The scenic route

Saturday, March 12, 2011

BENSON, AZ – Before we set out from the KOA today, we stopped at the office and asked to stay here another two nights. There are so many great spots to visit from this location, we needed more time! The bonus was, we got our seventh night free.

Our destination today was Nogales, a border town that has its twin, Nogales, on the Mexican side. We didn’t have much information about the town, but we were really more interested in the scenic drive that took us there.

We headed west on Interstate 10 to Highway 83 and turned south. It was another beautiful Arizona morning, with fresh air at around 65 degrees and sun, with a few wispy clouds. Ahead of us were rolling hills and, off in the distance, several mountain ranges. At each turn of the road we had another beautiful view.

I’ve already described the kind of terrain and vegetation there is in these parts. Today I went on the internet to find out some of the correct names for them. The paddle-shaped cacti are prickly-pear cacti – some of them are pale green, but they also come in a purple shade that looks like they have been dipped in dye!

The tall cacti that look like people with up-curved arms is saguara. The ball-shaped ones that are low to the ground, with spiky ridges, and sometimes a red flower on top, are barrel cacti. Lots of desert plants have spikes coming up in all directions, like a starburst; most of these are varieties of yucca. The fleshy ones are aloes. Another plant that looks like a cluster of thorny sticks growing straight up out of the ground is called ocotillo. And everywhere, where streams normally flow (most are completely dry right now), are mesquite trees with almost black bark, brambly branches and some pretty serious-looking thorns. Most of these are not very tall, but some can reach the height of the truck. There are so many more plants, like desert broom, sage brush and tumbleweed. The variety is amazing.

We are seeing most of these plants in their winter state, but in a few weeks they will start to bloom! We’ve caught a glimpse of a few flowering trees in people’s gardens, and even daffodils, but so far, no wildflowers of any kind.

We passed a number of ranches today, and caught glimpses of cattle grazing, and sometimes horses. We still haven’t caught sight of a javelina, a pig-like creature with coarse dark hair and tusks that is known to inhabit the Sonoran desert. There are quail and roadrunners, and we hear strange bird calls that have never reached our ears at the feeders in our back yard at home!

The scenic route took us through Sonoita and Patagonia, a couple of very small towns, before we reached Nogales. We passed a depot of some kind for the US Border Patrol, and parked by the building were at least a hundred of the white and green vehicles! And those were the ones that weren’t on the road! Keeping illegals out is a serious business here.

Nogales felt very Mexican, even on the US side of the border, with many signs in Spanish and buildings painted pink or pale orange, some with tiled rooves. It lacked the picturesque qualities of Bisbee, where we were yesterday. It was a working town, and at the southern end of the main drag were the international border buildings. In today’s paper we read that the delay crossing into the US at Nogales has become so lengthy that prosperous Mexicans wanting to do some cross-border shopping have stopped coming. It’s been hard on the economy in the town.

After a quick lunch, we headed back north, forking east at Sonoita to take a different – also scenic – way home. So many times we marveled at the panoramic vistas in front of us, with yellow grasses, rolling hills, rocky outcroppings and lavender-coloured mountains off on the horizon, crowned with a huge sky. It may be boring to read about it over and over, but it sure isn’t to look at it.

Our day closed with a gorgeous Arizona sunset, pink and peach to start with, then orange and fiery red, then deep purple. Amazing.