It’s time to leave Tuscon and continue our journey. The days are definitely getting warmer here yet the nights are still chilly. I awakened this morning wishing I had my extra blanket last night. So, up again at 6:00 and out for my walk. Nobody else seems to be awake yet, probably because it’s Saturday.
Today will see us head to the most westerly point we will achieve on this trip, but more on that later. First, we have to strike camp and hit the road. A shower followed with a light breakfast sets us up for the day. Packing away goes smoothly and we’re off the site by 9:30. Traffic in Tuscon is light being a Saturday, but still as frantic as ever it seems, particularly the nutty motorcyclists that choose to weave between lanes and traffic far above the speed limit all while wearing just a tee-shirt and jeans.
North of Tuscan the desert returns intermixed more and more agriculture. Eventually we leave the I-10W and begin passing lots of open farmland. It’s heavily irrigated from long drainage canals that run alongside the roads. Looking at the crop we were confused as it appears to be Alfalfa, in the desert? Sure enough, a little further along we see a farmer cutting the crop and sure enough it’s Alfalfa being cut in March! But for what?
That question is answered a little further along as we pass a huge dairy farm. Due to the climate the barns are all open sided and silage is ramped for use later in the year. This farm has to have in excess of 500 cows plus younger animals. It will not be the last such farm we see like this today, nor the largest.
We finally arrive in Coolidge, AZ at our first stop of the day, Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. The site contains the remains of a village from around the 1300s. The main attraction is a large multistory adobe structure named ‘Casa Grande’ (Big House). There have been very few of these ever discovered and it is now protected from the elements under a large steel structure. The thought is that this site acted as an important trading site in the area and was important amongst the Hohokam tribes that lived in this area 700 years ago.
Leaving Coolidge, we drove to the city of Casa Grande where we reprovisioned at Walmart and picked up lunch from an Firehouse Subs. Argh, it’s Saturday and everyone in town is out shopping. It seems.
We leave town and head West on I-8W. It could take us to San Diego, CA if we wanted but our goal was much closer and far less occupied. Tonight we would set up camp on BLM land at the Painted Rocks Petroglyph Site and Campground near Dateland, AZ. $8/night without any services to camp in the desert away from it all. There are other campers here as well, but there is lots of room between us and so it feels almost as if we’re all alone.
In the late afternoon we wander around the Painted Rocks and observe petroglyphs that are 1000s of years old.
As the sun sets the magic begins. One by one the stars appear, these is no light intrusion here as we’re far enough away from any urban area. The moon unfortunately is almost full which obscures half of the stars in the sky. However, those we do see are brilliant.
At 4:00am I awake and take a look outside. The moon has set and now the sky is full of stars, even the milky way is visible, I’ve include a picture below.
