Tuesday, January 14, 2003
Coyote Howls Campground, Why, AZ - Jan 8-14
This is a primitive cg, run by the Why Utility Co, which we had read about when we still lived in Boulder. It is primitive spaces, no hookups at all, but there are numerous water spigots throughout the park. Many people spend the winter here for under $500, including the special Pima County tax for a new baseball stadium. Just what we want our money to go towards! I wish I could divert ours to the wonderful Pima County Libraries that we have been able to use during the absence of a computer. There are numerous organized activities, including a friendly weekly bridge game. The people who stay here long term have interesting set-ups for electric generation, using gas generators, solar panels and wind generators. Unfortunately, we were situated near one of the loudest gas generators in the park. Luckily they always turned it off right at 8 pm.
We drove down to Organ Pipe Cactus Natl Mon twice while staying here, once to look around at the visitor's center & nature trail and once to do a short hike & drive a scenic 21-mile loop through the Ajo mountains. It is a beautiful park and quite uncrowded, home to the Organ Pipe cactus and its hirsute cousin, the Senita cactus. Both species are extremely susceptible to frost, and while they are common in Mexico, in the US, they are only found in a tiny corner of AZ and CA. The cg was less than 1/3 full, but at $10/night was too pricey for boondocking.
We went to Ajo regularly, for grocery shopping, eating out, and using the computer at the very nice library, quite luckily only 10 miles from our cg. When you enter Ajo from the southeast, your first impression is quite negative, due to the fact that you drive by a pit mine for about 3 miles before the actual town. However, once you reach the downtown plaza, it is quite lovely. We visited Cabeza Prieta Natl Wildlife Refuge in Ajo.
We attended a jam session at the Why Community Center and got to see some of the local talent (quite impressive -- with only the title and key they would harmonize instantly) and characters. There are some real "desert rats" out here!! Pretty tough characters who spend the whole year in Why. One sang a song with the chorus "and I laugh at the sun when it's a hundred and ten!"# posted by Doug and Willie @ 4:44 PM 
