Catholic Church in Ajo, AZ. Really nice church!

Ajo museum, very interesting history of the local mines dating back into the mid 1800's. This used to be a mission church dating back into the early 1900's.

The Couple that were there that day live in Ajo about 9 months of the year. They were very helpful with information about the mine and the area and the woman got real excited when you asked her questions about the mine and area. It was great to see the enthusiasum!! We spent a long time visiting with them and viewing the museum.

This was located at the museum at the top of the open pit mine!! No one around to take our pictures together so I had to superimpose one of us on the photo, Can you guess which one of us I put into the photo?

This is the open pit mine, it measures 1.5 miles across and I dont remember how deep it was. Before it closed in 1985 it was the 3rd largest copper mine in the world. At the present time they are working on the area and town to get the mine back into production again. It will be interesting to see if they start mining again. We spoke with a Distinguished gentleman at the museum and he retired from working at the mine in 1984. He worked there over 34 years and really enjoyed telling everyone about the mine, and the area. It was fun talking with him.

Sunset on top of the mountain with our camping group. We came up to the top of the mountain and cooked hotdogs or whatever and watched the sunset!! what a great experience!! Sunsets are one of the great wonders of the world.

Another shot of some of the group enjoying the sunset!

I really zoomed in on these guys to get this effect!! sure turned out nice!!

Visting Organ Pipe National Monument with Dick and Sue, our friends from Ft Collins. Sure was great to be able to do this with them as we usually only get to see them for 4 or 5 days a year in the summer!

The "Forest of Saquaro's" at Organ Pipe NM!!

Dick and Sue and us behind a Organ Pipe Skeleton!

Nice Organ Pipe cactus, probably 200 years old!!

Large Old Saquaro with unusual arms. We read that the downward angle of the arms usually indicates frost damage causing them to grow down towards the ground until they realize they are growing the wrong way and start back up again.

A Saquaro usually will not starting growing arms for at least 75 years, some longer than that due to the cooler weather, drought or a many other factors.

Outside the park we collected some dead cactus, very hard to find good ones and I have some sticks that I am going to turn into hiking sticks. The wood of the skeleton is very hard and wears out my sandpaper very fast. Probably due to the age of the wood and slow growth!!

Local front license plate on one of the cars!

Organ Pipe at sunset!

Another forest of Saquaro's. In this area we spotted some blue barrels under the power pole and a flag flying from a pole nearby. I guess they leave water out in the desert for the people that are trying to cross the desert illegally so that they dont die of thirst.

Last year they did a sweep of the area that is closed to the public due to the problems with drug smuggling and immigrants and found several bodies so now they are leaving water for them in specific areas and also emergency buttons they can push to get help if need be!! The border patrol spends a lot of time rescuing immigrants due to the people that "guide" them across the border and just leave them to die!!

After hiking in the area in 60 to 70 degree weather I cannot imagine what it would be like in 100 degrees with only a small amount of water!!

A great sunset a Saquaro National Park!

this was the view from the back side of our camper in a county campground just outside of Saquaro NP, about 10 miles SW of Tucson, AZ.

I never get tired of the sunsets here in AZ.