Camping in Arivaca – Day 2

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Arturo Silva and Caroline Wise at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arivaca, Arizona

Ricky is on the left, hidden in his hoodie, Arturo Jr is holding the water, and of course, you all know my wife. Arturo is out of the picture fetching more stuff for his incredible hot breakfast feast he’s about to cook up.

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arivaca, Arizona

We are out here scouting hunting locations for the guys who have a permit to grab a javelina.

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arivaca, Arizona

Where would you go, hang out, find a friend, and something to eat if you were a peccary living in a desert with predators after your ass?

Picacho Peak, Arizona

Picacho Peak is kind of redundant like an ATM machine because Picacho is Spanish for Peak, so Peak Peak State Park is a bit weird. This shark fin rock is famous for being one of the sites of the westernmost skirmishes of the Civil War. Seeing this means we are traveling north or south on Interstate 10, and seeing we’ve been down south the last two days, I guess you can deduce what we are doing.

Camping in Arivaca – Day 1

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arivaca, Arizona

We’ve driven down south for the weekend at the invitation of our friend Arturo Silva, who asked if we’d be interested in camping out with him, his son, also named Arturo, and a family friend, Ricky. With Arturo on the grill and a chance to hang out in the wilds of southern Arizona, there was no question if we’d go.

Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in Arivaca, Arizona

The campfire grows small as it gets late out here, not far from the old ghost town of Arivaca near the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. We love camping.

California Missions – Day 3

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Quartzsite, Arizona

Spent the morning visiting my father in Ontario before heading back to Arizona. This is the tomb of Syrian-born Hadji Ali, who was one of several camel drivers hired by the US Army in the 19th century as part of an experiment to see if camels could be used as beasts of burden in the desert Southwest. Over several years, about 70 camels were brought to Texas along with camel drivers from the Middle East and put through their paces on trips to California and back. While the animals looked promising at first, things didn’t work out for several reasons, one of them being the rising tensions of the Civil War. The camels were auctioned off in the 1860s, and Hadji moved to Quartzsite, Arizona. His friends called him Hi Jolly, and the name stuck. He was so loved by the community that upon his death in 1902, the people of Quartzsite built this tomb of petrified wood and quartz in his honor.

Quartzsite, Arizona

We have seen this view of Quartzsite so many times in the past years as it’s the first sign of civilization after leaving Phoenix about 120 miles before getting to this point on the road. Today, though, we were traveling in the opposite direction, and likewise, after about 200 miles of driving across the California desert this is the first town we come across when returning to Arizona.