25/26 Feb San Diego to Tucson, Arizona

Leaving the San Diego metropolis on our journey east to Tucson, we passed through green valleys as the road slowly climbed the relatively low mountain barrier between California and Arizona. The pass topped out at 4,200 feet before steeply descending straight into desert at sea level.

The map showed the road now running ever closer to the Mexican border and soon we saw the black ribbon fence that stretches all the way from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s to keep illegal immigrants and drugs out, and is reinforced by vigorous border patrols by Homeland Security agents, two of whom we chatted to the following day at our lunch stop in a rest area. They recommended a good Mexican restaurant in Tucson!

Just before crossing into Arizona the desert becomes total sand. It’s the 200 square mile Imperial Sand Desert, a state controlled recreation area. Good for sand castle enthusiasts.

Yuma is the first town in Arizona famous only for a one-time notorious prison. We only stopped briefly to shop at Walmart and overnighted at an isolated site in the scrub desert. The sunset was lovely and the stars extra bright from the clear air and absence of artificial lighting.

Next day we ran into the saguaro cactus country. These are the cactus of cowboy films. The photo was taken in the rest area where we met the border agents previously referred to. They were armed, as you would expect, but couldn’t be persuaded to have a pretend shoot-out for our photo album.

Now we’re nearing Tucson with its backdrop of stark but dramatic mountains. The motorway we’re on is a typical American freeway with no crash barrier, but generally the central reservations are much wider than in Europe and there’s often a substantial hollow as well. 

So now we’re there and pitched up. It’s about 25 degrees and very pleasant; that would describe both the weather and the tea, and Jane who is also looking very pleasant.

What you can’t quite see, hanging in the green tree in the photo, is Jane’s hummingbird feeder. We bought a cheap one in Walmart, barely expecting it to work, but it hadn’t been out above a few minutes when we had our first visitor. Jane’s not divulging her secret formula that she fills it with.