Over a span of almost 40 years, I've made countless trips to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in extreme southwestern Arizona and it has become one of my very favorite places. Many of these trips have been in the month of March, when the weather can be highly variable. This time my visit coincided with a major storm system that rolled through the region. Just as fools rush in, I met the challenge with a mixture of excitement and anticipation ...
I'd rolled into my campsite after dark; the next morning I was up early to see the sun rise through the arms of one of the monument's namesake cactus:
The desert stretching out to the distant Ajo Mountains glowed with sunrise colors:
Leaving the campground for the day's adventure, I paused to take an updated photo of this saguaro crest which I've watched grow from a tiny nubbin over the years:
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Photos dating back to 2013:
www.crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima300/crest355.php
From that point, I was also able to see a crested organ pipe cactus I'd previously documented on the hill above:
2016 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest60.php
Lower on the same slope, I spotted an organ pipe with several Y-splits. I scrambled up to it, but it wasn't hiding any crests:
I then drove to a trailhead, put on my boots, and hiked up a canyon where I'd gotten a tip on a crested organ pipe. On the hike in, just off the trail I spotted this crested OP which I'd never noticed before:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest188.php
I passed a yellow organ pipe — variegated, or just stressed by drought?
Beside the trail, I paused for updated photos of this crested organ pipe:
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2016 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest73.php
I came to the remains of a brick building, which had been a line shack for a historic cattle operation:
This wavery saguaro couldn't make up its mind whether to crest out or not:
Among the many organ pipe cactuses on the slope above the trail, I found another crested specimen:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest189.php
This organ pipe provided the foundation for a cactus wren nest:
I easily found the crested organ pipe I'd had a tip on — this is the biggest of its three crests:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest187.php
Continuing up the canyon on a faint trail, I passed a "segmented" organ pipe:
Beware the deceptively fuzzy-looking Teddy-bear cholla!
After a while I dropped into the wash bottom, where I admired these abstract bedrock patterns:
This boulder was also an artwork, "painted" with branch shadows:
At the point where I found this almost-crested multi-Y arm on an organ pipe, I decided to turn around and head back down-canyon:
After an unusually-dry winter, the ocotillo was the only plant to display any flowers:
An occasional bedrock catchment, or tinaja, held the remnants of the most recent rainfall:
I returned by a slightly different route, which took me by one more crested organ pipe:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest190.php
This damaged organ pipe stem gave a "cutaway view" of the rib structure inside:
The builders of this water tank at a historic corral inscribed it with the date of construction: Enero (January) 30 1950:
My off-trail route took me past this deer skull:
I also passed this sprawling organ pipe cactus ... one of the biggest specimens I've seen in the monument!
One of many Y-tip saguaros I saw on this hike:
Y-arm saguaro ... so close to being crested!
Somehow as my eyes scanned the ground, they picked out this jawbone of some tiny rodent:
I wondered, how long have these cans been sitting here, tucked between some rocks?
On the drive back to the campground, I paused to take updated photos of several crested saguaros visible from the road. Here's Harry Ford's "Knucklehead" — so close to the highway that if it ever fell over it would probably land on the asphalt!
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Photos dating back to 2013:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima300/crest347.php
This ring crest is Ted Codding's CSS066:
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Photos dating all the way back to 2004:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima200/crest233.php
Ted's CSS064 has crested out magnificently in 20+ years:
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Photos dating all the way back to 2004:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima200/crest232.php
Finally, Harry Ford's unique "Lucky Seven" multi-crested organ pipe. An eighth stem has recently crested!
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Photos dating back to 2013:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest17.php
Back at my campsite, I watched clouds towering over the Ajo Mountains:
After dinner, I walked over to the campground amphitheater for the ranger talk on coyotes:
The walk back to my campsite was lit by an almost-full moon:
My telephoto lens captured this shot of the moon — two days before the total lunar eclipse!
The world is not what we think it is. It is far more mysterious, exciting, and adventurous. We have only to learn how to open our eyes and see what is already there.
— Rod Dreher, "Living in Wonder"
The next morning, the weather had turned and the Ajos presented a somber scene:
Soon I was once more on the go! My first stop was to check up on a crested saguaro not far from the campground. Unfortunately, I found it collapsed with the crest lying on the ground:
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2013 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima300/crest353.php
On the first cross-country hike of the day, I passed one of many Y-split saguaros:
The honeycombed skeleton of a large, dead cholla cactus:
During my hike, the gloomy clouds persisted over the Ajo Mountains:
This was the only crested organ pipe I found this day. It looks like a critter has gnawed the top edge of the crest, so it will grow no more:
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Photos dating back to 2013:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest191.php
On one ridge I found many crystalline mineral specimens. But this is a national monument, so no collecting!
The ribs of a dead organ pipe make a gracefully-curved sculpture:
Driving to my second hike of the day, as I stopped at a junction I noticed this saguaro with a strong cresting pattern ... I'll definitely keep an eye on it in years to come!
Hiking cross-country again, I an unexpectedly white, round object on the desert floor caught my eye. A golf ball? A mushroom? No, it turned out to be an unbroken bird egg. How did it end up in such a spot intact, I wondered?
This is the closest I came to finding a new arm-crested saguaro on this day's hikes:
... and this is the closest I came to finding a top-crested saguaro:
Oddly, I saw several instances of a cluster of saguaros growing around the same "nurse plant":
Saguaro "boot":
The chainfruit chollas grow tall here:
The dense arms of the cholla can form an impenetrable mass:
Desert millipede exoskeleton:
My hiking done for the day, I returned to my campsite and watched moonrise over the Ajo Mountains. Only one day until the lunar eclipse!
Late at night, I photographed my tent under the stars:
When you have a dream that you can’t let go of, trust your instincts and pursue it. But remember: Real dreams take work. They take patience, and sometimes they require you to dig down very deep. Be sure you’re willing to do that.
— Harvey Mackay
The next morning, another sunrise through the arms of this big organ pipe:
A few clouds hugged the rocky cathedrals of the Ajo Mountains:
I'd spend this entire day driving one of the monument's back-country loop roads. It was a road I'd driven many times before, and had found many cresties along, but by digging even deeper I was sure I could find a few more. I also planned to visit a few old friends ... at my first stop, I grabbed an updated photo of this roadside crested organ pipe:
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2012 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest4.php
From there, I scrambled up to what looked like a cresting organ pipe on a ridge:
... but once again, the top of the crest has been gnawed and will never have a chance to really crest out:
From that high vantage point, I got a telephoto shot of this multiple-Y crested saguaro I'd discovered five years earlier:
2020 photos:
www.crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima900/crest994.php
No matter how many times over the years I've seen this view of the towering Ajo Mountains from the loop road, I never tire of it:
When Bob and Pat first documented this saguaro way back in 2007, it was a newly-cresting split tip. Look at it now!
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Photos dating back to 2007:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima200/crest234.php
My binos picked out an organ pipe on the same slope, with one small crest:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest192.php
Only a few paces from that one, I re-visited this organ pipe which had two crests when I first found it — now it has six!
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest3.php
At my next stop, I checked up on crested cholla which Rick Scott found a few years earlier, but found it dead and crumbling. It was one of only two crested chollas I've ever seen in the monument:
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Photos dating back to 2020:
www.crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/cholla/crest15.php
A stone's throw away, I took an updated photo of this crested organ pipe skeleton, slowly bleaching in the desert sun:
Photos dating back to 2012:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest7.php
I pulled over again to glass the slopes, and take an updated telephoto shot of this organ pipe with two tall crested stems:
www.crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest32.php
... and just down the road I got this telephoto shot without even leaving my Jeep:
2016 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest66.php
After many years, I'm still waiting for this saguaro to stop splitting and crest out:
Rounding a bend, I was surprised to see this crested saguaro just a few hundred feet off the road. I'd driven and hiked past it several times and never noticed it until now:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1300/crest1337.php
Nearby, a small natural arch:
At one spot, I parked and walk over to drop-off to glass a hillside rich with organ pipes. Sure enough, I spot a crested one close below:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest193.php
From there, my binos picked out a small arm crest on a saguaro, so I hiked over to it:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1300/crest1338.php
As before, ocotillos were the only blossoms I saw:
The clouds gathered and I ate lunch sitting in my Jeep waiting out a brief rainfall. Afterward, I decided to make a long loop hike on the other side of the road — and spotted another arm crest high in a saddle:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1300/crest1339.php
From the saddle, my binos picked out a crested organ pipe on the flats beyond, but it was far enough away that I decided to save it until the next day. On the way back to my Jeep I found another crested OP, which held one live crest and one dead:
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https://crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest194.php
The rain started up again before I reached my Jeep. Down the road I parked at the trailhead for a loop trail I wanted to hike into the Ajo Mountains, but the rain wouldn't stop so I kept on driving:
Fortunately, this crested organ pipe (Bob Cardell's D4) is close enough to the road that I could take an updated photo from the shelter of my Jeep. I had named it "Trefoil" (an ornamental design of three rounded lobes) back when it only had three crests. In the last couple of years it's sprouted a fourth; should I change the name to "Quatrefoil"?
Photos dating back to 2007:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest6.php
Farther down the road, the rain eased off enough that with an umbrella I decided to walk the quarter-mile out to a known crested saguaro, which I found was now dead and partially down:
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Photos dating back to 2012:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima200/crest237.php
Even with this unfortunate discovery, and the drizzle continuing, I felt a rush of joy and contentment. At the end of a long and wondrous day, the beauty of the desert shone all around me — and I felt a sudden gratitude that I was alive and here to experience it! I have rarely felt closer to nature than at that moment.
Rain, I don't mind
Shine, the weather's fine
Can you hear me?
That when it rains and shines
It's just a state of mind
— The Beatles, "Rain"
I made the decision to head back to camp. On the way I spotted a crested organ pipe right next to the road, which somehow had escaped my attention all the previous times I'd driven past it. Again, my umbrella helped me stay dry while I got the shot:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest195.php
... and a bit farther, just after the rain had stopped, an arm-crested saguaro which I'd somehow never spotted before:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1300/crest1340.php
Pulling into the campground, I jumped out to take an updated photo of this tiny crest on an organ pipe, which I hadn't photographed since my late wife Pam spotted it in 2013:
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2013 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe/crest19.php
The sunset was dramatic, but the clouds were not a good omen for that night's total lunar eclipse!
However, after the full moon rose the clouds began slowly breaking up:
In a amazing stroke of luck, the sky was perfectly clear for the entire lunar eclipse! I had an unubstructed view as the moon slowly moved into the Earth's shadow over the next few hours:
Finally, totality — the "Blood Worm Moon":
It had been so many years since I'd watched a total lunar eclipse from a dark sky site, I'd forgotten what a magnificent sight it was to see the dim red eclipsed moon against a background full of stars! But by this time it was after midnight ... time to sleep, perchance to dream.
The question of questions for mankind—the problem which underlies all others, and is more deeply interesting than any other—is the ascertainment of the place which Man occupies in nature and of his relations to the universe of things.
— Thomas Henry Huxley
When I woke in the morning, the sky was once again overcast:
A curious Gila woodpecker perched on my barbecue grill:
After packing up my campsite, I headed out for one last hike. I noticed a baby saguaro with purple-red coloring ... one of several I've noticed on recent trips ... still don't know the cause:
My goal was the crested organ pipe I'd seen from a distance the day before; it proved to be a beautiful specimen:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest196.php
I always try to hike back to my Jeep by a different route, to maximize the odds of spotting another crestie. This time it paid off — I spotted this nice top-crest saguaro!
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1300/crest1341.php
... and on the last stretch back to my Jeep, my route took me right past one last crested organ pipe:
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crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest197.php
Driving out through the town of Ajo, I happened to glance over at the colorful murals lining an alleyway, and noticed that one of them depicted a crested organ pipe!
Through sunshine and rain, darkness and light, valley and mountain, I'd once again dipped deeply into the experiences that Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument had to offer. And once again I'd managed to find a few new cresties — life doesn't get much better than that!
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
— John Ruskin
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