We spent Friday in Saguaro National Park. It was cold and rainy most of the day, but we still managed to fit in a couple short hikes and even see some crested Saguaros. The “crested” part is a genetic deformation of the cactus that makes it look like Mr. Broccoli from Veggie Tales. The crested Saguaros that we saw all had spots on the crest that resembled a face and they had upright arms. This face/arm combo made them look like they were yelling, “surprise!” so, obviously, we now call them “surprise cactus.”
Friday night, we crashed with AC’s cousin Whitney and her husband, Luke. We now have 3 Lukes in the family: AC and I both have brothers-in-law named Luke and now this Luke! On Saturday, the four of us went on a 4-mile hike in much sunnier, but still cool, weather. Then we ate a delicious lunch at a Mexican restaurant before parting ways.
We hauled a$$ to Tombstone, AZ and made it just in time to see the gunfight at the OK Corral. Spoiler alert: the good guys win. We watched a quirky historama about Tombstone’s birth, death, and resurrection. Then we took a quick jaunt through the newspaper museum. By then, our feet hurt and we were running out of steam so we made a pit stop at Planet Fitness for a shower, then drove to Silver City where we camped for the night.
Saturday night was cold! The temperature bottomed out at 29 degrees. Thankfully, we have a thick blanket and two sleeping bags, one of which is rated for 20°, so we were nice and cozy under all our layers, but we did wake up to frost on the inside windows of our truck bed!
After church in Silver City, we made a detour to nearby Gila National Forest so we could see the Gila Cliff Dwellings. Back in the early 1200s, the Mogollon tribe discovered the caves carved out of the mountains and built some amazing dwellings within them. They had small “bedrooms” and large “gathering rooms”, all equipped with fireplaces. The soot from the fires still coats the ceilings of the well-preserved rooms.
It’s amazing how sophisticated the dwellings are when you think about how little these people had to work with!
After our short hike, we made soup and sandwiches on our tailgate for lunch, then headed back toward Silver City. We drove through their cute little downtown, though everything was closed…except the Ice Cream Emporium so we treated ourselves to a scoop! AC had a cone of butterscotch crunch and I had a cup of ube (purple sweet potato–don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!). As an added bonus, my cup came with a hot pink color-changing spoon so you can guess what utensil I’ll be using to eat all future camp meals.
Now we’ve made it to our parking spot in Holbrook, AZ so we can start tomorrow’s adventure with Petrified Forest National Park. The drive to Holbrook was long and blank. We drove through 2 or 3 tiny little villages during our 4-hour trek. And since it gets dark at 4:30pm, a good chunk of our drive was in an empty, black void. No streetlights, no other vehicles, just us, a black horizon, and a few stars…which is only slightly terrifying when you’re in a strange state, relying solely on a robot to get you safely to your destination.
On that note, sweet dreams, everyone!
Until next time,
Charli
Oh what fun!!
Purple sweet potato!?