We left Patagonia State park for a Pima County campground called Gilbert Ray CG. It is on the west side of Tucson, up in the foothills and very close to the Sonora Desert Museum and Saguaro West national park. It is right in the middle of saguaro habitat. Very fun. It is 2,000' lower in elevation than Patagonia, which is too cold to support saguaro. Things are starting to bloom there including ocotillo, prickly pear and cholla cactus and the saguaro themselves. We only saw one in actual flower but lots of buds. One of the docents at Desert Museum said they are blooming almost a month early. Saguaro rely on bats and white winged doves for pollination, and the doves are just starting to re-appear. It was pretty close to 90 degrees when we arrived!
Our campsite
Dad saguaro holding mom saguaro right behind the campsite
Desert sunset
The next morning we headed for the Sonora Desert Museum early while it was still cool. This is a large outdoor museum set up in different habitats. There's a butterfly habitat, hummingbird enclosure, reptile and arachnid house and lots more. They have some unrelease-able larger animals such as a mountain lion, javelina, coyote and some Mexican Gray wolves which in the past were used in a captive breeding program to help the species recover. From their newsletter: "The Desert Museum no longer participates in the captive breeding program but provides a home for wolves who help us educate our visitors about wolves’ role in the ecosystem, and efforts to restore them to the landscape. Currently, we house 3 female wolves born at the Endangered Wildlife Center in Missouri. They are sisters from the same family pack- the eldest helped raise the other two and they are all closely bonded. Come visit Luna, Sol, and Estrella!" All 3 were active when we were there. Beautiful animals. There's also currently a display of Dinos in the Desert...and these animatronic dinos are scattered around the grounds, moving and roaring at you. Pretty funny and of course a big hit with the youngsters. We spent 3 hours there and by then it was 90 again and we headed home to cool off and chill for the afternoon.
Hedgehog Cactus flower 
Saguaro flower and buds
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| Mexican Gray Wolf |
Gilbert Ray CG has 4 large loops with very nicely spaced sites. There is electric at each site and you can fill up your water when you enter. Bathrooms are pretty new but no shower is available. $28/night non resident. I would stay there again.
On Wednesday we departed for Kyle and Sharon's in Rimrock, a somewhat stressful drive through Phoenix and up I17 toward Sedona. We arrived here at 2pm and were happy to chill for the afternoon. Thursday we toured Montezuma's Well National Monument which is just 2 miles from their house. We have been here before but it is such an interesting spot. The well is a deep pothole fed by underground springs. There are cave dwellings all around the upper parts of the bowl, and later pueblo dwellings along the rim. Take a few minutes and watch this super cool video about the Well.
150 year old graffiti at Montezuma Well. Preserved by the park.
There has not been a lot of staff at the national parks that we have been to, not surprisingly. At Tumacacori, the ranger there told us that at the Empire Ranch/La Cienegas National Conservation area, there is now 1 ranger to cover the 100,000 acres of the park. There used to be 10. One. Ranger. We had planned to continue our trip on to many other national parks but instead will be heading east after we see the Grand Canyon. I honestly feel like we shouldn't be going to national parks, that it seems a burden to me to add to their work load. We don't need to be doing that.
This morning we hiked the MacDonald trail up 3/4 of a mile to some cliff dwellings. Super cool! We did great for our ages (lol) and the elevation. Thanks to Sharon for showing us this wonderful spot.
On the way up 
Getting Closer
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| The view from up there |
Looking in 
Looking out
Ancient wall
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