Week ending Dec 28, 2017 Tucson Area

Friday and Saturday were a bit cool, so Joan did some Christmas baking.
 
Sunday, we went back to Saguaro NP and did the one mile nature walk loop to the Freeman homestead.

Trees hanging onto the wall of a wash

Prickly Pears big enough to have a trunk

After that we did a mile up the Tanque Verde Ridge Trail.   That got us far enough to get a view from a saddle down the valley on the other side of the hill.   It starts right on the edge of the hills, so was a pretty steep trail, taking us 2 hours for the return trip.  

Tucson from Tanque Ridge

Looking east from the saddle

 

On Christmas day, we took some veggies and baking over to have Christmas dinner with Rupert, Helen and Keri.  They had done up a nice prime rib, mashed potatoes, corn, and a bunch of other goodies.    We enjoyed the meal on a table beside their trailer in the sun, and had a great chat afterwards. 

Wednesday, we  went to check out Universal Ranch RV Park a few miles north of Arivaca, southwest of Tucson.  It is in interesting looking ranch country, lots of scrub, but not a lot of cactus.  The RV park is very basic, and there was no one in the office.   We couldn't get 4G cell service to use our internet, but their wi-fi worked.   We used it to check the spelling of the ad for a missing 'blue healer' dog.  We went into Arivaca, and bought some cheese and flatbread for lunch.  A quiet town, although the mercantile had a steady flow of customers.  From Arivaca, we drove west through the Buenos Aires Nat. Wildlife Refuge to route 286, then north along the edge of the refuge.   We stopped at an information kiosk at the north end of the park.   We saw that they had about a hundred campsites marked in the park.   The easiest one to get to was about 3 miles south, but when we got to the road, there was closed gate with signs 'authorized entry only', so we couldn't see what the campsites were like. 

Week ending Dec 21, 2017 Tucson and Saguaro NP

On Friday we went to Sears to do some shopping.    Friday, Saturday and Sunday were rainy off and on, so we walked the 1.3 mi exercise loop each morning.   Rupert, Helen and Keri arrived on the weekend.  While they were in Texas stopped in by a flagperson in a construction zone, someone lost control of their truck and ran it down the side of their trailer and truck.   They spent a while there sorting out insurance and getting the important damage repaired.

On Monday, weather still a bit damp, we all went Saguaro National Park (East Section).   The park contains "the most diverse cactus garden in the USA".  The park refers to it as the Cactus Forest.  After going through the Visitor Center and we watched a short film on the history of the area and the park.  It described the Hohokam Indians (200 to 1400 AD), the O'odham Indians (present day), Mexican ranchers who arrived before the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, which added the section south of the Gila River to Arizona.  After the purchase, people from the eastern USA started to ranch in the area.

A national monument was created in 1933 to preserve the saguaro forest from ranching activity.  In February 1937,  a cold front brought record low temperatures, killing many saguaros.  In 1962, during another cold spell, researchers determined that more than 20 hours of freezing temperatures could kill the plants.  By 1980, almost no young saguaros had survived.  In 1979, the National Park Service acquired the grazing rights, so the cattle could no longer trample the young saguaros, and renewal of the 'cactus forest' started.
We drove the 8 mile one-way scenic loop, stopping at each interpretive point.

Across the park to the Santa Catalina Range

Saguaro

Gila Woodpecker

Javelina Rocks

In the evening, we had a short rainstorm.

There are 34 miles of hiking trails in the north end of  Saguaro NP and an 11.5 mile trail at the south end.  We were provided with a hiking map map that covered both areas, with several loop hikes highlighted.    On Tuesday, Joan and I  went to the trail-head on the north end of Saguaro and hiked a loop of about 3.5 miles.   We saw a hare scamper under a bush to try and hide, about the same time as another couple arrived from the other direction.   We saw quite a few birds along the way.  It was nice and quiet, so we could pick out the different sounds.   We looked at the small tailings piles at the Loma Verde mine site.    A lot of the trails were cut deep due to horses.   This  area of the desert has the same plants we see many places,  but being in a corner of the Santa Catalina Mountains and Mount Rincon,  it is more like a forest than desert. 

Large cholla cactus

CactusWren

Fishhook Barrel Cactus

Deep trail cut out by horses

Wednesday, we went to northeast corner of Saguaro, to Desert Springs Trailhead on Speedway Ave.  Our destination was Bridal Wreath Falls, hoping it would have some water after the rainy weekend.  This is a 2.9 mi trip each way into the hills. 

Heading into the hills

 Looking back over the park once we got up above it

We got about halfway to falls, and had climbed up about 600 ft through the foothills of Mt Rincon on a trail with large rocks steps that weren't knee friendly.

Steep climb

  At that point we encountered a fellow returning.  He had been to Bridal Wreath, and there wasn't a drop of water in it.  We asked if it was still worth the trip, and whether it looked better than a dry run below us.  No, it didn't even look that good.

At that point we decided, rather than returning, to cut south west on Carillo Trail, still climbing, but not as steeply, to a steel tank on Three Tank Trail.

Water tank from ranching

Once we go to the tank, we cut across on Three Tank Trail to Wild Horse Trail, then Garwood trail back to the trail-head.   The trip was about 5.4 mi, and took us almost 4 hours.  We stopped to chat with a variety of people on the way, and had lunch on Carillo trail, so didn't make very good time.

Week ending Dec 14, 2017 Stafford to Tucson

Friday we drove out to the Gila Box Riparian Area east of Safford.  It is a nice area along the Gila River.  The road through the Area was paved, but it wound down and up through creek crossings, often on one lane widths.  After our first climb up on a ridge between creeks, we could see  trailer coming toward us a long way off, and since we couldn't tell where there would be room for it to get by us, we waited for about 5 minutes for it to get by us.  After that, we didn't see anyone coming toward us the whole time we were there.  We did small walks to the river from several parking / picnic areas  and the Dry Creek Boat Takeout.  The takeout is the last place in the Riparian Area that people can land their boats coming down the Gila.

Gila from a hillside

shaded by wall of rock

Further up the valley, at Bonita Creek Wildlife Viewing area, we drove down a 19% grade to the Serna Cabin.  Serna Cabin was built in the 1920's.

Serna Cabin

At this location there was a trailhead sign for a 3 mile trail back to the first place we stopped, Dry Creek Boat Takeout. From this point on the river, you can inner-tube to the takeout.   Since the trail description warned that there were stream crossings with fast flowing water, and we had left our hiking boots on the picnic table at the trailer to dry out in the sun, we didn't follow the trail.  Back up the hill at the viewing area we had lunch looking over Bonita Creek, but didn't see any wildlife.   From the viewpoint, we took a trail heading up over the hill beside the stream. From the top of the plateau, we could look down on the Riverview Campground, with a couple of RVs in it, one which looked like a camp host.   We walked down the road back toward the truck before noticing a cairn on a rise near the river.  As we turned onto the trail toward it, we saw another coatimundi.  I was able to get a quick shot without zooming.

Can you find the Coati?

Here it is

We continued to the cairn which  commemorates the General Kearney's  Army of the West camping in the area on-route to California during the Mexican-American War.

Saturday was reserved for watching the Canadian Curling Trials semi-finals, and Toronto vs Seattle for the MLS Cup, so we went for a short walk around town in the morning.

Sunday, we walked over to Home Depot to check out a space heater, as one of ours is making unusual noises when starting.   The we watched the finals of the Canadian Curling Trials.

On Monday, we drove to the Hotwell Dunes Recreation Area.  It is about 35 miles southwest of Safford, close to Javelina Mountain at the south end of the Whitlock Range.  Our GPS recommended a 62 mile route south to Bowie, then back north 19 miles.   We ignored the GPS and took a 34 mile route heading east of Safford, then 24 miles south to the dunes.  This route was paved all the way to the rec area.   The only rationale we can see for taking the long route is that both routes have long sections for which the GPS had no speed limit.  Since the 19 mile stretch north of Bowie is less than the 24 mile stretch south of Safford, it picked the route through Bowie.

Once at the rec area, we paid the $3 day use fee, which includes camping if you want.  We walked around the little pond in the park, and got some pictures of a roadrunner. 

Pond

Roadrunner

Then we drove about 1 mile into the park past campers, to another picnic area, and the hot tubs.  On the way we saw a coyote dashing across the road.   The two hot tubs were being cleaned.   We did a  walk along the ATV trails through the dunes for 1.2 miles.     We couldn't believe the quantity of animal tracks caught in the soft sand.

sample of amazing animal tracks (click for larger view)

Javelina Peak across the dunes

Black-throated Sparrow

Then we chatted for a while with the campground hosts who were cleaning out the hot tubs before having lunch at the picnic shelter.   On the way back to Safford, our GPS, once we headed on the road north, recommended taking Tanque Road,  a 12 mile gravel road heading east toward Mt Graham.  It looked decent so we headed across.  It did have a few soft areas, one which had some potholes in it, but we pulled through them okay.   The paved route was better, even if a bit further. 

Tuesday, we did some cleaning and stuff in preparation for heading to Tucson on Thursday.

Wednesday, our last full day in Safford, we did the Black Hills Back-country Byway trip from Safford toward Clifton.  It is a 21 mile curvy road following the contours of the hills as it climbs.  This road was used in the 1920s between the agricultural area around Safford through the ranches in the hills to the mineral wealth of Clifton.  The road requires a high-clearance vehicle, not necessarily 4 wheel drive.   The speed limit is 15 mph.   The hills in this area are the north end of a volcanic range that runs from the Mexican border along the Arizona - New Mexico border.

One of a few ranches along the route.

Twin C Ranch in  narrow valley

Then we stopped at the pumice mine.

We stopped at the Canyon Overlook, which had a fantastic 180 degree view.  Here is a portion. 

Looking across the Gila valley

Later on, we passed an interpretive sign on a curve, and couldn't stop until we got to the communications tower about half a mile down the road.  We parked there and walked back to find out it described a water tank on a mesa well below us that we already had a picture of.   Coming down the other side, we came to an overlook with signs describing the copper mines in Clifton and Morenci.  We had lunch there. 

Morenci Copper Mine

Chunk of copper bearing ore

Then we got down into the Gila River valley, crossing the river on the Old Stafford Bridge, built in 1918.

Old Stafford Bridge

At this point, people can put boats in the river to travel the 21 miles down the river to the Dry Canyon boat pull out at the other end of the Gila Box Riparian Area that we stopped at last week.   We parked at the picnic area there to take pictures of the bridge, and then took some from the campground on the plateau above the river.
For dinner, we headed over to Jerry's Restaurant.  It was pretty quiet since we arrived before 5pm.   Good service, and plentiful food.  John had the fried chicken from the seniors menu.  It came with a baked potato, salad, corn, and corn bread (or texas toast) and four large pieces of chicken (half a chicken).   We asked, and the regular fried chicken comes with 6 pieces.  Incredible!

On Thursday morning, we headed for Pima County Fairgrounds (where we stayed last winter) near Tucson.  On the way,  between Wilcox and Benson, we stopped at "The Thing?" .  This is the first time it was a good place for a break, although we have driven past it many times.

Joan bought John an early Christmas present.

 

Week ending Dec 7, 2017 Safford

Friday, we noticed we have a little bunny that likes to hang out behind our trailer.  After breakfast we went to visitor info and then to the National Forest and BLM Office where we got a map of the Coronado National Forest from here to the Santa Catalinas north of Tucson .

On Saturday, we did the historic walking tour of Safford in the afternoon.  By the time we were done, a few floats for the Parade of Lights were lining up at the end of Main Street.  

Odd Fellows Home

Safford City Hall decked out for Christmas

Sunday we drove to Roper Lake State Park.   We started a walk with the  .75 mile Mariah Mesa trail, then walked a combination of trails and roadways to do the two miles around Roper Lake.

Roper Lake from Mariah Mesa Trail

We aw what was probably a great blue heron flying around a couple of times, but couldn't see it on the lake.  There were lots of ducks and gulls on the lake.   From the park there are good views of Mt. Graham. which is the dominant mountain in the area at 10,700 ft. 

Monday, we did the Coronado Trail, from Clifton to Alpine.  We stopped at Clifton's Visitor Center.  It was closed, but the staff were having a Christmas Meeting.  They saw us come up, and opened up for us.  We got some good information on the Coronado Trail, including highlights with milepost locations.

Morenci, on the north edge of Clifton, is home to a huge copper mine, one of the largest open pit mines in world .   You drive along the edge of the mine, watching the big trucks carrying ore out, as the road climbs from 3600 feet up above 5400 ft. 

The Freeport-McMoran copper pit at Morenci

 The Coronado Trail follows the edges of the hills for about 100 miles to Alpine.  Past the mine, it travels up to HL Saddle, at 7600 ft. From there it carries on to Blue Vista Overlook at about 9600 ft, looking down over deep valleys.   The speed limit is 30 mph most of the route, but a lot of the turns are only 15 mph.   There are about 400 switchbacks on the route.   Joan drove while John gripped the door grip going around the corners.   We couldn't believe how many trailers were in the forest campgrounds, as as it has to get quite cold at night at these elevations.  We lots of hunters scanning the hills with scopes, looking for game, so perhaps that is who is camping here now.


There are lots of hiking trails going off the route,  which are well marked.    We saw a few wild turkeys, but none of the elk, bear, deer or Grey Mexican wolves which were reintroduced into the area in 1998. 
  

west from Blue Vista viewpoint

East from Blue Vista

Then we carried on to Hannagan Meadow Lodge at 9100 ft.

Further on, in Alpine we changed drivers.

John drove back through New Mexico (the longer but faster route) through Luna, Alma and Glenwood, then back across just south of Clifton into Safford. 
 
Tuesday morning, we got a few drops of rain.  They have been hoping for rain here to top up the reservoirs.  It was cool, so we watched the Canadian Curling Trials most of the day.

Wednesday, we paid to stay in Safford for another week.   Then we went out for breakfast.  We asked someone where they would go, and the said that Denny's had the best selection.  They had some interesting seasonal specials.  Joan had 2 pancakes with a pumpkin cream sauce that she enjoyed.  John had orange cream sauce on 2 pancakes with cranberries baked in.  They were an 'interesting'  flavour, but won't be a favourite.   We took away the eggs, hash browns and bacon that came with them, and had them for lunch.

Mt Graham had a bit of snow on the peak. 

Snow on the peak of Mt Graham

We drove up to the Acadia Campground on Mount Graham, at an elevation of about 6650ft.

Arcadia Campground on Mt Graham

We could see snow on the peak from the valley, but we didn't see any at the elevations we got to. We put our flourescent coloured ski seats around our shoulders before we started walking, as we had seen hunters checking out the slopes on the way up the hill.      We followed a marked trail for about 3/4 mi. through a forest with of sycamores, oaks and pines.

Trail up from Arcadia Campground

Fall leaves from the white sycamore

The trail was supposed to be 2 miles to a junction, but it kind of disappeared around a tree along a steep slope above Noon Creek.  We might have been able to scramble up it but decided to turn around.     We did get some great views of the valley. 

View of the valley from Mt Graham

In the campground, we saw a bushy tailed squirrel and another one on the way back down.    which we found out at the BLM office was an Abert squirrel.  We also saw a deer cross the road ahead of us.   We were glad we had the exhaust brakes installed before we left Arrowwood, as they helped slow the truck coming down the winding road, minimizing how often we had to use the brakes.
We stopped at one place we had seen on the way up.

'Waterfall' along the road up  Mt. Graham

On Thursday morning, we went on-line to the BLM site to get a permit for Aravaipa Canyon Wilderness, one of only 3 BLM areas in the state for which you need a permit, to limit the number of people in the area.  Once we got the permit, we saved the page to print it on a flash drive, and took it to the BLM office to get it printed. While we were there, the lady on the desk told us that she had seen a bunch of coatimundi the last time she was in the canyon.   We headed northwest of town on hwy 70 past Pima, then turned onto Klondyke Road.  Klondyke Road had a lot of washboard on it for quite a while before it got a bit smoother.   There were a few ranches of the road in the rolling desert.

Klondyke Road

  

A lot of the hills here are covered in Prickly Pear cacti

After about 24 miles we got to Aravaipa Canyon Road, which follows Aravaipa Creek northwest to the Canyon.   The ghost town of Klondyke (spelled differently than its Canadian namesake), has only a few buildings.  Only the lodge looked like it might still be in use, but is for sale.    We carried on past a few more ranches, with the road gradually getting narrower.   We encountered some wild turkeys on the road.  

Wild turkeys

A bit further on we saw some javelina.

Javelina

 Getting close to the trailhead, the road goes through the creek 6 times.  

One of the creek crossings

We found the trailhead with no problem.  There were only two other trucks, one with a flatbed trailer, in the parking lot.   The 1.5 mi to the east entrance to the wilderness could have been driven by a 4x4, but it was recommended that we walk from this point.

Canyon wall

   

Late fall colors

Along the way we saw a couple of coatimundi, but couldn't focus on them quickly enough. 
We also saw a vermillion flycatcher.  We waded through the creek 7 times before we got to the entrance to the wilderness area.  Our target for the day was to find the Turkey Creek cliff dwellings.   We figured that they were only about another half mile up Turkey Creek.   We saw 4 white-tailed deer trying to hide in the narrow canyon without much success.  

Deer doing a good job of being invisible

After about a mile, we figured that we had missed the location of the dwellings, so we had lunch and turned back  (when we got back to the trailer, we looked up the information and found out we had turned back about half a mile too soon).   On the way back down the canyon, we heard rustling under the leaves, and saw  a long tail sticking up.   We couldn't get focussed on it, and then a coatimundi ran out from under the leaves.  A few seconds at a time, a bunch more ran out too quickly fo us to get a picture.   Fortunately, just before we got back to the truck, we saw a group of them clustered under a tree just off the trail.  These ones didn't see us right away, so we were able to get some pictures.    https://www.desertusa.com/animals/coatimundi.html   

Coatimundi, showing the long tail

Coatimundi

A great day for wildlife sightings.  

Once we got back to the truck, we decided to drive back to Safford through Bonita.   This route was about 20 minutes longer than Klondyke Road, but was the route recommended by our GPS.   It was a bit less gravel road, and not as much washboard, but took us around the south end of Mt Graham.  As usual, it's worth taking a different route back, as the scenery was a good.    Once we got back to the trailer, our first priority was to change into dry warm socks.

While the pictures for the blog were loading,  John disconnected our water hose and put it in the cabinet, since it is going down to 27F overnight, and then 31F the next night.