Gilbert Ray Campground, Tucson Mountain Park, 46 mile jump
Regretting not climbing to the top of the Peak due to earlier rain and continuing high winds, we made a short jump to a campground near Saguaro NP. It is about 3000’ elevation in a large basin surrounded by mountains and about 20 minutes from Tucson. There is no RV camping in Saguaro; this is a Pima County facility having electric hookups in large spread out campsites for $20/night. Our site is near a trailhead leading off into the desert in two different loops.
Looking out as I type, I see smoketrees, creosote bushes, palo verde, prickly pear, ocotillo, cholla and saguaro, and lots of stuff I don’t recognize yet. It is still windy; the high was 68F. The sunset is fire red and purple; absolutely gorgeous!
Our plan is to get the fuel pump replaced on the truck in town Wednesday morning and maybe visit the Arizona State Museum while the work is being done. Hopefully, we will see improved fuel MPG. Tomorrow, we want to tour Saguaro NP to see ancient pictographs and saguaro forests.
There is lots to see here, but we have a long way to go to get to Penny’s dad’s birthday party, so we have to be selective. I don’t think I mentioned his 90th birthday party is March 25th. We thought about storing the truck and trailer to fly to Punta Gorda, Fl. But, we would also like to visit Penny’s kids and grandkids in St. Mary’s, Georgia while we are in the neighborhood, so having the camper with us seems more practical and economical.
Jealous!
I almost lost my car in the Saguara National Forest, followed what I “thought” was a road as I was following car tracks untiltil there was a rather large boulder. Tried very hard to turn around but my wheels kept sinking further & further down in the soft sand and even after putting all kinds of things under them to get traction.
Had to try & figure out what I was going to (I was in a gully) when I heard a car go by not too far from my hearing. Crawled up out of the gully & there was a paved road very close. I stood by the side of the riad & stuck out my thumb for a ride. A car did pick my up & took my really not too far away to a gas stantion, the only one for miles around.
Told the guy there my delimma & he said he’d try to help me. Got back to the gully okay, & he said they had had a lot of rain recently so the sand was porous , therefore could not get traction in it. He had those feet on his truck that extend out for stabilization, after some grunts & swear words he was able to get my cat back on the “trail”, in actuality an off-the- road vehicle I had been following.
When I got to his station, I paid him & offered to buy him a beer – that’s when he told that at one point he thought he was going to lose his truck there too, the sand was that soft. He took me up on the beer , & after chatting for a bit I told him that I needed to go, I really think he was thinking that I owed him more than a measly beer but I did vamoose & went only on paved road for the rest of my journey ( this occurred during my own 3 month journey alone crossing the country going west from Michigan & this event happened on my way back, would not go on such a long trip alone again unless it was an emergency -very, very lonely trip. Sorry for such a looong post, it’s just that my memory of Arizona sadly always brings this story up.)