Ajo Images - A look around Ajo

In this Blog we will show you some of the various sights that we found around Ajo. We had included other things to see in Ajo in an earlier post so we will not duplicate those here. There is an artist community here and a lot of Murals painted on various structures. There is not a lot of verbiage in this blog so if you have any questions post a comment or send us an e-mail.

On each end of town along the highway there is this "Welcome to Ajo Sign". It is very colorful, simple and eye catching. The back side of the sign is equally elaborate.

And since we mentioned the back of the sign here is that image. Seems to have a bit more detail and several bird images. Both sides are equally impressive. And no the "Do not Enter" sign in the back ground does not mean do not enter Ajo, it is for a side street, you should come on down. <

This Welcome sign was along the street in front of the local Telephone Company. Many Snowbirds who are staying here for 5 months will get phone service.

This Mural is on the side of a Building adjacent to the Shell Station. In case you can't read the fine print, one sign says "End of the world 10 miles" the other one says "Ajo 12 miles". Neat Mural.

There is a Saturday Farmers Market held in the Center Plaza. There were a lot of arts and craft items, many of the local artists were selling their wares. It is early in the Snowbird Season as many folks from the north won't get here until after Christmas. Many of the activities really gear up starting in January.

The Market had the standard fare of items. Lots of local craft items, clay pieces, jewelry, and some albeit limited food items.

Here is Deanna and the boys walking through the market. It was fairly crowded and there were lots of dogs all seemed friendly, both people and their canine friends.

Around the corner from the Plaza and the Farmers Market is the Artists Alley. It is an area where people have painted murals on the building walls. Some of them are really well done.

This mural took up most of the end of the building and extended onto the large door opening. Very nicely done.

Not sure who this lady represents but the vibrant colors and composition of the mural caught our eye.

There are various Yoga classes offered in Ajo and health healing and different spiritual adventures. I would guess this mural, as do many others, represent and support that theme.

On the opposite side of the building from the Wall of Murals is another wall that is painted with Murals. Here are some of them. It is not clear as to the overall theme if there was one.

This was a nicely done desert scene on the end of the building. Different compared to the other colorful images. A nice peaceful depiction of the desert area.

We are now away from the Artist's Alley. This is the building that houses the "Copper Times" the local newspaper. The first issue of the newspaper was published in 1916. It has been in operation since then and has been through some tough and trying times along the way.

This was a mural painter on a local residence. It appeared to be a plain house, nothing fancy but it had this wonderful mural on the end for all to see.

Wandering the streets in a residential area we saw this mailbox. It appears that all the creativity is not just Murals.

One of our many vices is finding Ice Cream Stores and trying their merchandise. We never could determine when this store was open, even on a Saturday afternoon it was closed. The mural was fun none the less.

As we travel around the country we sometimes notice the names on the Port-o-Potties. Our previous favorite was several years back found in Canada and named "Le Pew" after Pepe Le Pew the Warner Brothers Skunk cartoon character. We thought this name was at least it's equal.

Sitting about 30 feet away from "Royal Flush" was the earlier version of a building that served the same purpose. It had been replace by technological advances and was now locked and retired from service.

In looking through the neighbor hoods we found several of these collections of three statues standing together. They were in front of various homes and we were told that one of the local artists made them. They are all a little different but of equal quality and charactrer.

We always put up a hummingbird feeder where we camp. In Arizona we have seen many hummingbirds but not a wide variety of species yet. I was curious as to the identification of this hummingbird and a friend of mine, who is a great birder, helped with the identification. This appears to be an Anna's Hummingbird as opposed to a Black-chinned. This Hummingbird has a really green chest and sides and is dark under the tail. Black-chinned don’t share these features. In addition, there is a separate spot of color coming in on the side of the neck, separate from the throat. This is fine for Anna’s as their color is not confined to the throat as it is on a black-chinned.

As we get further along in our travels we will find other species of Hummingbirds.

We hope you have enjoyed this pictorial tour around Ajo. It is a fun place to visit in the winter months. Summer will find the temperatures approaching 120 degrees and that is a little too warm for us and our two small Westies.