March 8 - Tucson and Patagonia

 On February 22 we left Phoenix and headed south to Tucson and as we got closer to Tucson it started raining and then snowing hard - thankfully non of it stuck.

We got to Tucson Mountain Park and Gilbert Ray campground - a county park at about 1 pm and got the last campsite. (Lucky since they don’t take reservations so we were glad to get one.) We have stayed here before and really like the area. The campers and trailers who had been there the night before had a couple of inches of snow on them and the TV said it was one of the worst snow storms in years. Later in the afternoon, we drove the short distance to Saguaro National Park and took the Bajada Scenic Loop Drive and took a short walk on the Signal Hill Trail which has several very nice petroglyphs.

Saturday we went to the Pima Air and Space Museum that has a collection of military and civilian aircraft and we saw hundreds of airplanes displayed on their grounds and inside hangers.

Many of the outdoor planes still had snow on them from the day before. One of my favorites was the WW2 B-24 bomber as we are listening to Unbroken by Laura Hildebrand and the B-24 played an important part in the book so it was interesting seeing it first hand.

Sunday we did some hiking in Tucson Mountain Park and in Saguaro National Park. The trails are very nice and the weather warmed up so it was a very nice walk.

Monday, we spent the day at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum - one of our favorite things to do in Tucson. It is almost more of a zoo than a museum and we always go to the Raptor Free Flight Programs and this time we saw a great horned owl, a ferruginous hawk, a gray hawk, a red tailed hawk and five Harris hawks flying free and sometimes very close over our heads!

We went to a reptile program and learned all about gila monsters and rattlesnakes.

Gila Monster

I think we saw almost every animal, bird, reptile, insect and plant there. I liked the cats and birds the best, but the entire place is exceptional!

We were exhausted after walking around all day. Tuesday was chore day. Even on a big adventure one has to do laundry and buy groceries. We did go to lunch at El Guero Canelo which won a James Beard Award for its Sonoran Hotdogs - yum!

Wednesday, we took a hike on the Brown Mountain Loop with the trailhead right near our campground. It was a five mile hike to the top of Brown Mountain and several other smaller hills. The views were wonderful as were the cactus and wildflowers. The weather is improving steadily with daily highs in the mid 70’s.

Thursday we went to Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, part of Coronado National Forest. It is another one of our favorite places in Tucson. When we have gone there in the past, we have taken a tram to the top of the canyon and walked down. However, the tram is not running because of contract disputes, so we took a lovely 3 1/2 mile hike in the lower part of the canyon.

While we were on the trail, we saw a coatimundi - the first time we have ever seen one in the wild. That was pretty cool!

 Friday March 1st we left Tucson and headed about 2 hours south to Patagonia Lake State Park - about 10 miles north of the Mexican border. It is a lovely park with a beautiful lake and best known for all the birds that winter there and migrate through the area. We bought a couple of feeders and have enjoyed watching humming birds and gold finches at our campsite. They have a very nice birding trail that is a great way to see lots of birds and cattle which have free range on the property - but watch where you step! While we were here we took a 1-hour pontoon boat showing water fowl on the lake and a 3-hour bird walk for the land birds where we saw 29 different birds. We particularly like the Vermillion Fly Catcher, a lovely little red bird, and the Lazuli Bunting, a light blue bird.

Clockwise from left - Gila Woodpeckers, Lazuli Bunting, Vermillion Flycatcher,
Verdin, Northern Cardinal, Violet Crowned Hummingbird

Mark has also enjoyed kayaking on the lake and sailing his small remote controlled sail boat. Hikes in the area included the 3-mile hike through the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area adjacent to the park. We had to cross over a spillway that had two inches of water in it we had to wade through because of all the rain and snow that has fallen. The hike was lovely and the desert is starkly different from what we are used to at home but most of the wildlife we saw were cattle!

The hike was lovely and the desert is starkly different from what we are used to at home but most of the wildlife we saw were cattle!

On Tuesday, March 5, we drove north and west to see Mardera Canyon Recreation Area- part of Coronado National Forest and another well known birding area. We hiked the nature trail from Mount Wrightson Picnic Area at 5400 feet to the amphitheater at 5000 and then back up to the starting point. The hike was very nice on a beautiful day but we were again disappointed to not see many birds.

We stopped for lunch in Tubac, a cute little artist town, and then visited Tumacacori National Historic Park that preserves an old Spanish Mission established in 1691 to 1828 for the O’odham native people. The self guided tour through the ruins was very interesting.

It was a very nice relaxing week at Patatgonia with nice warm weather and Mark increased his birding list to 128 different birds this trip.

On March 8 we left Patagonia and headed west to Oregon Pipe Cactus National Monument. The temperatures had dropped back down into the 60’s and it was windy driving here. The landscape is much greener here and we saw lots of wildflowers along the road.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is protecting the only place in the United State that three types of columnar cactus - Saguaro, Organ Pipe and Senita Cacti.

Organ Pipe Cactus in front of Saguaro Cactus

We have a great campsite with Organ Pipe, Saguaro, and Barrel Cacti surrounding us. We set up camp and went to the visitor center and a nature walk and attended a campfire ranger program tonight.



Tomorrow we are excited to get out and explorer the park. More to come…