Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Nice photos. Those who mentioned Organ Pipe NM should be aware that the Park Service advises caution for travelers to that area. There have been shootings and assaults involving Mexican drug and illegal immigrant smugglers over the past few years.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Shame on you, fear mongering and trying to work political issues into every discussion.

People trying to talk about photography here at UHH should be aware that there have been relentless attempts to inject political topics into every discussion.

Those visiting desert areas of the Southwest who have even an ounce of compassion in their bones and are concerned about this may want to take along extra water in the unlikely chance that they run into poor desperate women and children fleeing violence in their home countries and with nothing to lose risking their lives crossing the desert.

Mike

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

No "fear mongering" just stating the facts. If you don't believe me, do a little research. I made NO! political statements. And, being from Michigan, you know NOTHING! about conditions on the U.S./ Mexican border. But, nice try.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

Being from South Texas originally, we learned that extra water for drug smugglers was a non-starter.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Drug smugglers are not crossing the desert on foot. How absurd.

UTMike Loc: South Jordan, UT

That is an interesting statement to make to someone whose father was a Border Patrol agent and lost a partner and was injured himself by drug smugglers posing as immigrants. You might want to stay in your own area of knowledge.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I don't believe you, but even if that were true it doesn't tell us a thing except that one unfortunate incident happened to one person. One anecdote does not constitute an "area of knowledge."

The vast majority of people smuggling drugs across the southern border are US citizens, and increasingly middle aged white men who do not draw attention. They are not walking across the desert.

But beyond questions of immigrant stereotypes, what makes American citizens interested in selling drugs in the first place? Tucson lawyer Jeffrey Bartolino said that drug trafficking is a safety net: many of those who cross the border are unemployed and in need of cash. Drug running, especially for older middle-aged people who avoid suspicion (unless a border officer happens to be a big fan of Walter White) can be a lucrative way to make up debt, especially as this group, the "sandwich generation," is hit particularly hard by joblessness. This of course is not to say that Mexican drug cartels are benign providers of economic stability: it is only to question what kind of country we live in where a illegal activity with a steep prison time is more viable safety net than the one provided by our government.

https://mic.com/articles/32577/80-of-drug-smugglers-are-american-citizens-not-illegal-immigrants#.4MC9dvAgp

So fellow Hoggers, visit Arizona and photograph the wildflowers, and ignore the fear mongering nonsense from those who are relentlessly trying to introduce controversial "cultural war" idiocy into threads about photography at this photography forum.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

By all means, hoggers. Visit Arizona and take photos of desert flowers. Just be aware that there are lots of flowers in the desert without going to Organ Pipe.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

It may well be the safest park in the country. But this topic was not introduced here because of anyone's concerns for the safety of others. It is part of a trend by people to find any and every duplicitous way to get cultural war feuding started. That puts the rest of us in a difficult position. Do we ignore the provocations and allow the inflammatory and off-topic posts to stand without comment? Or, do we register our objections and thereby run the risk of giving the disruptive people exactly what they crave - attention and drama?

Here is some more information about safety at the park and about the historical basis for the controversy:

The 530 square mile park, a Unesco biosphere reserve, is enjoying a tourist boom. Numbers have jumped more than 30% since it fully reopened to the public last year.

This may be news to Donald Trump. The leading Republican presidential candidate says criminals and rapists, among others, are swarming across an open border. He wants to build a wall to stop them and to “protect America”.

In 2002, Trump could have pointed to one tragic incident: drug cartel gunmen shot and killed a park ranger, Kris Eggle.

The shock of his death transformed the park. The government funnelled a chunk of the post-9/11 border security expansion to Organ Pipe, a 30-mile segment of the 2,000-mile frontier.

The park ranger staff tripled from five to 15 and the number of border patrol agents exploded from 15 to 500, with a new, sprawling base. In addition to manning checkpoints and vehicle and pedestrian fences, which now stretch across much of the desert, they run fleets of helicopters and SUVs and monitor ground sensors and surveillance towers.

Roads and highways bristle with guns and badges. So too at Grannie Mac’s Kitchen, a diner off Highway 85. When the Guardian visited one recent morning, the breakfast clientele comprised a middle-aged couple in hiking gear, two sheriff’s deputies, three park rangers and five border patrol agents.

“We’re looking at a bright future,” said Brent Range, the park’s superintendent. “It’s safe.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/15/organ-pipe-national-monument-migrants-mexico

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Any body who navigates the link and reads the article won't be very reassured with how safe the Monument may be. And anyone with any sense can see that you have politicised this thread.

MT native Loc: Big Sky Country — Montana

Wonderful series. Thanks for sharing.

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

edrobinsonjr Loc: Boise, Idaho

Beautiful! Made my day as it is snowing like mad out this morning.
Ed