0. April 18,  Home again!

   
   

   We spent 10 days in Arizona at two of our favorite places.  Our first stop was at Gilbert Ray Campground in Tucson Mountain Park.  We spent a few hours at the nearby Saguaro National Park and admired all the Saguaros and other desert plants. This is such a different ecosystem than Florida!! We spent almost all day Saturday at Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. It is much more than just a museum - kind of a zoo, botanical garden and museum of the Sonoran desert. One of our favorite things to see there is the Birds of Prey free flight show. This time the birds that they highlighted were a desert raven, great horned owl, crested caracara and 3 Harris hawks. It is really amazing. Sometimes they swooped real low over our heads. The desert animal displays were really nice as were all the cactus displays, some of which were blooming.

   

   Saguaro cactus

   
   

   

   Great horned owl

   
   

   

   Crested Caracara

   
   

   

   Harris Hawk

   
   

   

   Cougar

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   
   
   

   The next day we went to Sabino Canyon recreation area. It is a very stunning canyon with lots of waterfalls along the way. We took the tram to the end of the road and walked back down. It was a very nice day and we topped it off by going to a favorite Mexican restaurant.

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   We moved south of Tucson to Patagonia Lake State Park for a week. They have a very nice birding trail there and we walked it daily seeing lots of birds. We took a birding boat tour one morning. We also hiked at the neighboring Sonoita Creek State Natural Area which is a very beautiful area and more rugged. Twice, we went into the town of Patagonia and visited the Paton Center for hummingbirds.  Besides seeing four different types of hummingbirds, we were pleased to see a lazuli bunting and a summer tanager!

   

   Patagonia Lake

   
   

   

   Sonoita Creek State Natural Area

   
   

   

   Crossing Sonoita Creek

   
   

   

   Birding trail

   

   lazuli bunting

   
   

   

   Summer tanager

   
   
   
   

   Probably the most unusual thing we did here was to go wine tasting. Yes, they grow grapes in Arizona and there are several wineries in the area. We had a fun time tasting at two wineries; Elgin Winery and Sonoita Winery. There are several other wineries in the area, so we will have more to visit next time!

   
   
   
   

   Monday, April 11 we started for home. The first day we drove from Patagonia to a county campground on the Colorado River near Blythe, California.

   
   
   The second half of that day was quite windy. The next day was a very windy ride to a campground near Bakersfield, California. The next day took us to Orland, California about an hour north of Sacramento.  After having temperatures in the high 80’s most of the time in Arizona, it was getting progressively cooler.  We were very glad to have a couple audio books to listen to and help pass the time. On Thursday, we crossed into Oregon and went through the Siskiyou Mountains where there was snow all along the edges of the road and on the surrounding mountains.
   
   
   We spent the night at Seven Feathers RV resort and made use of their heated indoor pool and hot tub. 
   
   
   Friday, it was about a four hour drive home. Every time we return from a long trip we are always so excited to see the tall trees and green countryside of Oregon. Many trees are flowering and our driveway is lined with tulips. We were lucky to have 2 days with very little rain and were able to get out in the woods and do some hiking in between unpacking and tidying up. Plans are mostly to stay in the Northwest until next winter. Hope you enjoyed reading about our trip.

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   Verdin

   
   

   

   Hooded oriole

   
   

   

   Vermillion flycatcher

   
   

   

   Yellow warbler

   
   

   

   Bullock's oriole

   
   

   

   Home Again

   
   
   

April 2, 2022     Slowly heading home

We left Florida on March 17 after 3 months and a week but we didn’t get too far as our next stop was Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores Alabama. It is a very nice state park of 6,150 acres and 28 miles of paved trails, most of which we rode on our bikes during the 4 days we were there. The park had very nice facilities: widely spaced campsites, great trails, lovely beaches, fishing pier, swimming pool and tennis courts. Thanks to the naturalist, we saw 2 bald eagle nests. We saw a parent sitting on one the one day and the next day an immature  eagle was sitting on the edge flapping its wings! We did have a huge rainstorm one morning and 3 inches of water surrounded our trailer. It was all gone in a couple of hours, but in the mean time, we drove around Gulf Shores - very touristy and had lunch at Lulu’s (jimmy Buffets sister) and enjoyed shrimp and grits (which we have been comparing  at many of our stops).

Flooded Campsite

Shrimp and Grits at Lulu's

Beautiful White Sand Gulf Beach

Raised bike trail

Gulf State Park Pier

Sailing remote control sailboat

We crossed the Mississippi River and continued west to Lafayette, Louisiana. We spent less than 12 hours there. We left at 5:45 am because a nasty band of storms was heading east and we hoped to avoid it as much as possible. These were the storms that spawned tornadoes in Texas  and New Orleans. When we hit Beaumont Texas, the sky got very black and we had torrential rain showers. At the next rest area, we pulled off and rested about 90 minutes and the  sky had cleared up! We continued south of Houston to Brazos Bend State Park. We picked this park because it was the right distance from where we came and it turned out to be a great choice. It was another park with lots of bike trails,  and marshes with beautiful birds and alligators!

Brazos Bend State Park

Alligator guarding nest mound

Brazos Bend State Park Observation Tower

The next day, March 23, we moved to Goose Island State Park a little north of Corpus Christie on the Gulf of Mexico. We have been there in spring 2020 and wanted to go back because the birding is wonderful. We set up camp and immediately set off to see if we could find endangered  whooping  cranes which winter in the area. We were very glad that we did, because we are here a little later this year and some of the whooping cranes have started to migrate north. We also took 2 guided birding walks in the park. Another day we took a 3 hour birding boat tour into Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and saw @40 different species. It was a beautiful day and the birds were amazing. Another day we drove to Port Aransas, another town we spent a lot of time in in 2020. Our first stop was the Leonabelle Turnbull where we saw lots of beautiful shorebirds. We also visited a favorite Mexican restaurant , the beach and a couple of other birding sites and parks that we remembered from our last trip. It was a fun day. 

Whooping Cranes

Mark on boating tour

Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center

Red Headed Woodpecker

Indigo Bunting 

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks

American Oyster Catcher

Whooping Crane Family

Avocet and Northern Shoveler

Black Necked Stilt

Our next stop in Texas, was 2 nights at South Llano River State Park, west of San Antonio on the edge of the Hill Country. It is another well known birding spot. We were not accustomed to the 90 degree heat, but enjoyed hiking around the park and visiting  the parks 4 bird blinds. I think that our favorite find was the bright red vermillion fly catcher. Also, being farther north and inland than any other park we have been to in a long time, it was a much dryer climate with different vegetation and lots of armadillos.

Hiking along South Llano River

Woodhouse Scrub Jay

Lark Sparrow

Lesser Gold Finches

Armadillo

The next day was a long one heading west on I-10 with 25 to 30 mph headwinds the entire way and part of the evening at the RV park at Van Horn. The next day we crossed into New Mexico and spent the night at Rockhound State Park It is situated on a hillside surrounded by even higher hills and we huffed and puffed a lot in the 4500 ft elevation. We took some short walks and found a few interesting rocks. The next day we crossed into Arizona, but that will be in the next blog.

Rockhound State Park

Prickly Pear Cactus

Rockhound State Park