Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

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Organ Pipe...Lisa says it's like visiting a coral reef; she feels like she is snorkeling through the landscape, everything is so odd and otherworldly. And she is right, as I think of all the places I have been I can't recall anywhere that compares. Only some of the best reefs off Cozumel, Kimodo and Malindi, give a similar hint of "Oh, this is another planet..." But it is very different in many ways. You sit in a car and drive through it or you walk a trail and you are surrounded, sometimes over-towered by the cacti. They don't sway with the wind and there's no fish flitting between and in and out. But there is this overpowering sense of 'really different', and special. I often tell people that snorkeling or diving is "the closest to off-world travel you'll ever come." Well, Organ Pipe is the second closest...

In a parking lot half-way around the 21 mile loop road we ran into Buddy Tabor, Juneau folk musician extraordinaire who occasionally performs in my little community of Gustavus - another small-world chance encounter light years from home.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Awesome photos!
Thanks for sharing