Ajo, Exploring and a New Camp Spot on Bates Wells Road

Saturday March 12, 2022 Ajo Arizona Bates Wells Road

Dump day

Gaelyn  had to go to Ajo today to dump her truck’s tanks and get propane. So we broke camp and headed for town to get things done. I went shopping and gassed the van, then went over to see how Gaelyn was doing. She said they were out of propane and would have to hunt around town for some. To complicate things the power was off in half the town.

Exploring

I left her to it and headed back out to Bates Wells Road as I was planning to check out the mining stuff at what I think is Darby Wells.

Copper mine

I had to drive around the big tailing piles from the old copper mine that was here and is now shut down. It was a huge open pit copper mine.

Darby Wells old mining area

As I drove up near the mining area at what I think is Darby Wells, I saw some fresh tire tracks going into the place so I drove on by and pulled off the road just past the place to have a look at it.

 

I zoomed in for a closer look and couldn’t tell if there was anyone there or not. It looks interesting.

 

The Bayfield Bunch

Al from the Bayfield Bunch sent me a link to when he and his wife Kelly were here and were able to check it out.

http://thebayfieldbunch.com/2018/01/a-big-cool-down-as-we-search-for-wild.html

Thanks Al.

I had a good nap at that spot before continuing to the next spot I wanted to check out up the road a bit.

Cattle working area

I stopped at this old cattle working area and walked around some. It was a nice camp spot buy had no cell phone service. I rested in my van for a bit just enjoying the day.

 

Off to the next spot, here, where I rested some more. I was waiting for Gaelyn to return from town.

 

The Bobcats

Gaelyn didn’t show up so I headed over to the road we were going to camp on and stopped to chat with the Bobcats. Bob and Cathy and yes Al, these are the same people you met.

 

I was shooting the bull with them when Gaelyn drove up and  we chatted some more.

 

Making camp

Gaelyn drove by the Bobcat’s  place a short distance and found this place to park her truck to camp.

 

Walk in the wash

After a rest I went for what I thought was going to be short walk but turned into a longer one. I  headed down this wash picking my way through the bushes. The only problem was the wash split in several places and I had a hard time making my way back.

 

Since I had only planned a short walk I didn’t take my cell phone and turn on the tracking app in it as I should  have.

Little flowers

I did spot these little flowers that Gaelyn told me the name of but I’ve forgotten already, therefore they are little flowers. She says these are one of the first ones that come out in the season.

 

Little Bunny

I saw some movement to my left and spotted this little cottontail rabbit which didn’t seem to fear me too much.

 

These things seem to be quite big in this area. I can’t spell their name. You can see the little moon between the limbs. It’s small for some reason.

 

I was hunting around for a way back as the sun was going down as can be seen by my shadow so I needed to get back to our camp spot so I kept looking for a way to get through the brush.

 

Wrong road

While looking I ran into this little road that I thought might come out at the Bobcat’s place so I followed it a good distance and it led away from were I wanted to go so I retraced my steps and started through the brush again finding my way slowly and making progress to get back before dark.

 

Vultures

When I got back to camp I found Gaelyn out walking  around the desert near our camp taking pictures when we noticed these two vultures sitting on this limb rather close to camp and we were thinking they  might be roosting for the night but they soon flew off, likely because we were making too much noise shooting the bull and watching the sunset.

 

Sunset

We watched as the sun went down for the day.

 

Nice day.

New video

I put up a video the other day.

https://youtu.be/Pq5k-n5CR0U