Customer Reviews

National Geographic, Trails Illustrated, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: Arizona, USA (Trails Illustrated - Topo Maps)

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I used this map on a visit to Organ Pipe Cactus N.M. about a year ago. It was more than adequate for my modest purpose. It should be noted that even hikers with modest purposes should travel in this attractive but deadly land with map & compass; it's all too easy to think that we can just traipse across this fairly open landscape with the notion "I'll just watch where I'm going". Bringing me to the point of this note:
The situation on the ground has changed, quite noticeably, in the period since this map was produced (1992? probably data from much earlier). Migrants are now crossing NPS land (not counting the Tohono O'odham lands on the other side of the Ajo range to the east) at the rate of one THOUSAND a DAY (so I was told by the Park Service). As you would expect, there are a lot of migrant trails beaten into the desert pavement. Hikers will see these trails, with attendent rubbish, all over the place, even up in the Ajo Mtns. The NPS, once content to leave the old settlement trails as they were, has undertaken to extend some of the trails. So trail info is worse than useless. Keep your bearings. And, of course, as many visitors will be aware before arriving at OPCNM, in these internetted days, most of the western side of the Monument has been closed to the general public recently; real rogues such as drug dealers are traversing the area, with real cops chasing them. It isn't just honest Mexicans coming through to seek employment as slaves to that form of American Civilization found in Phoenix (and elsewhere).
In any event, this aging map is well-made and very readable, none of that shaded wash that renders some of the T. I. maps hard to construe. So, if you're not a GPS'er, this product should serve the purpose, when used with the above cautions.