Prepping for Mexico in Arizona ... Is that a Tarantula!!

Barry and I drove from Palm Springs to Yuma Arizona on November 27. Merlot decided he wasn't ready to make the trip and wanted to sleep in!!

Once we arrived, we checked in to Suni Sands RV Resort, which was a very nice park. The camp hosts were so friendly! However, it was right across the highway from the Yuma International Airport, the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and the US Army Yuma Proving Ground. The MCAS Yuma supports 80 percent of the Corps air-to-ground aviation training and is the home of multiple squadrons of F-35B Lighting IIS of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, among others. It was pretty incredible to watch them taking off and returning, but also very loud throughout the day!! Unbelievable how fast they fly!

We did not do a whole lot in Yuma. We had always intended to meet up with our caravan peeps and get everything in order for our trip to Mexico. There is a lot to organize in terms of paperwork, but also in terms of going over the RV, and ensuring everything is in good shape and getting spare parts, like a water pump, extra tires, etc. that may not be available in Mexico.

We did; however, take a trip to downtown Yuma for a beer at a local brewery, called Prison Hill Brewing Co.. Downtown Yuma is a pretty cool place with lots of charm. Very eclectic! Lots of antique shops, and buildings refurbished to their original state. On the weekend they had a market that covered a couple of city blocks!

We met up with Bruce, Dory, Doug and Darcie during our second week in Yuma. Barry worked with Doug, Bruce and Dory at Finning many, many years ago, and they reconnected for this trip into Mexico. Bruce and Dory had driven to Mexico in their RV many times over the years, so they were our fearless leaders!! Bruce and Dory created our itinerary. We know places but not necessarily dates at each. Bruce and Dory are, historically, not big planners when they make this trip. It is sometimes limiting when you’re committed to a schedule, and we certainly understood that. For us, it will be uncomfortable but very exciting at the same time. All we know is we will be in Mazatlán over Christmas and La Manzanilla the second week in January where we will stay until we return to Calgary mid-April.

We left Yuma on Friday, December 9 to meet our friends at a fuel station where we then caravanned to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which is about 9 km from the Lukeville Border Crossing into Mexico. We stayed at the Twin Peakes Campground, which is dry camping only, but is so beautiful! What a great place to be for the weekend before getting an an early start on Monday to cross into Mexico.

We learned there was pretty good hiking in the area. 2 weeks in Yuma did not include any hiking, and minimal working out, so it was really nice to get out and get moving! Doug and Darcie hiked with us both Saturday and Sunday, which was wonderful. Is there a better way to get to know each other than to go hiking in the desert? Well, yes, there is…wine around a fire…we did that too!! Nights get very cold in the desert!!

The hikes were pretty easy. Not much elevation at all. The first hike was to an old mine, which was very underwhelming; however, the hike itself was pretty great. Lots of Cacti! Oh, Doug got attacked by a jumping cholla!

These things are crazy. If you get too close they literally attach themselves to you. Seems almost magnetic. And when I say attach, I really mean the spines, some barbed, stick into your skin and are very painful and very hard to get out. Doug is absolutely fine. He got the spines out right away, but it was a lesson for all of us to be super aware where we’re walking in the desert at all times.

The craziest part of this hike was the drive back to the RV park. The road to the trailhead is a one-way, so we had to go all the way around the roadway rather than just drive back the 5 km. While we’re driving around, we realized we’re driving towards Trump’s Border wall. We were not expecting it at all. We had to drive parallel to it for several miles. No words! I was totally gobsmacked!

Our second hike was a shorter hike, again, with little elevation. We planned to hike the Red Tanks Trail and ended up continuing on to hike to the Senita Basin as well. Again, both were less than impressive to the point that we didn’t know when we arrived at the Senita Basin other than trail markers. But again the hike was absolutely beautiful, the weather was perfect and the company superb!! The best part actually was the way back…Doug spotted an Arizona blonde tarantula!!! I’ve never seen one in the wild before, and it was wild!!! Once I calmed down, I got a few shots!! It was awesome!

We returned to the park and enjoyed our last night in the US. Tomorrow morning, off to Mexico! So excited!! Here’s our route from Arizona to La Manzanilla!!

Next post will be from Mexico! Make sure and check out the pics from Arizona but clicking the link.