There aren't many town-area combinations in Arizona that melt the heart, but I'm in one of them now—Ajo. Simply put, this is the best Sonoran scenery and desert boondocking available.    more »

How marvelous it is to walk in warm rain. It is supposed to be cold. For that matter the desert is supposed to be dry. The warmth of the rain allowed me to completely relax and to watch the startled desert plants...   more »

I wasn't brave enough to touch it, so I just kicked it. The entire pile shook like black jello.    more »

The place abounded with classic symbols like the spiral sun, scorpions, and big horn sheep. Under different circumstances I would have just yawned. But a few days earlier...   more »

The volcano seemed unnatural. Does it seem so because when you try to imagine it forming 20 million years ago, your brain wants to stretch distance out, too?   more »

These scratches were like the vast array of irrigation canals dug by the Hohokams, without metal tools.    more »

We can't both be sane. Either I am crazy or the 675,000 campers over at Quartzsite are. Perhaps a commenter was right...   more »

...happened upon the first unsanctioned petroglyphs in my career. It was exciting, which is odd considering that I yawn at official petroglyphs. Maybe the ones that somebody tells you about don't count.    more »

The old desert rat was impoverished in a way that was odious, scary, and fascinating, all at the same time.    more »

We've been hiking rather than mountain biking for the last month. Finally we're back in the saddle again.   more »

Stepping out of the RV we watched the fog burn off over the neighborhood volcano.    more »

For instance what justification, other than marketing, is there for books being four hundred pages thick? What does the reader need that much information for?   more »

It was as startling as seeing Norman Bates' mother at the end of "Psycho." The dead cholla was more anima-morphic in three dimensions than in the photograph.   more »

At any other time this would have been a fascinating and rare experience. But I was not in the mood. Where was my crazy little poodle?    more »

Then some motion caught my peripheral view. But not the right color. He was wearing a bright colored doggie jacket. The brown(?) motion had been over by a small saddle and a rocky ridge.   more »

That eventuality is no longer laughably distant to a baby boomer full time RVer. And everyday he is in Yuma he is reminded of that.    more »