Cabeza Prieta 11/22

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge does not appear to be heavily used. I’ve forgotten how I found the camping areas because they are not marked in iOverlander. Maybe they were on freecampsites.net? On the BLM website? In any case, there are three designated camping areas in the refuge and I’ve twice camped at Papago Well. There’s a huge water tank there where you can get drinking water (I’d filter it, though). The first time I camped at Papago Well, I got busted for being too far off the road, which was odd because I camped right next to one of the picnic tables. This time around I ignored the tables and camped within 100 feet of the road so I wouldn’t have to move. There’s another camping area near Christmas Pass where I had planned to camp but for un-remembered reasons changed my mind.

It is hard to get further south than Cabeza Prieta without going into Mexico because it’s right on the border. In fact, it’s SO right-on-the-border that there’s a huge Border Patrol facility on the way to Papago Well, and periodically hordes of Border Patrol vehicles drive around looking for illegal immigrants. The immigrants are there, although I’ve never seen one…at least, I’ve never seen one in Cabeza Prieta. I did encounter one in Organ Pipes National Monument, which is right next door. What I have seen in the refuge are many discarded black one-gallon bottles that are used by border-crossers to carry drinking water.

The road in is long and rough. It’s about 40 miles, and starts out deceptively well going through part of Organ Pipes National Monument and past the Border Patrol facility. Then it deteriorates and stays bad and slow for a good, long time. No big-rigs here. 4WD is probably a good idea, although I didn’t have to use it. There are areas of deep sand and bad ruts.

I’m indulging myself by posting two basically identical sunset photos here. I really prefer the second one, but the first one has a moon! Moon good!

I don’t know what all this graininess is…I probably set the camera on a low-light setting by accident, as I often do. Anyway, I wanted to show you what Cabeza Prieta looks like because it’s hard to get there and most people will never go. This is a wash near the campsite.

This is Papago Well. On the right side you can see pipes. There’s a spigot, so you can get water here, which is rare in the southern Arizona desert, and so, precious.

Here’s sunset at the campground (moon included)

And here is the sunset without the moon. If you squint, you can see one of the picnic tables you aren’t allowed to camp beside. the sky is really better in this photo, but no moon.