photos: 648 (433 in gallery) to 453 (730 in gallery)
Quite an unusual day. Started off as usual, had breakfast which was a really great southwest frittata with sausage, tomatoes, avocado and cilantro on the side. Fantastic! Another nice chat with the owner. Then we were getting ready leave, I was in the bathroom and Rich had gone out to get something from the car. I heard a knock at the bathroom door. “Uh, are you busy?” Rich asked. Well, uh, yeah, I’m on the toilet-but I knew he wouldn’t have knocked if it wasn’t important. I just got stung by a scorpion he said! Holy shit! He said he felt it when he came back in through the gate. At first he thought it was a cactus spine or thorn from one of the garden plants but he reached down to flick it away and saw the scorpion. We were really concerned and looking online didn’t help much. I knew to give him a Benadryl right away but otherwise didn’t know what to do. We got some ice which he used for 20 minutes or so, then we went to the clinic up the road and saw a nurse.
I was fine with whatever he wanted to do but rich wanted to try our planned excursion to Quitobaquito Spring, which is in the western section of the park that was closed the last time we were in this area. The road was rough. It is also lined with benchmarks, maybe one per mile or so, and we spent some time looking for a few of them for which I had pulled coordinates from the topo map this morning. I think it helped to distract rich from the pain and discomfort he was feeling, at least I hope so. We found most but not all of the ones we had been looking for.
After about 15 miles on the rough road, we reached the spring. It’s a large pond and must have been such a welcome sight for pioneer travelers! It even hosts ducks and some other water birds, although we only saw the ducks today, beautiful red dragonflies and some trees that give light shade (welcome on a day like today that reached 102). We walked around the pond and then took a detour around the back to try to find an old grave sure that rich had seen years ago. There used to be a trail to it and to the source of the springs beyond but now there is no sign of it. I think we found where the old toilets used to be (metal hatch on the ground) but couldn’t find the trail even though it had been near them. Well check aerial imagery in case we can see something there.
By now it was very hot and we wanted to take a slow ride back along the rugged road. Rich happened to spot a bm on the topo map near the intersection so we looked and he found it! Then we took a long drive back out, enjoying the views of cactuses all around as we had been all day. Love this area!
Back at the visitors center we bought a new (well, 2006 edition) Organ Pipe National Monument map and another t-shirt, asked the Rangers about the grave (is still there but there is no trail and they don’t know of a good way to explain how to get there), and we watched the video about Organ Pipe: “On the Edges.” Then we filled up or water bottle for the 3rd time today and headed back to town. Ate at Marcela’s Cafe which was decent Mexican.