Four Days in the Desert, Part 1

 Earlier this month Hubby and I spent four days geocaching a power trail in the desert west and south of the Phoenix area. We spent the first two days geocaching from the north end. These photos and commentary are of those first two days. 

doesn't this look like a stegosaurs?

interesting mountainous landscape under blue skies and perfect temps

this saguaro split a seam!

a hill of barrel cacti

I'm certain these red hooked barrel cactus have a special name

On day 2 of this desert adventure we headed to Gila Bend which was our base for the second half. I do not do much research on a power trail set of geocaches as usually there isn't anything too exciting or different other than cactus and geology. The landscape changed from the rugged mountains to mostly flat and hard packed sandy desert. Out of nowhere, and I do mean NOWHERE, rock art appeared beside the road. STOP! I'm taking photos.

After a bit of research, I learned the rocks spelled SUNDAD, the name given to a sanatorium to the east of this desert road. We drove to what was given as ground zero, but did not see any building foundations or other materials indicating what might have existed in this remote spot 100 years ago.

a star, an anchor, a cross and a few other designs were along the road

There’s not much information on Sundad available on the internet, but it was established as a tuberculosis sanitarium in the 1920s. With TB being highly contagious, the distance from Phoenix kept healthy folks safe, while it was felt the dry, warm, air would be beneficial to the patients. The sanitarium did not last long. 

more info Sundad

and the area we did not see

cone mountain

back in volcano country

Aqua Caliente Road

dirt, but wide and usually not too rough, and very little traffic

that is one wide tire

geocache container hides ~ desert style

not much vegetation ~ no snake sightings

in fact very little wildlife, other than a few birds

8 miles out of 30+ isn't too bad

sometimes, the rock pile looked like this

no we did not drive to the top of that mountain,

but we did drive to the base

we were back in lava fields

This is the result of the first two days. The satellite map gives a nice overall view of the region and shows how the road skirts the north side of that mountain range.

I admit I was NOT looking forward to this desert adventure. I did not know the roads or the area. There are a lot of geocaches Hubby plans to find and sign (as you can tell from that little map above). The jeep is getting older, as are the two of us. Would we see another living soul if we did need assistance? Would we have cell service like we did last year when we desert cached outside Tucson? And I will gladly admit, other than the dust and dirt (more about that later) I enjoyed the first two days. It is definitely the middle of NOWHERE, but there were a few ATVers because it was the weekend. The geocaches were easy to find and the road was a ROAD. No cell service most of the time, but I checked in with geocaching friends each night and they would know where we were if I did not check in each evening. Part 2 of the adventure follows.