Ajo and Vicinity

We've been out of touch for awhile because our air card won't work here, and the computer network crashed in Ajo and wasn't working for a couple of days. We're at the library now, each on a comuter, typing madly away as the online sessions only last 45 minutes, and there are people waiting in line for their turn. The countdown box at the top of my screen says I have 21 minutes left!

Today is Thursday, Valentine's Day. We left Holtville Hot Springs on Sunday, and spent one night in the Painted Rock/Petroglyph BLM Campground near Gila Bend. First time we've had to pay for camping this whole trip, but it was only $4, so I shouldn't complain. The campground wasn't much--pretty barren and flat--but the petroglyphs were interesting. Unlike the rock art in Utah, which is almost always on large, south-facing canyon walls, these glyphs were pecked into basalt boulders, which were heaped up in a pile. The weird thing was that there were two piles of boulders, right next to each other, and all the petroglyphs were in the same rock pile. Very interesting. Steve took lots of pictures, but we didn't think to bring the camera to the library, so, if I remember, I'll add them to a later post.

The campground host at Painted Rock, when she heard we were headed this way, recommended the Darby Well BLM 14 Day Area, and told us how to find it. Are we ever glad we took her suggestion. We are just a few miles south of Ajo, but out in the middle of the Sonoran desert, with no one in sight. This is a vast area, which we've been having fun exploring both by car and by mountain bike on the numerous little dirt roads and tracks. We've set out our hummingbird feeder and chunks of oranges on a palo verde tree right outside our dinette window, and are visited every morning by a Gila woodpecker, doves, and Blac-chinned hummingbirds. The woodpecker is a handsome fellow. He is soft brown in color, with a beautifully striated black and white back and a jaunty little red cap. I've also seen a pair of Phainopepla, which look sort of like slender cardinals, except the male is black with bright red eyes, and the female is charcoal. And some other brown birds that I haven't been able to identify.

Oops! Four minutes remaining! I need to hurry and post this.