Starting Again Oregon to Organ Pipe

 

We are back on the road again! Thank you for joining us as we take our trip down to California and east through Arizona and Texas along the Rio Grande River for birding.

We left home on December 1, and headed south down on  I-5 staying 3 nights at Harvest Host Wineries. One night at Edenvale Winery in Medford; one night at Jessie’s Grove Winery near Lodi, CA; and one night at Giessinger Winery in Fillmore CA. We had a nice stay at each of them. 

Our first destination was San Diego where we stayed for a week at at very nice campground resort on Mission Bay. We visited both the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, 30 miles north of San Diego. They are both absolutely fabulous and we spent a full day at each of them and saw tons of animals. Most notable was a 5 day old Giraffe, a 5 month old Giraffe and the back side of a Panda. At the Safari Park we took the African plains tramway twice and saw lots of beautiful animals. We also saw a duck billed platypus. Both parks are almost like a botanical garden and they are lovely places.

5 Day old Colt

5 month old colt and 5 day old colt behind adult

Rhinos on African Plain

Whole park is a botanical garden

One evening we went to “December Lights” at Balboa Park. It is a special festival in the park with lots of food and craft booths, holidays lights, music, and most of the museums in the park open for free. We went to the San Diego History Center, the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, the San Diego Natural History Museum and the Botanical Garden. It was a fun time, but rather crowded.

Botanical Garden Conservatory

On Sunday, we took the light rail downtown and spent several hours on the waterfront. We walked through Seaport Village and the park beyond it; walked past the air craft carrier Midway; the Maritime Museum; and saw the Star of India and other very old ships. We took a very nice harbor cruise and saw lots of navy ships and other sights along the harbor. It was a very nice day.

Aircraft Carrier Midway

Star of Indian

"Unconditional Surrender" statute 

Another day, we visited Cabrillo National Monument which honors Juan Cabrillo who was the first European to visit San Diego in 1542. It is on Point Loma and has beautiful views of San Diego and the Pacific Ocean. We saw the Cabrillo Statue, the old Point Loma lighthouse and the current Point Loma light station and took a walk on the very nice coastal trail.

One of the things that we really liked about the Mission Bay Area were the bike trails. The trails circumnavigate the bay and also go along the beach in Mission Beach and Pacific Beach. They made for very pleasant biking.

We really enjoyed our stay in San Diego.

After our week in San Diego, we moved east to Anza Borrego Desert State Park in Borrego Springs, California. It is a huge park of 650,000 acres. We spent 4 nights there and did quite a lot of hiking including the Borrego Palm Canyon, the “slots”, Hell Hole Canyon, and Surprise Canyon. We attended a talk about the Peninsula Longhorn Desert Sheep - there are only 800 of these sheep left and 400 of them live in the park but unfortunately we did not see any. We also enjoyed searching out the large medal sculptures placed around Borrego Springs in the Galetta Meadows.

Borrego Palm Canyon

Slot Canyon

Sculptures in the Galetta Meadows

We left Anza Borrego Desert State Park and headed east and south to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument near Lukeville, AZ on the Mexican border. It is one of the few places in the U.S. where the Organ Pipe Cactus grows wild. We are lucky to have two right beside our campground. We spent 3 days at Organ Pipe and enjoyed our time hiking and taking some of their scenic drives.We drove 15 miles along the border  and next to the Wall to Quitobaquito Springs to see some native pupfish that only live there. It is so strange have a big pond in the middle of the desert. We took a 4 mile hike to Victoria Mine. When we got there, we found that trail volunteers were stabilizing the rock walls of the cabin with natural material. That was interesting to see.  It is a very beautiful place with cactus everywhere. 

Volunteers stabilizing the rock walls of the cabin at Victoria Mine

Quitobaquito Springs

We are now at Patagonia Lake State Park and have seen @ 20 bird species just this morning. But, more about that later.

Homeward

May 8, 2025

We left Cathedral Gorge State Park on April 26 and headed north and west through miles and miles of empty space with mountains in the distance. We arrived in Ely, Nevada at about 11:30am and set up camp. After lunch we visited the Pine County Museum. It had lots of interesting facts about the county and a quality reproduction of a giant short faced bear whose fossilized remains were found in a cave about 30 miles from Ely.  We also drove around Ely looking for murals that were painted on many of the buildings.

Giant Short Faced Bear

Ely has many lovely murals

Sunday it got down to 29 degrees  with a high for the day of 34 degrees. This was quite a shock for our bodies which had been dealing with 90 degree temperatures. At 11:30 am, we went for a train ride on the Nevada Northern Railroad. It was pulled by steam engine #93. It was a nice one and a half hour ride to the original mine west of town and back. Afterwards, we got a guided tour of the original engine house. All the equipment was left in tact when the mining company stopped using the train in 1941. The train yard is now a National Historic Landmark. We were rather surprised that they just let us walk all over the engine house.  We also got to meet three of the famous engine house cats. It was a fun day.

Engine House Cats

Monday, we moved west and north again to Winnemuca, Nevada. We stopped in Winnemuca because it was midway between Ely and our next destination and because it is well known for its Basque food. We went out to dinner at the Martin Hotel, which serves Basque food family style. That means that you get soup, salad, 5 side dishes, your main course and bread pudding for dessert. Oh, I forgot to mention that wine was included. It was quite the feast!

Martin Hotel for dinner

The next day we continued north crossing back into Oregon. Our destination was Malheur National Wildlife Refuge 30 miles south of Burns, Oregon and also in the middle of nowhere. We stayed in an RV park  very near the  refuge for 4 nights and enjoyed lots of birding. The refuge consists of over 187,000 acres and is a crucial stop along the Pacific flyway. We saw between 30 and 40 different bird species each day. We drove the Central Patrol Road through the refuge stopping all the time as we saw birds in the field or ponds and taking short hikes at times. We were surprised to see so many white faces ibis, yellow headed blackbirds, avocets, black necked stilts, and American white pelicans. We also saw pheasants, Lewis's woodpeckers, Trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, and a bald eagle and red tailed hawk on their nests. That is only mentioning a few of the birds. We also ate lunch at the historic Frenchglen Hotel, saw the historic P ranch and the Peter French Round Barn. This area was and still is a very big cattle ranching area.

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center Area

View along Central Patrol Road

Black Crowned Night Heron

Willet

White Faced Ibis

American Avocet

Cinnamon Teal

Pheasant

Western Meadow Lark

Black Necked Stilt

Lewis's Woodpecker

Trumpeter Swan

Yellow-headed Blackbirds

Peter French Round Barn

We also visited the nearby Diamond Craters Outstanding Natural Area. Diamond Craters has some of the most diverse basaltic vocanic features in the United States and we didn’t even know about it. It was formed sometime within the past 25,000 years and features craters and vents, cinder cones, spatter cones and lots more. Not being a geologist, even after reading their  pamphlet, I don’t understand all the features, but it was very interesting.

We left Malheur NWR and continued toward home. We spent Saturday night at Cove Palisades State Park near Madras, Oregon. It is a stunning park located on Lake Billy Chinook which was formed by the damming of the Deschutes, Crooked, and Metolious Rivers. Much of the lake is surrounded by very steep canyons. The snowy Cascade Mountains can be seen in the distance. We drove all around the park and also took a view short hikes. We haven’t been here in over five years and forgot how beautiful it is.

Mount Jefferson from campground

Sunday, we drove home. As we drive into the Portland area, we always comment how green and beautiful it is, especially in the springtime.  Now we are busy doing yard work and getting the vegetable garden ready for planting. 

Hope you all have a wonderful spring and summer. Thanks for riding along. Hope you come along on our next adventure.