while I was here but after realizing it's 40 miles past Ajo to the Park headquarters I'm not sure if I want to drive that far down a desolate two-lane road to see another cactus.

theboondork

6 Comments

Barney Ward

3/1/2018 04:38:58 pm

I drove around in Organ Pipe in 2005 for a half hour looking for a reason to go back. Didn't find one.

theboondork

3/1/2018 05:43:26 pm

Yeah that's the way I'm looking at it, it doesn't seem all that spectacular and most people never even heard of it. And I've heard that parts of it are closed off because of drug smugglers.

Tom

kim

3/1/2018 06:11:22 pm

2/3 of the way up the WA coast is Destruction Island. About 10 south of that is Seal Rock. The Naval Air used to practice skipping bombing it. One day as we were steaming up the coast to check our crab pots I heard and felt a rumbling. Thought we had fouled the propeller. I ran out on the back deck to see a fighter jet making a steep climb after he had just buzzed us.

3/1/2018 06:32:28 pm

Military Pilots like to do that for practice. He's actually putting you into his targeting computer just like you are a real target and then goes through the procedures he would do to send a missile or a bomb your way. You can consider yourself a patriot because you have helped a Navy pilot hone his skills.

I think if I had crab pots the crabs would never make it to market after I took my cut, I would go broke.

Tom

Linda Sand

3/1/2018 10:15:25 pm

You reminded me of when we used to say. "Let's not and say we did." You can look at pictures of an organ pipe cactus on line and save yourself that drive.

3/1/2018 10:44:45 pm

I remember that saying, and it covered a lot of things.

Organ pipe cactus was never on my list of things I wanted to do in my life I just glanced at it on the map and thought it looked pretty close by and since I can get in for free, might as well see it while I'm in the area, but looking at the map a little closer I saw that the place you need to go is in the middle of the park and is a little over 40 miles away, so instead of going to the park I'll just take a picture of an organ pipe cactus around here... And say I did.

Tom

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