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This post might be a bit long to describe a single day, but I don’t want to forget all that we learned during our time in Astoria.

When we woke up in the morning, the view outside our stateroom was beautiful.  The port is directly adjacent to the Maritime Museum, a place we would visit later in the day.

Mo and I have been to Astoria a few times in the past.  Once we traveled by cruise ship around Puget Sound in 2004.  That was my very first cruise, and I was surprised to learn that cruising was much more fun than I previously thought.  We spent our day in Astoria climbing the Astoria column, hunting for beautiful old houses around town, and enjoying specialty coffee in a sweet little restaurant.

The Astoria Column seen from our port in Astoria

The Astoria Column, I photographed in 2004

Above: View from the Astoria Column and the Astoria-Megler Bridge in the distance when we climbed it in 2004

In the years since that visit, we have traveled to Astoria a few times in the MoHo.  We climbed the Astoria column a second time to enjoy the spectacular views.  We drove across the beautiful Astoria-Megler Bridge that crosses the Columbia from Astoria to Megler, Washington.  

We visited Discovery Park on the wild Washington Coast and were thrilled at the informative and artistic Lewis and Clark Visitor Center.  

We visited the historic Fort Clatsop, where the Lewis and Clark Expedition wintered before returning east to St. Louis in the spring of 1806. It took just over three weeks for the Expedition to build the fort, and it served as their camp from December 8, 1805, until their departure on March 23, 1806.

The Astoria-Megler Bridge seen from our ship

Because we have visited Astoria in the past, most of the excursions for the day in port visited places we knew well.  We had no need to spend time in a bus seeing these places again or to climb the Astoria column one more time. Instead, we declined the formal excursions in favor of spending a quiet and relaxing day on our own. 

Breakfast in the Sky Lounge was lovely, and the morning sun on the Sky Lounge Deck was inviting.

For centuries, the Columbia River has served as the defining element of the Pacific Northwest. It has shaped the cultures and industries that exist on its banks.  

The great Columbia River is a source of rich and diverse maritime history, from a central thoroughfare for the varied and complex trade routes of the native inhabitants of the region, to the heyday of salmon fishing around the 1880s to what is has become today – a world class shipping channel tamed by a series of dams and locks all the way to Lewiston, Idaho.

Sometimes, living in the Pacific Northwest within driving distance of the Columbia River, it is easy to forget the spectacular history of this truly mighty river.  The story of Lewis and Clark and their explorations of the Columbia never grows old.  I won’t repeat it here, but if you have time, this website  ​Down the Columbia, is an easily readable summary of that great voyage.  On this river cruise, we had special presentations each day by a historian who shared stories of the exploration. 

In spite of several visits to Astoria, we have never taken the time to visit the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Entrance to the museum, in addition to the 3D films presented in the theater, was included as a free excursion for our cruise. A simple walk down the gangway led to the pier next to the museum.

The first thing you see as you enter is the huge three-dimensional map of what is called “The Graveyard of the Pacific”. Each ship marker represents a ship that has sunk at the Columbia River Bar.

​Since 1792, approximately 2000 vessels, including over 200 large ships, have sunk at the Columbia River Bar.  More than 700 people have lost their lives to the sea.  These dangers have earned this area the title “Graveyard of the Pacific”.  Mariners agree that the combination of high seas, a mighty river, shallow land, and shifting sand bars makes the Columbia River bar one of the most dangerous bar crossings in the world.  The large interactive map provides information about the many historic shipwrecks in the area.

Continuing through the lobby, the next exhibit is called “Crossing the Bar.”

This exhibit takes an exciting look at the legendary Columbia River entrance, where the forces of the mighty Columbia River and Pacific Ocean meet to create one of the most dangerous bar crossings on the planet.  The coastline of the Pacific Northwest is no stranger to violent winter weather, but nothing can compare to the extreme forces at work along the Columbia River Bar. Here, waves can exceed 40 feet in height during the most severe winter storms.  The exhibit features never-before-seen video of rough water passages captured while working with the U.S. Coast Guard and Columbia River Bar Pilots. Also on display is a rare bar pilot pulling boat that was used for decades to transfer pilots to ships. This historic boat is from the Museum’s collection.

The Columbia River is the second-largest river, by volume, in the United States.  The mouth of the Columbia is regarded as one of the most treacherous river bars in the world.  The Columbia River Bar Pilots are a group of 20, based in Astoria, Oregon, chosen for the work of assisting all ships across the bar safely, day or night, in any weather.  The Columbia River Maritime Museum is now home to the retired pilot boat, Peacock.  This pilot boat is legendary in its seaworthiness, keeping the bar open and on schedule through decades of hard winter storms

The Peacock, docked next to our ship, adjacent to the Maritime Museum

Inside the Museum’s Brix Maritime Hall, we saw a life-size display of fish found in the Pacific Northwest. The exhibit in the hall of the Sailing Gillnetter has a mast that towers over 30 feet tall.  

The centerpiece of the Brix Maritime Hall is the 44-foot U.S. Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat shown in action climbing a 20-foot wave, just at the moment of a daring rescue, at the mouth of the Columbia River.​We spent another hour meandering through several exhibits in a maze of halls, including “Shipwrecks” where we learned about what causes shipwrecks, how people have responded to such tragedies in the past, and what can be learned from studying these events.We learned a bit about how maritime archaeologists are using new methods to study these remote sites to learn more about our past.

A another room contained a wall for an exhibit called “ntsayka ilíi ukuk” “​This is Our Place”.  This exhibit of photographs was a collaboration with the Chinook Indian Nation to share Chinook maritime traditions and culture as it is lived today ​through the photography of Amiran White. Even though I live in a part of Oregon that is home to Chinook peoples, I had no idea of the complex history of their fight for tribal recognition until we saw this exhibit.

A favorite exhibit in the museum for me was called “Cedar and Sea: The Maritime Culture of the Indigenous People of the Pacific Northwest Coast”.  There were beautiful examples of clothing and basketry made with cedar bark.  Videos throughout the exhibit made by indigenous artisans explaining their craft added so much to the displays. I had no idea that cedar bark could make such soft fabrics.

Pacific Northwest Coastal Indigenous People used their deep knowledge of their environment to harvest its natural wealth, developing sophisticated technologies that enabled them to create and maintain some of North America’s most complex and rich cultures.

The exhibit showcased tools and implements fashioned from stone, bone, shell, wood, and other natural materials, representing thousands of years of innovation by coast Indigenous People from Yakutat, Alaska, to southern Oregon, as well as present-day materials and practices used by the living descendants today.

I wish I had taken more photos inside this exhibit but I was so awed I completely forgot to use the camera.  Here is a link:  Cedar and Sea Exhibits

I do know of one person who reads my blog who will no doubt love looking at this PDF of the Cedar and Sea Exhibit.  Link is here: Cedar and Sea . Blogging friend Sherry was recently in Albuquerque to visit the Gathering of Nations PowWow.  This is an exhibit that shares much of our Northwest Indigenous culture that isn’t talked about as much as that of the Plains our Southwest tribes.

After our hours in the museum, Mo and I returned to the ship for a very late lunch in the Sky Lounge before spending a bit of time in our stateroom relaxing.  There were a few other free excursions available to us, including a city tour by bus and the local trolley.

We were a bit late for the entire trolley ride, but enjoyed jumping on for a stretch along the port with views of town to the south.  The trolley itself was unique, built in 1913 and beginning her career in San Antonio, Texas.  She was rescued by the city of Astoria from the Trolley Graveyard in Banks, Oregon in 1998.

Once again, dinner in the dining room was delicious, with a crab-crusted salmon as the entree and huckleberry ice cream for dessert.

Our ship was scheduled to depart the port at 5:30, during the dinner hour, and she left right on time.  The views as we traveled back upriver toward the east were beautiful.  We passed several large freighters along the way, before the evening skies darkened after sunset.

As always, Mo spent some time thinking about what she wanted to do for her birthday in March.  This year, she spent a bit more time planning and preparing for an extra-special treat to celebrate her day.  The only minor detail is that her day is the 1st of March, and her adventure of choice wasn’t available until mid-April.  So this year, the birthday trip was a month and a half later than her actual day, and I am writing about it even later than that.

Springtime here at Sunset House is a flurry of activity, and spending time at the computer writing about our time on the river keeps falling to the back of the list each day as we work.  Our beloved property requires a plethora of projects to keep our home mowed, trimmed, fertilized, and watered as we prepare for the coming warm days of late spring, summer, and early fall.  We know what we need to do, and we each have our jobs and responsibilities.  I am a bit slower this year, so with the required afternoon rest time (which I find ridiculously irritating), writing has taken a big back seat.  

As always, I have many photos that help me remember each day of this short and sweet little vacation, and in addition, there are the calendars and the few notes that I kept tucked away in my private records. The one job I most often manage within days of returning home is editing and culling the hundreds of photos  I took, unable to limit my excess.

Only a few will end up on this blog, but there are many more for us to share and enjoy, as we look back over whatever activities have taken our attention.  Without the photos, I would barely remember anything.

We were camped on Sauvie Island in 2023 when we saw this American Cruise Lines Paddle Wheeler

In our years living in Southern Oregon, Mo and I have traveled east and west many times, following along the Mighty Columbia River as it flows toward the Pacific along Interstate 84.  We have often seen the sternwheelers with their big red paddle wheel from a distance and said, “Wouldn’t that be something fun to do someday?!” River journeys aren’t inexpensive, and it took a birthday for Mo to decide that she could plan a river trip and make the reservation for the two of us.

Mo chose American Cruise Lines for our trip, and the ship she chose was the American Pride.  Pride isn’t the newest of the ships cruising the Columbia, but in our opinion, it is the most endearing.  There is something about the red, white, and blue color scheme and the bright red rear paddle wheel that felt so romantic.  Pride cruised the Mississippi River for many years, until she was transferred west to cruise the Columbia River.  To get here, she had to cross the infamous Columbia Bar, but more about that later.

Mattie Loves being at Melody and Robert’s House

Our cruise began with a simple drive north to Portland, by way of Brownsville, where Melody and Robert waited with the cats for the arrival of “the dog”.  Melody and Robert love Mattie, but their older cat Kago is a bit less excited when Mattie appears.  

Deja Vu checking out the dog

The newer kitty, DejaVu was even less enamored, but Mattie has learned to give the big kitty a wide berth after a time when Kago put Mattie in her place with a slap to the face.  We are so lucky that Melody and Robert are willing to dog sit for us since sending Mattie to a doggie boarding place isn’t our favorite thing to do.  At Melody and Robert’s house, she is loved, spoiled, and cuddled constantly, and barely notices that she has been temporarily abandoned.  

Throughout our journey, Melody sent photos of Mattie’s adventures in Brownsville, including at least three daily walks in the park.

After leaving Brownsville in the afternoon, we drove north toward Portland International Airport and the Embassy Suites, where American Cruise Lines put us up for the night before our river departure the next day.  Mo’s brother Dan and wife Chere agreed to drive to Portland and meet us at the airport for a short but sweet visit to share dinner and conversation at Famous Dave’s BBQ just minutes from our hotel.  We had such a luscious supper and such fun conversation that I completely forgot to take photos.  We hadn’t seen Dan and Chere since our shared camping trip last summer.  It is always fun to get together with them.

The view of Mount Hood to the east from our suite

After supper, we settled into our hotel, just minutes away.  In our view, the Embassy Suites was quite spectacular, with 8 floors opening on a beautiful atrium filled with waterfalls, fountains, and pools.  When the planes flew over, we understood the reason for all those water features:  they mask the sound of the low-flying airplanes!

Our room was big and roomy, actually a suite with a huge bedroom and a separate sitting room, and that’s obviously why they call it the Embassy Suites and not the Embassy Hotel.  We had a beautiful view of the setting sun on Mount Hood to the east, a big comfy bed with excellent bedding, and two televisions, one in the bedroom and one in the adjacent sitting room. We had no time to watch even one of them as we prepared for our departure the next day.  Breakfast the next morning was quite nice as well, and complimentary. The day seemed to drag along after breakfast because we were not supposed to board the bus to the port until 11:30 AM.  As is often the case with cruises, we needed to have our bags ready to be picked up at 7AM for transport to the ship.  Hopefully, they would be waiting in our stateroom when we arrived.

Our sister ship parked right behind us in Washougal, ready for departure on the next day

The port where the ship was docked was about half an hour away, on the north side of the Washougal Waterfront Park Dock on the north shore of the Columbia River in Washington State.  We arrived shortly after noon and boarded the ship easily.  Lunch was waiting in the sky lounge on the 4th deck, just a short distance from our stateroom 403. When we entered our room, we were happy to see all our luggage, with one minor detail.  There was an extra piece we didn’t recognize, but the stateroom number was just a couple of doors down from us.  I slipped the extra piece into our neighbor’s room and never said a word.

We learned that the lunch served here each day was perfect for us.  Always fresh and delicious, with wraps, sandwiches, yummy desserts, and an unlimited supply of wine on the tray, it was a lovely place to eat the kind of light lunch we like. With only 140 passengers and 45 crew the ship never felt overcrowded and we always found a place to dine and relax.

Pride was scheduled to depart at 2 PM, but as sometimes happens, there were delays, and it was almost 3 before the ship was underway.  I loved the low vibrations of the ship engines and the low hum and gentle movement.  No fears of motion sickness of a river ship makes it even more relaxing for me, with my tendency to have vertigo and motion issues.

The views of Mount Hood from the river were spectacular.  We were thrilled with our weather forecast for the week, with no rain predicted and temperatures at least ten degrees above normal for this time of year.

Above: Sailing under the Glenn L Jackson Memorial Bridge (the I 205 Bridge) that connects Portland, Oregon, to Vancouver, Washington.

Sea Lions resting in the middle of the Columbia River

There was a bit more delay as we waited for the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 9.6 or BNSF Railway Bridge 9.6, also known as the Columbia River Railroad Bridge, to open for passage. The bridge was built by the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway (SP&S) and completed in 1908, and was the first bridge of any kind to be built across the lower Columbia River, preceding the first road bridge, the nearby Interstate Bridge, by a little more than eight years. The 2,807-foot-long bridge has a swing span, which pivots on its base to allow for the passage of taller ships. 

As we continued toward Portland and the confluence of the Columbia and the Willamette Rivers, we were fascinated by the complexity of the port.  Something surprising to us was how empty the container yards were, even before the tariffs were fully implemented.

We weren’t sure how long it would take for the ship to travel the river toward the small town where Mo grew up.  She has memories of watching the big ships pass her home, and we hoped to get a photo from the water level.  In the meantime, however, while waiting for the ship to reach Columbia City, we explored the ship.

Above: Top deck lounge area adjacent to the captain’s quarters and the bridge

Above- A favorite place for us to hang out on the 4th deck outside the Sky Lounge

I don’t remember the exact number of white wooden rocking chairs there were but it was a LOT!

Above:  There it is, Reeder Beach Campground and RV Park!

The sun was getting low in the western sky as we approached Sauvie Island and passed our campground from the last two trips when we camped there. Within a short time, we passed Columbia City and finally the little town of St Helens came into view.  The sun was in my eyes, and of course, the camera had a hard time focusing on the shadows.  I must have taken 40 shots to try to find Mo’s family home on the hill above the town.  No luck.  When we got home to the computer and perused all the photos, not one of them had a photo of her house.

Above:  There is the lighthouse that is at the end of the trail on Sauvie Island that we didn’t manage to reach when we paddled on the Columbia with Dan and Cherie last year.

Below:  Dan, Chere, and Sophie the pup kayaking the Columbia toward the lighthouse

Below is the best photo I could get of the riverside community of Columbia City.  Mo’s house is up the hill somewhere and probably to the left.  We still had fun trying to find it.  Something is endearing about visiting a familiar place in an unfamiliar form of transportation.  

We made it down to the first deck to the dining room in time for dinner.  On this river ship, dinner is served promptly between 5:30 and 7:30 PM, with tables for 6 or 8 most common and no simple tables for just two, which is usually our preference.  We were delighted that on the entire cruise, everyone we met was enjoyable and interesting.

Above: large ships on the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon

Dinner on our first night on the river was a perfectly prepared halibut with fresh asparagus and roasted potatoes.  Delicious!  It was just the beginning.  We had no expectations for great food, having read a few negative reviews about it on these ships.  We were happily surprised to discover that the food on this trip was a real highlight, with a nice variety of entrees at each meal.  Excellent Pacific Northwest ingredients and cooking styles were always part of the menu, and we loved it. Every meal we had was wonderful.

The dining room was lovely.  This photo is from a breakfast setting. I didn’t manage a photo of the evening setting or the food because everyone was so nice, and taking photos of the meals seemed awkward.

Deluxe balcony Stateroom on the 4th Deck

There was entertainment on the first night, but it had been a long day, and we did not attend.  We settled into our room and were reasonably comfortable.  The bed wasn’t the best feature of the cruise, but it was adequate.  The bathroom in our stateroom was quite roomy, bigger than some I have had in apartments I have lived in.

Our first day on the ship was lovely.  We were encouraged and looked forward to the next three days of cruising the river.

Yes, it is already April, and I am at last writing the final blog story about our winter trip to the Southern Deserts of California and Arizona.  Yes, at the moment, here in Grants Pass, it is raining, a cold rain that brought snow to the tops of the low mountains that surround us. My body isn’t necessarily happy with the damp weather, and I woke up this morning remembering how good I felt on that last morning in the dry air of eastern Arizona.  

Mo and I walking the dog on a chilly day at the end of March

Nope, I have no desire to live in Arid-zona, ever.  No desire to live in any part of the country that is hot and dry most of the year in spite of how my body responds to wet weather.  Pretty sure I would respond just as poorly to too much heat.  Mo teases me a lot about this…”too hot, too cold”.  Yup, that is me.  I do look forward to sunny, dry days with the temperature in the mid-70s, with a few puffy whites among the blue.  That happens here in May and June, then again in October.  I was talking with a friend recently, and we both agreed that May and October are perfect almost everywhere.

We left our fancy park in Willcox on the morning of the 11th, with no rush to get to Wickenburg, just under 300 miles and a reasonable 6 hour drive.  I asked Janna about what they considered to be the easiest route around Phoenix without driving right through the city.  It was an easy trip going west toward Gila Bend, then north and back east a little bit on the I-10 with a small bit of craziness on the 303.  That route is supposed to be a workaround to avoid I-17, which can be a bumper-to-bumper nightmare, but after all our time in the open deserts, it took a bit to get used to the traffic.

We pulled into Wickenburg and, without much difficulty, found our reserved RV park, Desert Cypress.  I wasn’t expecting much, and we were both quite surprised at how nice the park was, with plenty of space, perfectly level sites, and reasonably placed hook-ups.  Knowing that rain was predicted, we dumped our tanks immediately, filled up with water, and settled in before calling Janna to let her know we were in town.

Janna and Mike invited us to dinner at their newish home, asking us to be there by 4.  We were ready, and finding their place would have been easy if we had followed Janna’s explicit instructions regarding the local roundabout.  We all laughed when we realized that we had done exactly what she warned us not to do.  Still, we had the address, and after a bit of running around, we found their lovely home.

The best part of visiting these friends is the conversation, the food, and the pups, not necessarily in that order.  The visit and the dinner were so great, and we were talking and sharing so much that I completely forgot to take any photos except for a couple of the dogs playing in the nice big, safe, fully fenced yard.  Mattie is almost 11, and Kayce is still a pup, and she did a lot of running around Mattie when Mattie slowed down.  They got along well and had a great time together.  It was fun to have a safe place with a pet we know for Mattie to play with.  Janna and I talked about how unsafe it is to take a dog to a dog park anymore, and we no longer do it with Mattie.  

Janna and Mike when we visited in 2019 in a different town, and we ate at the same table in their new house

Janna prepared a lovely meal of spaghetti with hot bread and Caesar salad, followed by a delicious strawberry cake.  Mike and Janna are the perfect hosts, and Kayce did a great job hostessing Mattie as well.

We returned home just in time to settle in before a big thunderstorm struck and rain poured most of the night.

The next day, we took Janna’s suggestion and decided to visit the Desert Caballeros Western Museum.  The museum is a Smithsonian affiliate and is considered one of the ten best western museums in the country. The museum houses an amazing collection of Western Fine Art, including works by Remington, Russel, Catlin, and Bierstadt, among many others.  

There are historical exhibits, with an amazing room-sized diorama that tells the prehistory and history of the Wickenburg area.  Displays of various rooms filled with artifacts from the 19th and early 20th century were fascinating.  We especially got a kick out of the projected hologram of a proprietor in the local general store that was almost spooky.  I had to remind myself that I could walk out of the store without offending him.

Had to take a photo of us in the bar room display mirror, a tradition we keep whenever we can

I was so grateful to Janna for suggesting the museum, especially since Mo and I don’t always take the time to visit museums.  Interesting that on this trip, we managed to see four truly superb museums that added greatly to our understanding of the people and history of the areas we visited.

After our museum visit, we took a bit of time to enjoy the Visitor Center, located in the restored Santa Fe Railroad Depot, where we learned that we had seen among the best that Wickenburg had to offer.  After reading about the area, visiting the museum, and driving around a bit, we developed a greater appreciation for the town of Wickenburg, known as the “Roping Capital of the West”.  The two women who were hostesses in the Visitor Center that day had interesting stories, and one of the women had lived in Wickenburg more than 65 years. 

 The next morning it was time to continue westward. After making sure Joanne was safely en route to the Phoenix airport via shuttle, Phil traveled west as well, and boondocked not far from us in Vicksburg.  His destination on the night of the 13th was the Joshua Tree National Park Black Rock Campground, located near the town of Joshua Tree.  Mo and I were tracking severe wind advisories for the area, and  we were glad to hear Phil was settled in by the time the worst winds hit around noon. 

We pulled up the free camping app to find a place to land for the night and found the Joshua Tree BLM Dispersed Camping Site, just north of the town of Joshua Tree as well.  It looked a bit sketchy, with some abandoned vehicles, others piled high with trash, and yet we still managed to find a spot that wasn’t too close to anyone else.  

The fact that we were camped in what was technically a playa made me a bit nervous, especially with the rain predicted.  We didn’t want to get stuck in playa mud, but the cracks in the dry ground seemed a good sign, even though it had been raining earlier in the day.

The wind was blowing hard when we landed, and Mo and I decided it was best to keep the car hooked up and keep the slide in so that the awning wouldn’t flap in the high winds.  It was a good choice, and we slept well in spite of the wind and our reduced space.  We love that our rig is completely accessible even when the slide is in, with full access to our dinette, the bathroom, the fridge, and the kitchen.  

Our goal for the next morning was a rendezvous with Phil at the Mountain Valley RV Park in Tehachapi, where we both camped on our way south.  The weather forecasts weren’t encouraging, with snow predicted for the night in Tehachapi with temperatures well below freezing.  Phil arrived before we did, and when we got there, it was already snowing.  I really didn’t want to get stuck driving the pass from Tehachapi the next morning in the snow.  After a bit of conversation and a phone call, we decided to cancel our reservations for Mountain Valley and continue west down the pass toward Bakersfield.  There was room for us at Orange Grove RV Park, where we used to stay on our way south.  It is considerably more expensive than Mountain Valley at 61.20 per night, but it was well worth the peace of mind to be out of the snow.

By the time we crossed the highest part of the pass, most of the snow had thinned, and once we were on the road heading down the hill, it was completely gone. Sometimes, when we come from the desert and drop over the Tehachapi Pass toward the valley, the smog is thick and heavy, but this time, the skies were clear and fresh from the recent rain.  

The best part of the deal was that there were still plenty of oranges on the trees for free picking, and Phil and I filled a couple of bags with perfect sweet oranges.  These oranges make juice sweeter than anything I can buy anywhere in a store.

As it was on the trip south a month ago, the drive north on Interstate 5 from Bakersfield to Lodi was beautifully simple, with low traffic and no wind.  This is nothing to take for granted, as through the many years we have traveled this route, windy days are rare.

We settled into our sites at Flag City RV Park by 3 in the afternoon, with plenty of time to drive the short 7 miles to our favorite winery in Lodi, Klinker Brick.  It was fun to share this spot with Phil, and I learned something I didn’t know about my friend of almost 50 years.  He is a pretty good oneophile and kept giving me “pointers” about how to taste the wine.

We had a nice time, and once again, I remembered why I love this wine so much.  In fact, I liked it so much that I decided that we should become wine club members and get the big discounts that make the shipping fee every three months worth it.  When I asked if we were the farthest distant members, the hostess laughed and said, “Oh no, we have many members from around the country and a few from around the world.”

Later that evening, Phil pulled out his nifty little propane fire pit and we had a nice campfire, the first since our time boondocking on Ogilby road.

We had a narrow weather window to navigate on this trip home, and the weather gods were with us once again.  With snow storms all around us, heavy rain on the pass from Redding to Dunsmuir and snow predicted from Shasta to Yreka, we somehow got lucky and slipped in between the roughest weather.  

Phil planned to spend the night at our house in his rig, and we settled in late in the afternoon of the 16th, the very last day we had available to us with appointments in Grants Pass beginning the very next day.  We woke up that night to snow, and by morning, there were a couple of inches right here at home.  Phil wasn’t sure how long it would last, but after checking all the webcams and seeing things beginning to melt, he left by 9 and made it home safely to Eugene without any issues on the 6 passes on Interstate 5 between our house and his.

Except for our one kerfuffle with the Tracker on our second day out, the rest of the trip was excellent.  We visited friends, enjoyed warm desert sunshine for a couple of weeks, had great food and excellent company, and saw many things that we hadn’t seen on previous trips.

I am not sure how many more long trips we have in our bucket, but I am pretty sure that we will keep traveling south in the winter for the foreseeable future.

This will be a short story today, before I continue writing about our travels in Arizona and our turn west toward home.  Because I knew nothing about this location when we visited, I needed to do some research before I wrote about it.

Overview of the location of the Fort Bowie National Historic Site

As I wrote in the last post, it was still early in the afternoon when we turned north on Highway 186 to return to Willcox.  Neither of us wanted to end our day at such an early hour, and as we approached the dirt road leading toward the east, we decided to take it, despite the rough, unpaved surface.

Apache Pass to the right of this photo along Highway 186

The sign said, “Fort Bowie National Historic Site Trailhead – 3 Miles”.  Ok then, with only three miles to go, we decided that the washboard gravel surface would be tolerable in the Tracker.  We will avoid washboard gravel roads at all costs in the MoHo, but the Tracker is a 4×4 and handles rough desert roads with ease.

What wasn’t clear from the signs was the actual location of the Fort Bowie Site, and as we approached the trailhead after 3 miles, we learned that the fort site was reached via a three-mile scenic loop hike.  But along the way, we also saw signs that indicated there was an “accessible” route to reach the fort.

We passed right by the trailhead, where there were several parked cars and some hikers with poles leaving their vehicles to begin the hike.  However, additional signs said that people needing the accessible location should continue over the summit of Apache Pass another 3 miles.  After reaching the summit, the road descended toward the valley and the town of Bowie, located adjacent to Interstate 10.  Within a couple of miles, the dirt road turned to pavement, and we had no way to figure out where we were headed since the phone wasn’t working well in this part of the desert.

This is the road sign along Apache Pass Road traveling back west toward the pass from the town of Bowie.

Once again, we saw a sign with an arrow pointing to the accessible parking for the Fort, and once again, the road was rough and unpaved.  After meandering around a bit, with some interesting looking homesites along the way, we came to the park boundary, and finally, around the last curve, we saw a parking lot, some residence trailers, and the park headquarters.  There was one lonely accessible parking slot, and we were lucky to find it empty.  There was another sign pointing uphill toward the Visitor Center and a phone number to call for a shuttle to pick up anyone who couldn’t do the walk.  Except there was also a sign saying that the Visitor Center wasn’t open on Monday, and it just happened to be a Monday.

Short trail from the park headquarters to the Fort Bowie site

I decided to take the walker on the rather steep road so that I could at least have somewhere to sit if I had trouble.  After all, we had been hiking in the Chiricahuas most of the morning, and I was a bit worn. We figured it wouldn’t matter too much to miss the visitor center, but in hindsight, I wish we had done a bit of research before attempting to visit the site without any historical background.

View of what remains of the Officer’s Quarters at Fort Bowie

Meandering up the hill, we saw our first views of the old fort grounds.  Most of the site is a group of ruins, in varying states of decay, and black and white or sepia photographs of what the ruin looked like when it was in use.  

Most of the time, we walked around the area. We were the only people there until a young man caught up with us on the trail, and another couple with a dog followed us toward the mess hall ruin.  At first, it was merely interesting to see the old ruins, but then a particular photograph took my breath away.  

We were standing on the edge of a meadow area that was the exact spot of the surrender and detainment of Geronimo.

The mountain behind the group of people at the fort in the photo was right in my line of sight, making it even more dramatic to be standing in the exact spot where Geronimo stood.  I remember so many stories as a kid of the terrifying Apache and the evil Comanche and of Geronimo and Cochise, who were supposedly the “bad guys” in all the stories back in the 50s when I was growing up. The stories have changed, and the perspective has shifted. They were merely trying to survive the invasion of the white settlers into their ancestral lands.

Image of Fort Bowie in 1894 (photo copied from the park information website)

Fort Bowie was built in 1862 by 1,500 Union Troops whose intended job was to drive Confederate forces out of New Mexico Territory, which included Arizona at the time. The reason for building the fort was because of a battle between the Chiricahua Apache led by the great Cochise and a local rancher who falsely claimed Cochise had kidnapped their son. You can read about this battle at the link here.

Then, in 1862, another clash occurred between the Chiricahua and the Union troops over control of Apache Spring, a water source needed by both groups, resulting in the death of 10 Chiricahua and two soldiers, known as the Battle of Apache Pass.  While researching this battle, I came across this film called “The Battle at Apache Pass“.  I have no idea how to view the film, but it might be fun to see if I could find it.

In 1868, a second Fort Bowie was constructed for use as a military base of operations against the hostile Chiricahua. By 1872, most of the Apache had been captured and relocated to reservations.  However, one group led by Geronimo escaped and avoided capture for another ten years.  Geronimo finally surrendered in 1886, and his group was brought to Fort Bowie.  

As we walked the grounds toward the Visitor Center, the silence of the golden afternoon was mesmerizing.  Mo and I sat on the porch of the Center, rocking in some beautiful reproduction rockers.  In the silence, I could imagine the sounds of horses and men and all that would be part of a busy, working fort in the late 1800s.

I was a bit sad that the Visitor Center wasn’t open because there were many areas of the fort that were labeled but still a bit hard to understand what they may have looked like at one time.  Some areas had old photographs and others only had labels near crumbling adobe ruins.  I think a visit to the center may have added a great deal to our understanding of what we saw as we wandered around the grounds.

I especially wish I had taken a photo from the elevation of the high wooden porch at the Visitor Center, but by the time we were settled into the rockers to rest a bit, I had to turn off my phone.  I had neglected to carry the heavier camera that late in the day and forgot that with even a little bit of ambient heat, my phone would get very hot.  It is an issue that I plan to resolve the minute I can upgrade this Galaxy S22 Plus, which has overheated since I got it almost three years ago.  Longtime readers may remember I got a replacement for this phone back in Maryland on our cross-country trip in 2022.  It was a huge kerfuffle! I carry an ice pack in my purse most of the time, but I certainly didn’t think of that at the end of a long day of hiking and traveling rough roads.

Yes, most of the time, when it isn’t too hot, it takes great photos.  I will be upgrading to an S24Plus, which my daughter has had for some time now and insists it NEVER overheats.  We will see.

I thought perhaps I should explain why I took so few photos on this interesting exploration into an area we had barely heard of before visiting.

We left the Tucson area knowing that our drive would be a short one.  Our destination was the small town of Willcox, Arizona, located only 89 miles east of Tucson on the I-10 route less than 60 miles from the New Mexico border.  We have traveled this route several times over the last 18 years that we have been RVing, most often on our way east toward Florida.

Several times in the past we have looked longingly toward the south and the Chiricahua Mountains with a promise that we would get there…someday.  Often we have been stopped by snow, but on this trip we got lucky and the snow predicted for Sunday was to end on our day planned for the national monument on Monday the 10^th of March.  Finally.  Mo had visited the park many years ago when she was stationed temporarily at Fort Huachuca, in Southern Arizona, but I had never seen it except in photos.  I was excited.

With a check-in time after 1 PM at our park in Willcox and only a two-hour drive, we were not in a big hurry to arrive.  We decided to take the extra time to go off the main route toward the south on the Dragoon Highway to visit a spot recommended to us by Wes and Gayle.  What a terrific choice and a great surprise to find this world-class museum nestled in the hills in the middle of nowhere.

The Amerind Museum was created to foster and promote knowledge and understanding of the native peoples of the Americas through research, understanding, education, and community engagement.  What began as founder William Shirley Fulton’s personal passion for archaeology grew into decades of research advancements and cross-cultural understanding.

As we explored the museum and the surrounding grounds, we were impressed that all the buildings and exhibits were privately funded by the Fulton family and descendants and by private donations.  Many of the exhibits were donated by various tribes throughout the country and philanthropists who chose to have their private collections curated and stored in optimal museum conditions.

The fee to enter the museum did not include an additional fee for hiking and exploring the surrounding trails that are part of the museum property.  Mo and I were content to explore the museum and save our hiking energy for our next day in the mountains.

We found a large area with plenty of room to park the MoHo and turned on the Fantastic Fan to keep Mattie cool while we explored.  We found room after room of well-displayed and curated exhibits with kind and knowledgeable docents who helped me with access for my walker.  I can hike a mile or two, but slow walking with a lot of standing in between is killer so I avoid it when I can.

As is often the case, we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but I did steal just one tiny shot with the phone from an upstairs room that was a replica of Fulton’s office in Massachusetts.  The beautiful patina on the wood paneling was real, with the original paneling brought across the country and used in this recreated room.

Without the ability to take photographs of what we saw, I am left with the superb website of the museum that has full explanations and illustrations of the various exhibits.  If you wish to see some of what made this a superb museum, click on the link here.

Sue near where we parked in front of the museum

Other exhibits included  Apache Presence and Continuity with Basketry, the Lindsays’ wedding vases. with their donated collection of more than 300 two-spouted vases, and a beautiful room filled with hundreds of pieces of a century of shiwi (Zuni) and Diné (Navajo) Jewelry.

It was a delightful way to spend an afternoon and we had plenty of time to arrive at our campground at a reasonable hour.  When we made the reservation for Willcox, there were a few choices:  some seemed a bit dicey.  When I attempted to speak with another park, the person who answered the phone said, ” Oh Honey, don’t you worry at all.  We have a lot of people here year round but I am sure we can fit you in.  Just call when you get to Willcox”.  That park was only $70.00 per night.  With a bit of grumbling from Mo, I settled on the KOA in Willcox, Arizona.  

At $101.00 with taxes per night, it was crazy expensive for us and even so, reviews mentioned the noise from the interstate as a problem.  

Site 8 at Willcox KOA

It turned out to be a great choice.  We were met at the check-in area by a very helpful guy named Mike who led us to our site, checked to be sure the BBQ was ready for us and clean, and filled us in right away with some much-needed information about visiting the Chiricahuas the next day.  If it weren’t for Mike we may not have made the effort to leave the park at 7:30 in the morning to be assured of a parking spot at the more popular trail sites.  When we checked in, I mentioned that I had heard highway noise was an issue.  The kind woman at the desk pointed me to a small dish filled with cleanly wrapped new earplugs.  “Oh, Honey, we have that covered here.”  Why does everyone in Arizona call me “Honey”??

Mattie loved the warm sunshine at our patio site at the KOA

The park was exceptionally clean, and the dog park was fenced and clean as well, with agility toys for Mattie to play on and plenty of doggie poop bags. I slept better that night than I had since we were on Ogilby Road with the help of those very good earplugs.

On the morning of March 10, we woke to the rising sun and a temperature of 27 F.  The air was so dry and cold that it crackled.  It has been a very long time since I felt air that is this dry or this cold.  When it is 27 degrees in Grants Pass there is icy fog shrouding the views in all directions.  Here the views seem to go on forever.  We could see the Chiricahua Mountains in the distance, our destination for the day.

When Mo returned from the early morning dog walk,  her white breath came into the rig as she rubbed her hands together wishing she had taken some gloves.  A little hat I knitted years ago warmed her head.  We were excited to see something new and different on this day ahead of us.  We have traveled so much that it is sometimes hard to find places we haven’t seen that interest us.

Leaving in the early hours of the morning has its own special rewards.  The road south toward the park, Highway 191, was almost empty.  We had the road to ourselves.  The combination of vast expanses out the windshield, the empty highway, and the invigorating air triggered what I call a “Joy Moment” for me.  

I don’t get these moments very often and there is no formula that I can use to make them happen.  They come out of nowhere for no reason I can discern.  I had my first recognized “Joy Moment” more than a decade ago as we hiked in Joshua Tree NP, and another one that I remember as I sat in our yard watching the sun wink in and out of the leaves of one of our huge old oaks.

It took less than an hour for us to arrive at the park entrance, with a moment to stop and photograph a group of three javelinas, also known as collared peccaries.

The northwestern entrance to the monument

Chiricahua National Monument is an unexpected treasure in the wild deserts of eastern Arizona.  The geologic forces that created this place of “Standing Up Rocks” as the Apaches called it, are repeated throughout the West.  Layers of the earth’s crust built up over eons suddenly bulge from increasing pressure beneath and a volcano erupts. The result was catastrophic, more than 5 times the volume of the Krakatoa eruption in Indonesia in 1883 and more than ten times the volume of ash and debris expelled by Mt St Helens in 1980.

As the ash and pumice flows slowed, the particles settled in layers of solid rock called welded rhyolitic tuff. The enormous volume of molten rock expelled from the magma chamber caused its roof to collapse, forming the Turkey Creek Caldera.

Mo on the Massai Point trail with the caldera wall in the distance

Faulting and erosion over time have erased all but a few walls of the large caldera.  A bit of this caldera wall is visible from the Massai Point overlook toward the southern end of the park.  As the tuff cooled, it shrank and fractured, forming a series of long, perpendicular, vertical joints, that today look like rows of columns. As weathering and erosion from wind and water have continued over the millennia tall spires and pinnacles developed.

The Visitor Center at Chiricahua National Monument, constructed by the CCC between 1934 and 1940

In addition to the spires and hoodoos in the park, there is a multitude of plant and animal life that reflect the four ecosystems that come together in this “sky island” surrounded by the relatively level plain of southern Arizona and New Mexico deserts.  Four different zones meet right at the center of the Chiricahua National Monument, including the Rocky Mountain zone to the north meeting the Sierra Madre zone of Mexico to the south, and the Sonoran Desert to the west meeting the Chihauhaun Desert on the east. 

The Massai Point Overlook was constructed by the CCC

We decided to skip visiting the Visitor Center until our return trip from the upper parts of the park so that we would be early enough to get good parking for the trails.  Mike had encouraged us to park at Echo Canyon first because it is the most popular, but I wasn’t sure about my ability to hike all the trails. The most dramatic structure built by the CCC workers at the park is the Massai Point Overlook, and I didn’t want to miss hiking to it. 

The trail is an in-and-out round trip of just over half a mile, but it isn’t exactly flat, with some steep sections and rocky stairs at the beginning and end of the hike.  I was thrilled that I could still manage a hike like this one, especially since the views in all directions were so spectacular.  However, I made no attempt to climb the winding narrow rock stairs to the top of the overlook structure.

See the overlook structure to the left of Sue

Mo climbing the stairs on the return to the parking lot on the Massai Point Trail

After this hike, we drove back to the Echo Trail Head where we decided to try the mile round trip route down to what is called the Grotto.  By this time the parking area was nearly full, but with our little blue tag, we found a parking spot.  The temperature was beginning to warm up and there were a lot more people on the trail than earlier in the morning.

I love this image of one of the amazing stonework walls created on this trail by the CCC

At this link is a fascinating pdf for anyone interested in reading about the details of the CCC at Chiricahua National Monument. The CCC camp NM2A at Chiricahua existed for six years between 1934 and 1940. In that short span of time, enrollees and the foremen who directed them built an entire recreational site and associated NPS management district, including 17 miles of trails, eight miles of reconstructed roadway, a campground, an administrative center, and housing and maintenance facilities. Chiricahua’s landscape is dense with CCC accomplishments; there are few places in the park where visitors will not experience a constructed feature of that era.

After returning from the Grotto trail we drove up to the trailhead for the Sugarloaf Mountain Trail.  At the top of Sugarloaf Mountain is a lookout that was also built by the CCC.  The trail was long and steep and some hikers returning said that there was ice on the trail and they decided to turn around.  We walked up a little bit just to get a feeling for the views from this high point in the park.

Snow near the beginning of the Sugarloaf Mountain Trail

Panorama from a point on one of the trails showing the Arizona desert in the distance

After our hikes, we drove back through the canyon to the Visitor Center which by this time of day was rather crowded.  I spent some time looking at a few goodies and did manage to find a very nice tee shirt with Chiricahua Rocks on the front.  I have soooo many tees from so many desert places, but I do wear them out so it is nice to have another one that is still new.

We were able to take Mattie with us for our early morning hikes because the temperatures were cool enough that she could wait in the car safely.  Dogs are not allowed anywhere on the trails in the park with one exception.  I remembered that a short paved trail was accessible for wheelchairs and walkers and dogs were allowed on the Bonita Creek Loop Trail near the entrance to the park

I appreciated that the trail was paved with concrete rather than asphalt so it wasn’t terribly hot for little dog feet even though the air temperature was in the 80’s.

The sun felt warm and skies were blue and as we left the park boundary, we were surprised that it was still only 2 in the afternoon.  What to do?  We had noticed a dirt road meandering off toward the east as we drove toward the park earlier that morning and wondered where it went.

Next Post:  What did we find at the base of the Chiricahua Mountains?