Mountains are not for climbing! And neither are rocks. I should make a quick qualification before you mountain hikers and rock climbers get your hackles up. Climbing is not for me. I know how hard the ground is and rocks are even harder. Both mountains and boulders make great background for landscape, sunrise and sunset photos and that’s how I appreciate them. Plus, in our southwest hills and mountains (bluffs, buttes or mesas – what’s the difference anyhow? Who knows?) are covered with small stones that act like marbles under my feet, so I’ll leave the climbing to someone else and be happy with photos. I’ve taken my share of tumbles, thanks, and don’t need to do it again. The hard knocks taught me well. Yeah, wear proper shoes, not sandals and use those yuppie fiber glass hiking sticks with points, kinda like ski poles, and I won’t fall. I hear and I’ve been told before. I like shorts, T-shirts, and sandals, so I leave the climbing to someone else.
    I just bought five big bags of taco chips for a $1 each and four 30 pack cases of adult carbonated beverage, getting ready for another bout of tent camping. What I said about scenery for photos sure applies to Alamo Canyon camp ground, where I set up my tent in Organ Pipes Cactus National Monument in Arizona southwest of Tucson near the Lukeville border crossing to Mexico.  I like to be warm when it’s snowing and blowing in Ocean City and this is a prime spot. A couple months in Florida in the Keys, then camping in the everglades and on to Big Bend N.P. in Texas and several other places in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and southern Utah make up my meanderings.
    The view from my campsite here, which can be seen from each of the camp sites, is absolutely gorgeous. The Alamo Wash flows from the three rocky Ajo Range mountains that form the canyon when there’s enough rain. The canyon opens into the expanse of a cactus forest in the Sonora Desert and the location of the campsites.  If you want to camp here be at the visitor center to register before 5pm and it's a good idea to be early because there's only 4 sites and they are usually full each night.
    This is the home of the Organ Pipes Cactus. Other types of cacti here include saguaro, prickly pear, Ocotillo, and couple kinds of Chollo, and others. The trail I walk is two miles or so long and short enough to walk several times a day to enjoy the different lighting conditions and birds, insects, flowers, and what nature has to show me at different times of the day. The cacti begin to bloom in April so I try to be there then. The beautifully yellow Palo Verde trees bloom then, too. There are many birds to watch, flowering plants to attract bugs and insects to feed on their nectar, spiders to feed on them, and sounds to wonder about and ponder as I walk slowly and leisurely to the stream that starts at the head of the wash.  This year there is no water flow, though.  It has been reduced by the dryness to several puddles amongst the rocks. Those puddles are all the drinking water for miles from here in the desert, so it attracts many critters. There are few mammals except an occasional rabbit, a small type of squirrel, and I saw a coyote heading up the trail toward the water one morning.  I have seen a rattlesnake here lying in the path which I almost stepped on. I would’ve, but thanks to its early warning system, the noise from the rattle, that I heard as my foot instantly froze in the air in mid step til I spotted the guy right past a bush that was growing out over part of the trail.  There’s supposed to be turtles, javelinas, and Gila Monsters, but I’ve not seen them in my four trips here. There’s also supposed to be Tarantulas, but I’ve yet to see one of those, either.
    I did see several tarantula hawks, though.  It’s a big wasp-like insect, that stings the tarantula, then deposits its eggs inside it.  When the larvae hatch the spider is their first meal!  Someone told me as I was showing some great close up photos of several that the sting is extremely painful and I should be sure to avoid the “hawk!”  As usual the warning was too late, but I’d have wanted to get the photo anyhow and wouldn’t have paid much attention.
    Of course, the highlight here is the Anna, Costa, and Rufous hummingbirds that appear just after sunrise when the warm rays clear the mountains’ tops and hit the little water falls in the stream. There was no stream this visit, so I saw few hummingbirds, but once in a while I was treated to that whizzing sound and them streaking around. I always hear them before I see them. That sound is like radar.
    This is a marvelous place to camp. There are few people, it’s only about 20 miles to some great TexMex restaurants in the town of Ajo, a food store, and there’s gorgeous scenery.  There’s a five day limit on the camping at one time, though. After here, I’ll be off to Aravaca and the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. More photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/o.c.fotoguy2009.