ARIZONA, CALIFORNIA AND HOME

 March 9, 2024

After finally getting out of New Mexico, we spent 10 wonderful nights at one of our favorite state parks - Patagonia Lake State Park, between Patagonia, AZ and Nogales, AZ.  The weather was great. Mostly, we had highs in the 70’s but one day it got up to 81 degrees. We spent a lot of time sitting outside of the camper and soaking in the sun. 

We did lots of birding and Mark finally saw his first Vermillion Flycatcher of the trip. We went to the Paton Center for Hummingbirds in Patagonia and saw 3 different types of hummingbirds as well as the rather rare Arizona Woodpecker.

Broadbilled Hummingbird

Violet Crowned Hummingbird

Anna's Hummingbird

Vermillion Flycatcher

Eared Greebe

Lesser Scaup

Great Blue Heron

Black Crowned Night Heron

Arizona Woodpecker

Green Tailed Towhee

Black Throated Sparrow

One day, we drove an hour and a half to White Water Draw Natural Area and saw thousands of Sandhill Cranes who winter there. We didn’t see too many other birds there because it was so windy that I think most of the birds were hunkered down. Tumbleweeds were flying all over the place!  

We took a lot of hikes. We walked the birding loop in the park almost every day. One day we hiked at Sonoita Creek Natural Area adjacent to the park. The scenery there is totally different than that in the park which is more riparian being closer to the lake. The Sonoita Area is more desert like.

Birding Loop 

Sonoita Creek Natural Area

Sonoita Creek Natural Area

Sonoita Creek Natural Area

Birding Loop

We took 2 park sponsored boating tours on the lake. One was a birding tour in the morning, and the other was a sunset cruise, which blessed us with a very beautiful sunset. Mark also did a lot of kayaking and got up quite close to many of the birds.

We went wine tasting at 2 wineries in nearby Elgin. They were the Twisted Union Winery, and Sonoita Vineyards. It was a lot of fun. We also enjoyed pizza at the Velvet Elvis Restaurant in Patagonia and breakfast at the Gathering Ground Cafe also in Patagonia. Our ten days there went by very fast.

Twisted Union Winery

Sonoita Vineyards

The Velvet Elvis

Pizza at the Velvet Elvis

Next, we began our trip north. We spent 3 nights at River Island State Park on the Colorado River south of Lake Havasu. We also had very nice weather there. We took a walk on the Wedge Hill Trail in our state park to some very nice vista points. We also took a hike on the Buckskin Loop Trail at nearby Buckskin Mt State Park. The scenery was stunning, but boy was that trail rugged and steep!

Colorado River

Buckskin Loop Trail

Buckskin Loop Trail

On February 29, we moved North and West into California. We spent that night near Barstow, California at Calico Ghost Town Recreation Area. The town was a huge silver mining area in the 1890’s and produced $86 million of silver. The town was restored in the 1950’s on the original building sites by the owner of Knott’s Berry Farm who gave it to the county in the 1970’s. It was fun to visit but a bit too touristy for us. 

Calico Ghost Town

Calico Ghost Town

The next day we turned north at Bakersfield and traveled north to a Harvest Host Winery Vista Ranch Winery near Merced and had a fun time tasting their wine. Our original plan had been to go home straight up Interstate 5, but the weather forecast was so cold and snowy in Northern California and Southern Oregon, that we decided to cut over to the coast north of San Francisco and go home that way. We spent Saturday night at another Harvest Host Winery in Hopland, California The Brutocao Family Vineyards. We had a nice time there also.

Brutocao Family Vineyards

Vista Ranch Winery

Sunday, after we left Hopland, it started raining pretty hard and then turned into a pretty heavy snow shower. Luckily, it was not sticking on the road. By the time we arrived at our destination for the night, Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, it had stopped precipitating  and turned into a lovely afternoon. We were able to take a nice walk through the magnificent redwood and even saw some elk.

The next day, we continued north on route 101 and crossed into Oregon. We spent 2 nights at state parks along the coast admiring the beautiful scenery and all the green. We dragged it out a day longer than we originally planned because the weather forecast for Portland was for some pretty cold nights and we didn’t want to have to winterize the camper. We arrived home on March 6. It was a wonderful trip, but it is always good to be home.

Made it to the Pacific

To summarize our trip, we were gone 206 days and drove 17,700 miles through 32 states and 1 Canadian province. We stayed in 44 state parks, 8 Harvest Hosts, 5 private campgrounds, 4 county parks, 3 provincial parks, 2 relative’s homes, 1 national park and 1 repair garage parking lot. We spent between $2.34 and $4.79 a gallon for gas (about $7.06 a US gallon in Canada). We visited 5 national parks, 4 national seashores, 4 national monuments and 1 national recreation area. We observed about 218 bird species. When asked what our favorite place was, we can’t begin to say, as there were so many. 

Thanks for following along and your comments. We have no big trips planned for the future, so come and visit us in Oregon. Happy travels!