Home Again

Home Again

We left Lake Havasu State Park and Arizona on Monday, April 13. We crossed into California

and we were happy to see fields of wildflowers along the interstate. We spent the night in Barstow , California at a KOA. We had to stay in private campgrounds in California and Oregon because the state parks are closed in both states. We had originally planned to meander home along the California coast staying at state parks along the way, but that was not to be this trip. Even the private campgrounds were pretty empty and we think most of the campers were long term renters. 

The next morning we left Barstow and traveled west and then north to Jellystone Park in the Sacramento River Delta area near Lodi, California.

Luckily, the trip passed quickly with the help of 2 audio ebooks and occasional stops at Costcos to get gas. We never went in a store because the lines were always too long.

The next day, Wednesday, we enjoyed watching Mt Shasta

come into view and seeing the ever increasing green of the scenery and tall pine tree of the Pacific Northwest again. We crossed into Oregon

and spent the night at a KOA north of Medford in Gold Hill, Oregon.

We arrived home on Thursday, April 16 at 3pm.

It was a great trip, but with the advent of the corona virus had a rather strange ending. We have been busy with yard and garden work since we arrived home.  Mark painted the living/dining room ceilings and walls and Laurie has been busy cleaning out closets and cupboards.  We try to get exercise by walking on the nearby bike path and parks. Everyone is very conscious of social distancing. Hopefully, we will be able to get out in the camper and enjoy some of Oregon’s beautiful areas before too long. 

Stay healthy everyone.

ARIZONA

  

We arrived in Arizona on March 27.  We had to make some changes in our plans because the campgrounds at Chirachua National Monument and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument both closed, but we were able to make adjustments in our plans thanks to Arizona State Parks still being open!

We spent the first 9 days in Arizona at Patagonia Lake State Park about an hour south of Tucson and really in the middle of nowhere. We had been there several times before and really love it there.

There is really good birding, and as soon as we put our hummingbird feeder out it was covered with 5 different types of hummingbirds, Verdons and even a pair of Hooded Orioles.

Broad Billed Hummingbird

Black-Chinned Hummingbird

Hummingbird Feeder

Verdin

Female Hooded Oriole

Male Hooded Oriole

Pyrrhuloxia

All of the birding tours and walks had been cancelled and no one was filling the bird feeders at the birding station, but Mark noticed where the bird seed was kept and filled all the feeders. Our favorite birds there were Lazuli Bunting, Vermillion Flycatcher, Lesser Goldfinches and Northern Cardinals.

Lazuli Bunting

Vermillion Flycatcher

Northern Cardinal

Lesser Goldfinch

There is a very nice birding trail that we took at least once a day. We have never been here this late in the spring and everything was turning nice and green. It made it hard to spot the birds sometimes but we still managed to see a lot. 

Adjacent to the park was the Sonoita Creek State Natural Area with 3.2 mile loop and we also walked there 2 different days and saw a lot of wildflowers and  birds.

One day we rented a pontoon boat from the state park marina and saw the park from a different viewpoint.

 It is a very beautiful park and the only time we left it was for a quick run into Nogales, AZ for gas and groceries. 

We spent one night at Picacho Peak State Park between Tucson and Phoenix. It was definitely in the Sonoran desert and it was nice to see the cactus, some of them even blooming.

The three nights following this we spent at Cattail Cove State Park on Lake Havasu in northwestern AZ. It was very beautiful and seemed very remote although it is only about 15 miles south of Lake Havasu City. The lake banks here are quite steep except for the beach area and very beautiful. There was not very much to see except rugged mountains on both sides except for a distant resort and what we think was a pump station for irrigation. There was a very nice hike that we took every day that went along the shoreline. There were a lot of wildflowers and even quite a few cactus blooming.

We left Cattail Cove State Park and drove about 15 miles north to Lake Havasu State Park  

which is in Lake Havasu  City, but stretches along the Lake for about two miles. It is a much busier place and yesterday, (Saturday ) the lake had many very noisy motor boats on it. We can only guess how busy this place must be in “normal times” from the the size of the parking lots.  We discovered a very nice trail that goes along the lake to the London Bridge Channel and on to London Bridge. The bridge was taken apart stone-by-stone brought over here, a river canal dug and rebuilt here in the middle of the desert.

It looks very nice here. We walked under it and across it. It has been made into quite the tourist area, but right now, nothing is open. We also discovered about 10 of the 27 miniature lighthouses, built by the Lake Havasu Lighthouse Association, that are scattered around the lake to aid navigation.

We put up our hummingbird feeder but have not had any visitors here, but have seen lots of California Quail, Roadrunners, Killdeer, Abert’s Towhee, lots of rabbits and one rattlesnake. 

Tomorrow, we head west and north toward home. It will be a quick trip since nothing is open in California and Oregon. We will check in again when we arrive home. 

Stay safe and healthy!

Texas Hill Country

We left Austin on March 15 and headed to the Hill Country, a lovely area east of San Antonio and Austin where we spent 10 nights at 4 different state parks. 

First we camped for 4 nights at Pedernales Falls State Park near Johnson City.

The park is huge, hilly and beautiful. The water falls are strikingly beautiful falls that flow over tilted stair steps  of layered limestone. We climbed down to the limestone and scrambled over the rocks to see the falls from different angles. 

Lyndon B Johnson was born here and owned a ranch that became to Texas Whitehouse and his retirement estate. There are several historical location operated by the National Parks and Texas State Parks. We visited most of these in the area - his reconstructed birthplace

now located on the ranch; his childhood home in Johnson City; the LBJ ranch and the Texas Whitehouse

where Hereford cattle that are descendants of the Johnson’s origin herd

roam freely along the tour; saw movies about LBJ and Ladybird Johnson; and displays of cars and planes Johnson used. 

Another day we headed over to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Unfortunately, we did not know that you had to make reservations for day use, so we could not go into the park but we got a nice view from the road.

Instead we went into Fredericksburg, a cute German town and walked the empty streets (due to the virus confinement) and had lunch at a really nice German restaurant -

probably our last restaurant meal for a while. We also walked around the outside areas of the National Museum of the Pacific War honoring Admiral Nimitz and saw the Plaza of the Presidents, the Memorial Walk and the Japanese Garden of Peace.

We spent are last day at Pedernales Falls walking on other nice trails around the park.

Thursday, March 19 we moved north to Inks Lake State Park near Burnett for 2 nights. We had a very nice campsite with a view of the lake.

It got up to 85 degrees, so Mark got out his kayak and went boating for an hour. Then he sailed his radio controlled sailboat.

Then we took a walk to the Devil’s Washbowl, a rocky portion of the shore and watched kids jump off the cliffs to the water below.

That night a front went through, it rained half the day, and dropped the temperature 30 degrees.

The next afternoon, wearing winter coats for the first time in a long while, we took a walk around the campground.

Saturday, we moved to Blanco State Park near Blanco. It was a small park, but with nice walks along the river.

We walked into town and walked around the old town square - almost totally empty. It rained a lot here too and we had some popcorn and watched a couple of movies in the camper.

On Monday, we moved about 100 miles west to South Llano River State Park.

The park had been closed for a few days because the river had flooded the road into the park, so it was pretty empty.  They had several very nice hiking trails and we saw lots of birds.

That night we had a nice time watching all the stars. This is a Dark Sky Park so the constellations are very beautiful here  without any city lights. 

Wednesday, we left South Llano River State Park and headed west on I-10 and drove for 7 hours, because

Texas is so damn big!, to an RV park in Van Horn,Texas. Thursday, we drove 5 1/2 hours and stayed at a campground in Lordsburg,N.M. Friday, we arrived in Arizona. The Arizona State Parks are still open, so we hope to be here about 2 weeks before heading home. We will write more later!

Hope you are all healthy and surviving the home quarantine.