Established in 1937 by the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument protects over 330,000 acres of the Sonoran Desert. The southern edge of the Monument is the international border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Its eastern edge borders the Tohono O’odham Reservation. Bounded on the west and northwest by Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, the Monument is important to the Pacific Flyway of migrating birds. It is the northern extent of the range of species of cactus, the Senita Cactus, that grows nowhere else in the contiguous United States. The Monument is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Ninety-five percent of the Monument is federally designated Wilderness. It is fewer than fifty miles from the Gulf of California.

And it is beautiful.

On Sunday, November 13, 2022, it was where Sean and I were headed for the day.

After all my birthday fun the previous day, we were understandably a little slow getting ready for a hoped-for 7am departure. We wanted to get on the road for the two hour drive to the Monument so that we could maximize our daylight time. The only problem with visiting the desert Parks for my November birthday is how short the days are.

At 7am, we grabbed coffee and breakfast from Poindexter in the hotel lobby and hit the road.

Most of the drive between Tucson and Organ Pipe crosses the Tohono O’odham Nation and its vast expanses of Sonoran Desert terrain.

In the tiny town of Why, Arizona, we turned onto state Highway 85 and headed south as a Coyote crossed the road in front of us. The highway crosses the Monument between Why and the border crossing at Lukeville.

Soon we entered the Monument.

The highway was busy. Really busy. Everyone was headed north that Sunday morning. It felt like we were the only ones headed south.

At the Visitor Center we overheard the Rangers talking about the traffic on the highway and a recent accident.

We stamped our Passports to our National Parks and then asked the Ranger for some recommendations, saying that we basically had until dusk in the Monument. He recommended some hikes and apologized that the Loop Road through the Ajo Mountains was closed for repairs. After what we saw later in the day, I definitely want to come back and drive into the Ajos some day.

The Kris Eggle Visitor Center is named after the National Park Service Ranger, originally from Michigan, who was shot and killed in 2002 after two men who had an altercation on the Mexico side of the border crossed into the Monument.

The Ranger’s first recommendation was Victoria Mine Trail, not so much for the mine itself but for the view from a little saddle in the Sonoyta Mountains and a view of the La Abra Plain beyond. Although the trail continued past the saddle, it was at the 2.1-mile mark, which would make for a nice little 4.2-mile out-and-back hike.

We found the trailhead, which was at the southern end of the quiet Twin Peaks Campground, and set out around 10:20am.

Immediately, we noticed some differences from Saguaro National Park. This part of the Sonoran Desert was definitely not a grassland. Here we encountered desert pavement, much like we’d seen in Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks in the Mojave Desert. Also, we were surrounded by Organ Pipe Cactus, which is not present at Saguaro.

And there was almost no shade. On a hotter day (that day was in the 60s), it would have been brutal.

The trail was trending west, but to the south/southwest we could see Mexico’s El Pinacate volcano dominating the horizon.

We also noticed a layer of clouds off on the horizon. And we realized that it must be the marine layer sitting over the Gulf of California. Sean was floored that we were so close to the Gulf. We weren’t even that far from San Diego. About five hours.

As we walked along the trail, we drew steadily closer to the Sonoyta Mountains, which weren’t very high. Really it felt like they were a low ridge between the La Abra Plain and the Sonoyta Valley.

We passed a few other hikers, but we basically had the trail to ourselves.

The border was omnipresent. Even when we couldn’t glimpse it out across the valley, we were reminded of it by Park signage cautioning visitors.

We reached the ruins of Victoria Mine, which once pulled silver from the desert.

The remain of the mine’s store is the most prominent structure left.

Otherwise, the only indication of the mine operations is the occasional open pit covered with safety grating.

We continued on up the ridge of the Sonoyta Mountains.

We reached the saddle and had a look out into the La Abra Plain (see the image at the top of the post).

Then it was time to turn around and head back.

Sean had a signal, so while I snapped more photos, he checked in for his flight home the next day and looked for some dinner options for us. My phone thought I was in Mexico.

Back at the trailhead we clocked that we were likely not the only gays who’d walked the trail recently.

In all it was a 4.2-mile hike that we did in about two and a half hours. Would I recommend the hike to someone who only had a relatively short day in the Monument? No. Were we to do it over again, we would skip this hike and spend more time on some of the trails north of the Visitor Center.

It was shortly before 1pm, so we ate trail bars in the car before starting the drive to our next hike, a drive that would take us right along the border.