Those lights over Arizona in l997

Charlie and I were traveling in our motorhome in the 90s and spent several weeks at a place called Why, AZ.  Known as the “Y” in  the road where one highway led to Tucson through the Tohono o’Odham (previously called Papago) Indian reservation, and another highway that led to Ajo , AZ, a mining town whose mine was long ago closed down. Following that road through town we would travel through the Organ Pipe Cactus Monument and into Mexico.

When the locals at the “Y”applied for a post office zip code they decided to add the “Wh” because the postal service would not award a postal station to a town with only one letter in its name. Why remains as it has for many years, a post office, a gas station and a few other local businesses and a nearby Border Patrol office.

We spent one week at a park called Coyote Howls where Charlie’s brother Mac’s friend George Mottner and his wife, Beryl, both of  Bremerton, used to spend the winter. A truly rustic park, with few amenities. the park was one of the few we visited  where you could see many coyotes and wild javalenas roaming through the campsites.

One night we were sitting outside enjoying a beverage and quiet conversation when we looked to the east and saw some strange looking lights. Several in a line and one apart from the rest, just kind of hanging there and not doing much at all.  Then there was a sudden jerking pattern where they all flew towards the south, and another , as if on signal, darting to the north.  They were visible from the park and we thought it might be some kind of display by the Native Americans as it looked like it was fairly close to the ground and hovered over where we figured the reservation was located.

The next thing we knew the lights just vanished.

Newspaper accounts told of UFOs over Phoenix and they dubbed the display the Phoenix Lights.

We didn’t take photos although I had my camera along, but it turned out many people did so as there are accounts on line now with photos of the “lights” looking just as we remember them.

It was the only UFO sighting that we saw during our Snow Birding days.