Bongo en Peurto Penasca

In early August the family took Bongo to Puerto Penasco, Mexico for a week on the beach. And I mean "on the beach" - at high tide, the surf was 50' from the patio of our rented townhouse.
At low tide, it could go out as much as 150 yards, past the rocks, past the sandbar, almost to the reef. Rocky Point tides are somewhat infamous for this.

The body of water is the Sea of Cortez, which empties into the Pacific Ocean.

Rocky Point is 45 minutes from the AZ border in the state of Sonora, Mexico. It is well-inside the free-trade zone, meaning you do NOT need a passport to get in or out of the country from the US (you do need a valid driver's license). We heard conflicting voices on this, so I thought I'd clarify.

















Before tourism, Rocky Point was primarily afishing village. And while shrimp and related industry still thrive in these waters, the true engine of the economy is condos. Thousands of condos are going up along the beach for miles in either direction. That may be a monetary boon for the locals, as the units fill up with gringos in all manner of insane time-share arrangements, but the city is already rationing water.
Peurto Penasco, as it turns out, has one of the lowest rates of precipitation in North America. A quirk of geography twists clouds away from the city itself, so 100' from the beach you find deadly-dry Sonoran badlands.
And condos.
Good luck with that.

The General Crook Trail

The General George Crook National Recreation Trail (which I refer to hereafter as the GCT) runs, in theory, from Fort Prescott (which is actually near Camp Verde, AZ), up and along the Mogollon Rim, to Fort Whipple in the eastern part of the state.

My children (age 10 and 8) hiked sixteen miles of this trail this summer, and Bongo came with us, naturally.

The chevrons mark the trail. The originals were carved into tree bark, but the fine volunteers who re-marked the trail nail these little metal ones everywhere.

I have an assigned article on this adventure, so only basic details until I have my check for First North American Electronic Rights.

These Bongo pix, however, wont appear in the publication.

That's the campsite for the first night, when it was just the three of us alone in the wilderness. The tent cost about $30 from that legendary outfitter: Target. I managed to strip it down to about 7 pounds, and it worked out fine.

Later (and in futre posts) we met some friend at Knoll Lake Campground, and things became more civilized - for good or for ill.