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Puerto Blanco Loop - Organ Pipe NM
4 Photosets

2015-04-11  
2015-02-26  
2008-02-19  
2008-02-02  
mini location map2015-04-11
11 by photographer avatarHansenaz
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Puerto Blanco Loop - Organ Pipe NMSouthwest, AZ
Southwest, AZ
Scenic Drive
Scenic Drive
 no routes
1st trip
Partners none no partners
My oldest son is home for a few weeks before heading to Zurich for a couple years. We planned to hike today but he'd blistered his feet wandering around South Mountain the day before so I strained to come up with an alternative in a hurry.

I settled on a trip to Organ Pipe NM. I'd been there once before with my other son and drove the 21 mile eastern loop (recently biked by intrepid Hazers), and I thought today we could do the recently re-opened 40 mile western drive. BTW thanks much to Randal for his encyclopedic posts on OPNM...I wish I'd had more time to assimilate all the useful information.

I enjoyed this longish loop...not as spectacular perhaps as the 21 mi loop with fewer impressive OP cacti along the road but more varied. We stopped to do a 2mi walk up to Dripping Springs and the ridge crest - I can recommend that one. Also the famous Quitobaquito Springs is well worth a stop - a lot of water in the middle of the desert. I noticed only one Senita cactus along the road but I made sure to take a picture. That's the only "wild" one I've ever seen. There is a spur road into Senita basin but we skipped that.

With the stops the loop took about 3hrs. It's a full day from Phoenix but we were still home in time for happy hour.
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