January 11, third day at the cave

click the pics

There was natural beauty everywhere you look, and the whole time I was there, I had it all to myself.

I went for a walk around the campground when the sun first peeked over the canyon walls which was about 8:30. Until then it's pretty darn chilly out there, but since it's very low humidity as soon as the sun hits things everything warms up pretty quick, and since this area is somewhat hilly, walking up and down the hills helps to get me warmed up.

I thought I had going to the rodeo at the Pima County Fairgrounds all figured out when I checked into the Colossal Cave Park, but because the Park is locked up every afternoon at 4 o'clock and doesn't open up till 8 AM, thats making getting to the fairgrounds and back to the park a little difficult.

It's also a problem of the roads inside the park being in such poor shape that I'm not too thrilled about driving on them at all if I can help it. So I'm thinking of leaving the Park a day early which would be Saturday. That means I could pay for one overpriced Saturday night at the fairgrounds, and watch the rodeo Saturday and part of Sunday before I leave. So I would get to see most of the rodeo, but would only have to drive on these beat up park roads one time instead of twice.

I'm pretty sure I want to head for Ajo Arizona when I leave the Tucson area. After giving it much thought I enjoy spending time there and maybe there'll be enough people boondocking at the old rodeo grounds that I won't look like an easy victim to folks that are being encouraged by our own government to break our laws.

This is the road leaving colossal Cave and going towards the little town of Vail.

One of the many walking paths going through the park.

A lot of the roads in the campground were not only beat up but they were very narrow, two cars are supposed to fit down this road but my truck barely fit by itself.

There's no phone or Internet reception in the campground, so the county was thoughtful enough to put an emergency phone up in case you have a heart attack while the gate is locked from 4 o'clock in the afternoon till 8 o'clock in the morning.