March 1 - 6, 2026 — In and around Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (with Total Lunar Eclipse)

4:36 a.m. MST

When viewing a total lunar eclipse from a dark-sky site, I'm always stunned by the sight of all the stars appearingaround the darkened moon:




A disk of smoky quartz, the moon is weighed down by the shadow across its face. A dirty moon. I feel a cold, end-of-the-world fear, ice around the heart. As if Earth's lunge through space is not silent but suddenly deafening, as if all life has ceased and, inside this remote chasm, we are the last to know. As if from the avalanche of our own fright, we will slide into the worship of snake gods.
The moment is startling for its sheer lack of intellect, its recognition, by pure sensation, of celestial transit.
Then we know. The moon is in total eclipse.
                                                              — Ellen Meloy, Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild


The next morning, I was surprised to see a single blossom on the organ pipe next to my campsite ... usually they don't bloom until May through June (my Extend-O-Cam provided the close-up):



An antelope squirrel inspected my picnic table for any crumbs left over from my breakfast:



While the morning air was still fairly cool, I set out on a hike into a nearby valley. I soon spotted a glomerate saguaro:



Apparently organ pipes form glomerate masses too:



I scrambled up a small hill to get a look around; the organ pipe on the very top of the hill happened to have a small crest:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest202.php


As I made my way across the valley, I happened to pass a saguaro with an arm crest:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1406.php


My goal was to find a multi-Y saguaro I photographed from a distance two years earlier, and even in this vast valley I managed to locate it. This is an example of a saguaro that has so many splits close together, I classify it as crested even though it doesn't have a "seam":

2024 telephoto shot:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1407.php


As I made my way back, my eyes sought out patterns on the desert floor ... saguaro skeleton:



... and cholla skeleton:



There were very few flowers to be seen, but I did find a few globe mallow blossoms:



This telephoto shot of the saguaro forest gives you an idea of the "needle in a haystack" nature of this Crest Quest:



... but I did manage to spot this small top crest before returning to my vehicle:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1408.php


I beat the heat of the afternoon by driving to the nearest gas station to re-supply; in the parking lot I spotted this crested barrel:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/barrel/crest150.php


Late in the afternoon I turned off on a side road just outside of the monument, one that I'd never taken before. I scanned the slopes with my binos, and picked out one crested organ pipe, so I scrambled up to it:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest203.php


This panorama shows the vastness of the deserted valley below me:



As I drove back to my campsite, the Ajo Mountains glowed with the last light of day:



Once again, I welcomed the colors and coolness of evening twilight:



Later, the one-day-past-full moon rose, and my telephoto lens captured the craters on its edge:




It is a beautiful and wonderous sight to behold the body of the Moon ...
                                                              — Galileo Galilei


I started the next day with an early-morning walk among the organ pipe-covered slopes behind my campsite. Someone had (illegally) harvested the skeleton of this stem:



I didn't find any new crested organ pipes, so I decided to end my walk by visiting one that I'd found a year earlier:

2025 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe100/crest188.php


Then I pondered my options and decided to drive one of the monument's back roads. Even though I've driven this road many times over the years, this is the first time I noticed this roadside saguaro with an arm crest:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1409.php


I parked and started hiking into a nearby range of low hills. My route took me across a slope strewn with quartz crystals (no collecting in the national monument!):



As my hike progressed, I was teased by Y-split saguaros:



... and organ pipes:



More than a mile in without spotting a single crest, I said to Mother Nature "If you're going to show me a crest, you'd better make it now because I'm turning around." As soon as the words escaped my lips, my binos picked out this nearby crest:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest204.php


As I started to turn back, I paused in the shade of a large organ pipe to wipe my brow and take a drink of water. I glanced down into the stems of the organ pipe, and — lo and behold — this one was crested too!

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest205.php


As I hiked, I was on the lookout not only for crests, but all the other delights the desert holds. Again, there were very few wildflowers, but I manage to find some woolly daisies:



This is a straight-on view of the growing tip of an organ pipe stem; in crested specimens this center point (the apical meristem) spreads out sideways to form a linear "seam":



Even in early March, some of the organ pipes were already producing buds:



The most common blossom I saw on these hikes was the ocotillo, but they were still few and far between:



This corner of the monument also supports a population of the senita, a columnar cactus similar to the organ pipe but with "fuzzy" stem tips. This is an especially large specimen:



To complete the hike I made a wide loop, and this strategy paid off — I found five more crested organ pipes before returning to my vehicle!

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest206.php



crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest207.php



crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest208.php



crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest209.php



crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest210.php


On the drive out to the main road, I stopped to check up on two roadside arm-crested saguaros. I wasn't surprised that this one was down, because the last time I checked (six years previously) the saguaro was standing but the crest was dead:

Photos dating back to 2016:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima800/crest821.php


The last time I checked on this one (seven years previously) it was healthy, so I was surprised and saddened to see the saguaro dead and the crest rotting on the ground:

Photos dating back to 2015, when this crest was discovered by Bob Cardell, Norma Inkster, and Harry Ford:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima700/crest771.php


From my campsite (now in the monument's main campground), I wondered how many times over the years I've taken this same photo — the day's last light on the distant Ajo Mountains:



Now two days past full, the moon revealed a different set of craters in stark relief along its upper edge:



My old friend Orion above the moonlit campground:




There is something haunting in the light of the Moon. It has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul and something of its inconceivable mystery.
                                                              — Joseph Conrad


I was up early the next morning to catch the sunrise sky:



One of my traditions is to stop on the way out of the campground to take an updated photo of this little crest on top of a tall saguaro:

Photos dating back to 2013:
www.crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima300/crest355.php


Today's main activity was to drive one of the monument's scenic loop roads. Along this road is this magnificent top crest (Bob and Pat's C844):

Photos dating back to 2007, when it was just cresting out:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima200/crest234.php


Then I parked, shouldered my pack, and hiked off into a wide, trackless valley. I soon spotted this multi-split crested saguaro:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1410.php


After about another mile, this semi-fishtail crest caught my eye:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1411.php


I also kept an eye out for organ pipe crests, but spotted only this small one:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest211.php


The skeleton of a downed organ pipe made an abstract sculpture:



Looping back to my vehicle, I spotted a second semi-fishtail crest:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1412.php


... and nearby, this nice top crest:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1413.php


Just before reaching my vehicle, I spotted this arm crest. I'd have seen it at the beginning of the hike, but it was on the "wrong" side of the saguaro!

crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima1400/crest1414.php


Back on the loop road, I paused for a telephoto shot of this Harris's Hawk perched on a saguaro:



I've been taking photos of this roadside Y-split saguaro for years, hoping in vain that it would finally crest out. Only this year did I realize it had been documented by Bob and Pat when it was just a single split (C846):

Bob and Pat's 2007 photo:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima500/crest545.php


This double arch also makes a good telephoto subject from the loop road:

I took the same photo almost exactly a quarter-century earlier!


Another Harris's Hawk:



After finishing the loop road, I still had enough daylight left for a short loop hike off of the highway to check up on four known crested saguaros. First was "Queen of the Mountain":

Photos dating back to 2004:
www.crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima200/crest232.php


Walking to the next saguaro, I came upon this beer can half-buried in the dirt. I later did a bit of research — it probably dates from the 1960's!



The second crested saguaro was "Knuckle's Neighbor":

My 2020 photos:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima900/crest992.php


Next was "Knucklehead":

Photos dating back to 2013:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima300/crest347.php


Last was the uniquely-shaped ring crest designated "CSS066":

Photos dating back to 2004:
crestedsaguarosociety.org/crested/crpima200/crest233.php


Back at my campsite, I watched the orange-sky sunset:



Later, at the campground amphitheater, Ranger Kepler gave a talk on the historical desert route known as El Camino del Diablo ("The Devil's Highway"), which I have driven twice:



Now three days past full, the moon revealed even more craters along its upper edge:




The moon in all her immaculate purity hung in the sky, laughing at this world of dust. She congratulated me for my carefully considered maneuvers and invited me to share in her eternal solitude.
                                                              — Shan Sa, Empress


On my last morning in the monument, the sun rose into a cloudless sky:



But the heat wave had subsided, and the weather was now perfect for desert hiking. I was determined to find one last crested organ pipe, and I succeeded:

crestedsaguarosociety.org/mutant/organpipe200/crest212.php


Finishing my hike, I took one last look at this desert I love, and its delightful mix of different cactus species:

So ended another visit to one of my favorite places. In many ways, I had experienced the best of both worlds: day and night, sunlight and moonlight, heat and cool, mountains and valleys — and crested saguaros and crested organ pipes!

The sun watches what I do, but the moon knows all my secrets.
                                                              — M. Wonderland