By the Wrath of Killer Bunnies – Ajo’s Name Shall Be Erased from Your Vocabulary

There’s always a risk that when a blogger shares about an amazing location, that so many folks will put it on their must-see list and what once made it a magical place – will go away.

We’ve seen it happen, RVers following the trails left behind by those before them.. and then wham, the next time that blogger returns they can’t find a spot.

So, we’re going to share about our latest boondocking adventure, which is just such a place. But we’re using a new WordPress plug-in that will magically erase this knowledge from your brain upon reading this post.

We think it’s a good compromise.

We were lured to the Darby Well BLM area (our review) just south of Ajo, AZ by our friends Kerri & Tim, whom we had last seen in Borrego Springs at the beginning of the year.

We were also communicating with our friends Forrest & Mary .. and thus, a plan to converge and impede on Kerri & Tim’s solitude was hatched.

After running some errands in Yuma, dumping the tanks, taking on some more ‘fresh’ water (water rarely meets the standards of ‘fresh’ in these parts) – we made a long 180 mile driving day.

We honestly didn’t do much research on the area, we were just too busy with refresh of The Mobile Internet Handbook. We simply confirmed with our friends that there’d be space.

Our plan was to stick around a few days, then head into the Tucson area and check out Gilbert Ray Campground, one of those other alluring tales that other bloggers had told.

It was a long day, and we ended up hitting the outskirts of Ajo just after sunset. Our buddies met us in town at one of the few restaurants, which was a great start to this adventure.

And then under the cover of darkness they lead us just south of town, down a dirt road and directed us into our temporary overnight holding spot.

All we could see was the shadow of a Saguaro cactus outside our door.

At sunrise (something we rarely see), we were awoken to the beauty of this place. We snapped some photos, posted them to Instagram, and then went promptly back to sleep.

And thus began our love affair with Ajo.

We enjoyed hanging out with Kerri & Tim for a couple days before they headed on to Gilbert Ray, with the intention of hooking back up in a few days.

We pulled out of our temporary spot and moved into their wash-front real estate – and it was like the trees, creosote bushes and cactus engulfed us in their lush embrace welcoming us home.

The feeling was so sublime, and created an instant rush of euphoria.

Our dear friends Forrest & Mary had also intended to stick around a few days with us, so we scheduled a couple exploration dates together.

We went on the Scenic Drive around Ajo exploring the town, visited the mine overlook and spent some time at the museum learning more about the fascinating history of the town. Having been a company town for many of its years, there are many facets around this big hole in the ground that hasn’t been an active copper mine since the early 1980s.

We also took a drive down to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and spent a day ogling over the prickly residents that inhabit these lands.

The cacophony of variety of cacti was overwhelming impressive – and we could have spent a few more days in the park. We drove through the campground, and considered re-locating.

What we loved about Darby Well however was it’s proximity to the quaint little town of Ajo – with it’s mixture of winter desert dwellers, local artists, unique history and just enough amenities to make the area feel abundant. (The fast Verizon LTE didn’t hurt either.)

We were driving home from dinner one evening (we loved Marcela’s Cafe & Bakery.. super yum, some of the best chili rellanos I’ve ever had), and spotted a rather unique mural on the side of an old cafe:

I mean.. a herd of angry bunnies isn’t something you see painted on the side of a building every day. It was for a movie called Night of the Lepus that proclaimed to be filmed right here in Ajo.

A quick internet search revealed it was filmed in 1972 starring Janet Leigh and DeForrest Kelly (umm.. Bones??).  An overpopulation of rabbits (in latin – lepus) invades the Arizona deserts and a potential genetic cure goes wild causing a mob of wolf-sized cow eating bunnies.

This just sounded BAD.

Like that the kind of bad that can be good.. especially when projected on the side of our bus at the scene of the crime.

We rushed home, setup the outdoor movie theatre (we’re loving our new LG Electronics projector), downloaded a rented copy from iTunes and laughed the night away.

Darby Well obviously sucked us in. It was too hard to leave.

A couple days.. turned into a few. And before we knew it, us and our companions had been there a week.

Forrest and Mary just had to move on to their next location, and we opted to stick around as long as we could, enjoying some rare solitude in this amazing place.

Staying longer was of course at the expense of other potential adventures, but sometimes – that’s just the price you pay.

Oh, but that solitude thing? Not as isolated as you might think. We could see maybe only a few dozen other RVs in the entire area, scattered about over many many many acres.

And somehow, we had at least one blog reader a day discover us. We’re obviously not the only ones enchanted by this place.

As we were reluctantly parting ways with our sweet sweet spot of boondocking nirvana – one last blog reader spotted us. And his words were..

‘This is a slice of paradise. Please remove the name Ajo from your vocabulary’.

So friends, I’m afraid it’s time the erase your memories of this place. We just can’t let Ajo be over run by boondockers, like it once was by rabbits. We’re doing this for your safety, as we don’t want you too to become subject of a mutated genetic experiment gone bad.

Please stare into this image for a few moments:

.. and you’ll leave this blog post with an insatiable but vague inspiration to get out there and find your own awesome adventures!

What’s Next?

We’ve now relocated to Arizona City – kinda in-between Phoenix & Tucson. We’ve ended our 2+ month boondocking winter in the southwest.

We’re parked at RVillage.com headquarters and we’ll enjoy a few days ‘Curtis-Y’ parking with our friend Curtis (founder of said social network for RVers).

And then it’s on to Escapade in early March.

There may just be some exciting stuff brewing that will be unveiled soon….  stay tuned.

Remember, if you’re in the Tucson area – we invite you to come join us for free admission day at the Escapade on Wednesday March 11. We’ll be presenting all day long on topics like technology, working on the road and social media.  There will also be a happy  hour in the late afternoon. Come on by.. we’d love to meet you!