Kartchner - Patagonia

So after our good times in Alpine, we headed west toward Kartchner Caverns State Park in Arizona, from there we were going to chill for a week in Patagonia, Arizona before heading to Indian Wells for the tennis tournament, then Death Valley and then over to the San Luis Obispo, California area for some wine tasting and cooler weather.

Many have not heard of Kartchner Caverns. It was discovered by two Arizona State students in the mid 70's. These guys kept the location a secret but eventually told the owner and that eventually evolved to a controlled environment that is open to the public. It is one of the few commercial "wet caves" (still active) because of this. controlled environment.

The rules are strict. There are no phones, cameras, backpacks, purses, food, drink, etc. allowed. The tour is one 1/2 hours, about one hour in the cave. The groups are 20 or less, they go through 3 sets of sealed doors to get inside the cave, including through a misting area to keep lint minimized. No touching anything other than handrails. The walkways are hosed down into special drains every night ..they are doing it right.

All of the pictures were taken off of other sites just to give some perspective as to what is down there. Amazing stuff! Great campground too. We also did a 3 mile hike of the surrounding area to get the rust off.

This is Lake Patagonia in Southern Arizona. There isn't much around but we enjoyed meeting some other campers and did a few hikes.,

One day we took off to see some of the countryside plus we heard about some wineries in the area.

Hmmm ... which way to go? We're only about 10 miles from the Mexican border. Lot's of helicopters flying around. We were advised to pass on crossing in to Mexico at Nogales. I still need to load up my GPS.

We also did a hike down to the river below the lake. Supposedly some good birding areas but we didn't see anything unique. Lot's of hummingbirds and gold finches and a few woodpeckers.

Oops ..we found a winery. Then we found 5 more! Some good, some not so good but we did find a very light rossa which sure tasted good on a hot day.

This is Sonoita Creek (maybe a river). It is below the lake and the only green in the area. The cottonwoods were already out and some of these guys were easily over a 100 years old, but life in the desert is tough.

Ocotillos were everywhere ...like a forest. They were just coming out and in another week would have been in full bloom. Too bad.

We enjoyed seeing the area, it was good to take a break. The campground was a little too crowded for our taste but it worked out well as a stop before getting to Indian Wells.