Sonoran Desert National Monument
We left the little campground in the middle of the Maricopa Wilderness in search of a place to call home for the work week. We were seriously crushing on the Sonoran Desert so we hoped to stay longer, but we did need Internet for that to happen. Kerri had another dirt road for us to check out, and if we were lucky, just a few more miles around that bend in the road would do the trick. If we could get up there, it would put us on top of a rise and with sight of the night-glow of Phoenix – which meant an Internet connection for us.
The road was long, and rutted, and passed through another wash every few hundred yards. Any one of these washes were a potential trip-ender to Big Blue. His rear bumper hangs so far beyond the rear axle that it easily drags in the dirt when the front of the van goes up a steep incline, so the washes were the biggest danger. I’m surprised it hadn’t happened too us yet to be honest. This whole past year we had not been forced to retreat the same road because of his hanging butt. A few times we drug BB’s rump a little, but none kept us from advancing forward, finally reaching that bend and finding a spot to settle in… and yes we had two bars of LTE for the week.
The spot we chose, with a view of the big city glow during the nights, did the trick for us. It wasn’t the most scenic, but it put us about a quarter mile off the main dirt road to avoid the one or two vehicles that we though would roll past each day, (seriously, we saw only two the entire week). From here we tinkered about the area, just snapping some images of the desert plants and watching Moose get back to what makes him happiest – 100% freedom to roam and chase lizards.
Speaking of which – I do love it when he has this freedom. He is out from sunrise to sunset and never stops running around. He is usually within a few hundred yards of the van, but sometimes he ventures out a mile or so. Still, every time I grunt out “Ooose!” in my loudest, he returns with a smile on his beak, eventually. That boy (middle aged dog now actually) has some serious energy and never stops chasing mice, lizards, birds, and what ever else he can get to run from him. I have always felt he will one day try to make friends with a bear, but down here it is more likely to be a coyote or a rattlesnake. I know one day I will have to bury him out in the boondocks, but until then I will allow him to live a happy (but possibly short) life.
Each morning all four of us would take walks down the dirt road. This would give Moose even more desert to disperse his pee and Byron a bit of exercise to reduce the amount of crazy in his head. He was far from happy about the walks, only wanting to return to the van to get back to his 23.5 hours of sleep he seeks each day. On an evening walk on our second night we spotted another camp-spot not a half mile away. It was through another large wash, but looked Big-Blue-do-able. On the other side was a huge view of the many layers of mountains to the West, and the sun does it’s setting right into those mountains. All of this was invisible to us from our camp and we wanted a piece of it as our nightly routine. So, the next morning we packed up and drove Big Blue to the new camp and more mind-blowing sunsets ensued.
In total, we got to spend a full week in the Sonoran Desert National Monument. The beauty of the place took us both by surprise. So much of Arizona is the simple – and boring – desert that you see from the Interstate, but this area was not only beautiful, it was quite. Heck, I even got to spot my first every bobcat hopping down the road as we drove near. Moose would have loved to have chased it, I’m sure.
