How quickly things can change
As I ended my last blog post it was late February, and I was on my way to Kofa National Wildlife Refuge to gather with friends. At that time, life still seemed pretty normal. Kofa was beautiful, plants were blooming, and it was wonderful to see everyone.
View higher resolution photos in Kofa Flickr Album
Our group camping area at Kofa
Sunset
Fishhook cactus
Notch-leaved Phacelia
Now Kofa seems like eons ago. From there I returned to Tucson. That was the first week of March, and concerns were beginning to grow around COVID-19. I had tickets for 3 nights at the Banff Mountain Film World Tour. At that time, I believe there were only a couple cases in Arizona, so I decided to go ahead and attend. I also wanted to attend the Tucson Festival of Books the following weekend. So I hung around, doing some hiking in Tucson Mountain Park and Saguaro National Park West.
Brittle bush covered the hillsides
I saw 2 pairs of Cactus Wrens working on their nests
Fairy Duster
Penstemon
That week the infection rate really started to escalate with mass cancellations of events and large gatherings. Social distancing, business closures and other unprecedented measures were instituted. How quickly our world was turned upside down; so many are suffering, healthwise and economically. I was uncertain whether I should move to an RV park or continue to disperse camp as I normally do. After pondering on this, I decided to continue to disperse camp for now. I feel like I have less exposure this way rather than being in a park.
Curve-billed Thrasher
A saguaro on Kings Canyon Trail becoming crested (crissate). I saw another one like this on Brown Mountain Trail
Pipevine Swallowtail
Globe Mallow
I hope all of you are safe and my thoughts and prayers are with you as we go through this crisis. While we will see great tragedy from this pandemic, hopefully with everyone’s efforts to follow the CDC guidelines, we will get through it soon.
Deb's RV Travels 
Glad to hear you are still safely out of harms way. I’ve been reading about all the RVers who are not able to find places in RV parks or campgrounds. One of the reasons to be self sufficient, at least is to the point you need water and a dump station. I hope that’s not been a problem.
We re-upped at the RV Park until end of April and then we’ll be boondocking for the next six months hoping the restrictions begin to ease.
Love the photos.
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Thanks Martha! Yes, most of the states around AZ are closing campgrounds and RV Parks. Fortunately AZ is more cognizant of the number of RVers who don’t have a home to go to, at least not nearby. I haven’t had any issues with finding services. So far state parks and RV parks are not being closed. All federal campgrounds are closed. I hope things are better by the end of April, but I’m prepared to stay in AZ longer if necessary. If only I could purchase some tp!
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We were just talking about staying in Arizona longer if May looks iffy going north. We could go to higher ground and camp East of Payson we are thinking. There is TP here but don’t tell anyone. 😉 Second week in March Phoenix and Yuma folks descended and wiped out the local grocery store. Took weeks to restock everything and now we are limited to one item of each thing. But at least it’s stocked.
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Sounds like a good plan. Too bad people did that, that’s exactly the reason so many small towns have closed down.
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