Kitt Peak, Buenos Aires NWR & Grant & Kathy!

Today again dawned bright and sunny. I had a lovely desert walk. I even found a trail that I don't think I've been on before.

We hung around the RV until just before lunch Gordon said he was going to Kitt Peak National Observatory and did I want to come? Alright then, I got ready and away we went. I'm not much interested in the observatory itself but I thought the drive and the views from the top of Kitt Peak would be great. As soon as I got out of the truck I saw some large beautiful birds that were hanging around the picnic area but on we went to the Visitor Center. I took some photos of the telescopes then while Gordon was walking around I told him I would go back to the truck area and try to take some photos of the birds. I did get pretty close to them and got some good shots even with my little camera. Kitt Peak is at 7000 ft. Here in Tucson, I think, we're at about 2400 ft. There was a 20 degree difference between the desert floor and the top of the mountain. It's about 10 miles up the mountain at about an 8% grade. Quite the views! Sure glad I wasn't driving though! We can see Kitt Peak and Baboquivari Peak from our RV Park.

The road up the mountain.




Mexican Jay


Two Mexican Jays


Leftovers from our recent rainstorm. Obviously at that height it was snow!

Views from the mountain.



From there I thought we were on our way home - NOT!

As we were coming up to S.R. 286, Gordon asked if I minded if he drove south on 286 for a bit. I said no so away we went ending up about 40 miles later at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge which is about 9 miles from the Mexican border.

Baboquivari Peak from our campground looks like (sorry, Laura) a nipple however when you get close to it it looks more like the top of the Matterhorn (from one view) and apparently is the only mountain in Arizona that requires 'technical climbing' to get to the top. It is also considered a 'sacred place' to the Tohono O'odham nation.



As we were traveling on 286 we got lots of photos of this mountain. When we reached the Visitor Center for the Buenos Aires NWR, we got more photos. We stopped at the Visitor Center and were told of a lake that had some birds about a mile away so we went there and took more photos of it, this time with Grebe Pond in the foreground. There was a hiking trail there but as we were getting out of the truck a couple from the NWR was just coming back and said that rattlesnakes had been spotted in various places along the trail. This dampened our enthusiasm for trail walking so we took a few photos and fled to safety in the truck.

From there we started back home arriving just before 6:00 p.m. Just as we got in the RV I heard someone calling 'Hello' so I went to the door and there was Grant and Kathy from Birding RVers, another blog that I read. We chatted for only a few minutes as we had just gotten home and were hungry! Grant and Kathy are right across from us but they've been sick so have been keeping a low profile. They were to have attended the dinner Ellie & Jim put on a couple of weeks ago but declined due to being sick so I'm glad we finally got to meet them.

Our Morning Was Spent at the Desert Museum

AI woke up to another beautiful, sunny day. The plan in the back of my head was to go to the Desert Museum today consequently I didn't do my morning desert walk.

We arrived at the Museum around 9:30 a.m. along with about five school buses and a tour bus. Inside we asked what would be in the raptor free flight today. We had seen them all so decided to do the loop. Boy did we pick the right day. There were two coyotes in the coyote area and they stood up on rocks and posed. Then on to the javelina area. There were five or six of them rooting around and eating brittle bush. We took lots of pictures.


These two deer were licking each other affectionately.

On our way back two docents were standing under a ramada with a male and female Kestrel so more photos. On to the aviary, lots of birds there too. The only place we didn't have a lot of luck was at the hummingbird aviary. One flew right in front of Gordon's face and hovered there. I got a photo of it but it wasn't very good. The flowers are also coming out. They have a new part of the museum called 'Life on the Rocks' opening at the end of the week so we'll have to go back and check that out.

I think this is a Black-Headed Grosbeak

This huge pigeon type bird was trying to take a nap.

The Parrot below was giving the Long-Legged Stilt what for!


This is the hummingbird that was hovering in front of Gordon. He's moving so he's kind of blurry!

The male and female Kestrels. These birds are small falcons.

It was a very good day at the Desert Museum! There were lots of kids around, some of them louder than I would like but it is a great place for kids to learn.

We arrived home in time for lunch. Then I retired to my lawnchair for a while, came inside and had a nap and that's the extent of my day.

Now it's on to the rv-dreams chatroom!

Taking It Easy!

To clarify, yesterday I mentioned that the temperature in the morning when I got up was 51F (11C) however the daytime temperature was near 70F (21C). Today was only 50F (10C) when I got up this morning but by mid-afternoon had reached a beautiful 83F (28C) with a light breeze. It was 85F (29C) inside the RV but we didn't need the air on with the breeze coming in the windows and the Fantastik Fan on it was beautiful inside. This is what we came to Arizona for! Too bad we've had to wait four months for it to arrive. I'm also hoping that the balmy temperatures together with the rain this winter will soon cause the desert flowers to bloom. Gordon saw one this morning on his outing.

I took a photo of this 5er this morning coming back from my walk. Interesting design - it's an Alfa.


Speaking of this morning, I had just gotten back from my walk and fixed my cereal and was standing with Gordon when he looked out the rear window and there crossing right behind our RV in the vicinity of where I put my lawn chair was this coyote (photo on the right)! So this photo is compliments of Gordon as I just stood there dumbfounded when I should have been getting my camera!

Knowing that this was going to be the most beautiful day we've had this winter and also knowing that we needed a few groceries, I got ready early and went out to the local Safeway to pick up what I needed. There was no way I was going to brave Walmart on a Sunday. While I was there of course I had to check out the Family Dollar Store as well as the 99 cent store and after I got groceries I went across the street to Walgreens where I got my wonderful husband some Necco wafers which he loves and a box of peanut brittle since I don't make it any more.

Safeway is like Bashas in that they have some really good specials. Today I got an $18 package of 7 huge pork chops for less than $6 with my Safeway card (sure glad I applied for it last time I was in the store). They don't automatically give you the discount without a card the way Bashas does.

On returning to the RV I sat outside in my lawnchair and finished my book taking some photos of the area behind our RV since the sky was interesting. Then I went down to the office and was able to get another Sandra Brown book called "Chill Factor", so I've started it. This one has a more interesting start than Ricochet did.

Pretty sky this afternoon

Hmmmm - the mark of Zorro (but backwards)!

Other than the weather, again, not a very interesting day to blog about!

Just Another Day in the Desert

Today was partly cloudy when I got up but 51F (11C). I did have some sunny breaks for my desert walk though. As the morning progressed the sun came out but still had some pretty clouds in the sky.

Desert photo

Here's the pond at the campground that's part of the 'golf course'.

Gordon got an email this morning from his daughter with grandkid photos. Here's one of all of her kids together with one of their great grandmothers.

I didn't do much all day but read. I picked a Sandra Brown book up in the library here in the campground called 'Richochet' and it's turned out to be pretty good. The first few chapters were kind of slow but it's really picked up and gotten interesting.

We went for a walk in the desert this afternoon for about an hour and other than that it's been a quiet day!

A Day in our RV Park

Today we didn't do much of anything. Just relaxed from our busy day yesterday, got the tanks dumped, that sort of thing.

I woke up to cloudy skies. We had a mostly cloudy day with a bit of sun here and there and a drop or so of rain.

Gordon got the bike out for me today. The garbage dumpster is up at the front of the park and we're at the back so we usually dump on our way out going somewhere but today since we weren't going out I used the bike to haul the garbage up.

I did have a nice long walk in the desert this morning but didn't see anything other than the usual desert plants and mountains. There are a lot more people walking in the desert now than there were when we were here in December! I took the photo on the right as a fleeting few rays of sun showed up on the mountains.

I've been noticing this dead saguaro for a few days now but just took a photo this morning.


Lots of RVs have come in today. I'm not sure where he's put them. When we drove through the front area yesterday there were none available . There are a couple in the golf course view area and I think two sites for mountain view and about the same for desert view so if you're planning on coming here, I would advise you to make a reservation at this point as people don't seem to be leaving!

I took this photo of a saguaro with lots of arms on our way back yesterday. It was right off I-19.


I was lying down reading this afternoon and into a really deep sleep. It wasn't a restful sleep. I'm more tired now than when I lay down.

Not a very exciting day!

A Southern Road Trip

This morning Gordon said he wanted to go and do something today. He had found another Mission (photo below) south of Green Valley, AZ at the Tumacacori National Historic Park. On the way south we stopped at the Tourist Bureau in Green Valley to pick up some information.

I'm not a history buff so these Mission trips do little for me however I went in and took some photos. There is an orchard there so I looked there for birds and did see a cardinal again. My sister thinks that our Mother has been reincarnated as a cardinal as she loved cardinals when she was alive and had cardinal everything inside and outside the house. So I'm wondering, what was our Mother doing at a Catholic Mission?

Prior to going to the Mission we got off I-19 at a town called Tubac. I had never heard of Tubac before but its an arts and crafts town. We drove around it and this is on our list to go back to while we're here. From there we drove south to Nogales, AZ which borders the Mexican town of Nogales, MX. From there we took Hwy 82 north to Patagonia and paid our $7.00 to go into the Patagonia Lake State Park. We had our picnic lunch there that I had prepared. We decided that most of the sites there would not accommodate our RV. The lake itself was quite pretty and had a very steep walking bridge that crosses part of Patagonia Lake. We stopped at the Visitor Center and was told there was a birding trail at the far end of the park so off we went to the trail (photo on the left and photo below). It was quite pretty walking along the lake and we did see some ducks and coots and a couple other small birds that we couldn't identify but other than that we saw cows! I've never been in a State Park before that had cows but they were nice cows. I thought though that where there are cows, there's a bull and sure enough we walked a little further and saw a young bull but he ran away so I guess we didn't have to be afraid of him. We turned around and came back to the truck at that point anyway.


Gordon on the walking bridge in Patagonia Lake State Park.

Here's the pitch of the bridge.


View of Patagonia Lake from our picnic table.

A store in Tubac - if we still had the house I'm afraid I'd spend a lot of money here!

We did a quick trip through the Arizona side of Nogales. It was your typical border town. Here's one of the streets.

The drive up Hwy. 82 to Patagonia is a very scenic highway (photos below). When we left the State Park we continued north on Hwy 82 and the scenery was still beautiful. We then took Hwy 83 toward Tucson and turned of on a side road that took us just north of Green Valley so we could pick up I-19 again. On our way back we stopped at the San Xavier Mission at Tucson. This Mission is a working mission and has been under construction since 1989 and today the scaffolding was worse than usual. Maybe that means it will soon be done????



San Xavier Mission


I only took a couple of photos there, then came back to the truck and called my sister in Ottawa. It's still cold there but I was told the ice is melting on their driveway! Sure glad I'm here!

Getting Things Done and a Hike

It was sunny when I got up, turned to mostly cloudy and then sunny again later this afternoon and now it's supposed to cloud up and possibly rain overnight. It was still a pretty nice day at a high of 67F (19C).

This is Kitt Peak taken on my morning desert walk.

Here's the Blue Bird bus that people on rv-dreams chat wanted to see.


This morning we changed the bed and I got the laundry ready. Now that the park is mostly full, the laundry room is very busy however I went over just after lunch and lucked out. Someone was just leaving so I had the machines to myself. A couple of hours later I was back at the RV putting clothes away.

I lay down to read and realized I felt like getting out and doing something so we piled in the truck and went over to Tucson Mountain Park. We started out on a trail then Gordon decided that there might be clouds over at Golden Gate Pass so away we went. They weren't what he hoped for so we came back and walked part of the Brown Mountain Trail in Tucson Mountain Park. There is a trail off Brown Mountain trail that goes around Brown Mountain called the Cougar Trail. We met a lady on the trail who was saying how beautiful it is. Don't know if I'll be able to walk that far though. Then we drove over to Saguaro National Park and walked around the visitor center although by this time it was closed. We got home around 6:30 p.m.

This is a better example of a dead palo verde tree after 'nursing' the saguaro.


I saw this curvy saguaro at the Saguaro NP Visitor Center


While we were at the Brown Mountain trailhead we met another couple from Ottawa who are staying at Gilbert Ray Campground which is a campground with only electricity as far as I recall. For $20/night, I'll stay where I am!

Tonight there was a full moon and it was a beauty! The eclipse was supposed to occur here at about 6:45 p.m.

The eclipse is just starting!

Staying at Home

Yesterday I had thought that we might go back to the Desert Museum today but my foot is still tired from yesterday's shopping so after my walk this morning, Gordon decided he would go on his own and go for the morning Raptor Free Flight.

I took this cardinal photo at the museum on Sunday.

I took this photo of a ravaged prickly pear cactus this morning. One would think we have javelinas here in the desert!

I have been having problems in Firefox lately. I only had one scroll arrow for scrolling up so it was annoying me! Both Camino and Safari had two scrolling arrows. I asked Gordon to put the updated version of Firefox on my computer so he did that last night but it didn't correct the scrolling problem. Hmmmm...... Gordon deleted the Firefox preference file thinking it was corrupted, that didn't solve the problem. I sent an email to Firefox telling them of the problem. I was messing around looking in all kinds of Help files and all of a sudden I looked and I have two scrolling arrows again! Firefox poltergeists??? Who knows? All I know is, it's working again and I'm a happy camper!

I knew I needed to do a 'housecleaning' so while Gordon was gone I decided this was a good time although I hate to clean when it's nice outside.

After that I walked down to the office to complain about the loud transformer which is on our site. It was supposed to be fixed on Saturday but it rained and it's gotten louder so I told both Doc and his wife, Christine, picked up some quarters from Christine so I'd be ready to do the laundry (later), took a book to the library and picked one up. Then back to the RV to sit in the desert behind our rig in my lawn chair and read a new book.

I had just gotten set up when Gordon got back at about noon. He said that the Desert Museum was even busier today than it was on Sunday. He had gone to the Raptor Free Flight but when he heard what the raptors were he didn't stay as he'd seen them all and it was getting crowded. He said there were all kinds of little kids running around yelling so the birds would fly away so he packed it in and came home. When he came home, he too, walked to the office and complained about the transformer so they've promised to fix it tomorrow morning for sure. If not, we'll move to another site as there are some that are vacant in the mountain view row now.

I spent the better part of the afternoon in my lawnchair reading and gazing at Golden Gate Mountain and the surrounding desert and watching the woodpeckers on the saguaro nearby. It was 77F (25C) today, sunny with a light breeze. Just a beautiful day!
Here's a tidbit of trivia for you for today:

Cochineal is a scale insect (plant-feeding insect), from which cochineal dye is derived. This type of insect, a parasite, lives on cacti feeding on moisture and nutrients in the cactus sap. The prickly pear cactus is one of these cacti. This insect produces carminic acid. The carminic acid can be extracted from the insect's body and eggs to make red dye. Cochineal is primarily used as a red food coloring and for cosmetics.

We had a fairly nice sunset tonight and also a pretty moon rise. Here is 'moon over rv'.

Shopping and a Short Story

I had a good time today but it's a pretty boring day to write about. I did my walk and run around the loop and then walked in the desert.

Something we found out at the Desert Museum on Sunday. I thought that there were no snakes in the desert during the winter. That isn't true. Snakes will come out during the winter if the temperature is above 70F (21C). So I'd better watch out for them in the desert in the afternoons. I don't think I have anything to worry about in the morning but I'll be sure to take my walking stick just in case.

I left around 10 a.m. and went into Tucson. I had a few stops to make and I decided to see what was in the Fry's plaza other than Mervyns (department store). I did discover that there's a GNC (vitamin store) there so will have to go there at the beginning of March. GNC is different in the U.S. In Canada you can use your gold card membership all month, in the U.S. it's only the first seven days of each month.

After that I did my Walmart stop or the $100 store as it's called because you never get out of there for under $100 and that proved to be the case today. They also didn't have any 1% Lactaid milk or any nice apples so I stopped at the Safeway at Cardinal & Valencia on my way home, taking the back streets to reach the Ajo Highway rather than doubling back to Mission Rd.

Since today was boring, I'll tell you a short story complete with pictures.

Saguaro cactus often grow under the protection of the palo verde tree. The palo verde tree is called the "nurse plant". The saguaro grows much better and is well protected by the palo verde. They both flourish for years until the saguaro grows up to be bigger and taller than the palo verde then they both compete for the same water often killing the palo verde.

Very small saguaro under the protection of the palo verde tree


Medium saguaro still being protected by the palo verde tree


I couldn't find a photo of a totally dead palo verde with a saguaro beside it but I found this one where the palo verde is dying.


That's it for today!