On the road again, to Portal AZ via Bisbee

After a really enjoyable stay at Las Cienegas Conservation Area, we headed East today, first saying goodbye to our cattle buddies. Another cool morning, 9.5C at 6:30 am.

Along the highway something blew by us. We were managing to do about 95 kph with a stiff crosswind, and this vehicle (?) was really moving:

We got a better picture at the next gas stop. Keep in mind we were managing to do about 95 kph with a stiff crosswind, and this truck blew right by us! 

At a town along the way (Sierra Vista), we stopped for some supplies and a yummy Denny’s breakfast. Afterwards near Hereford, we happened by Our Lady of the Sierras chapel. We were passing it when the huge cross caught our eye, and we both realized we remembered it from one of Al’s Bayfield Bunch blogs (what would we do without Al to guide us I wonder?). This is an absolute gem of a place. Beautifully done, quite small, it feels very spiritual. It’s worth a visit no matter what your religious convictions.

Cathie wanted to see a Fiber Art studio in Bisbee she had missed on our earlier visit, so we stopped in there again today. Coming at Bisbee from a different direction shows a whole different face of Bisbee! There’s the remains of a huge copper mine on the edge of Bisbee, with a huge pit on one side and these giant piles of tailings on the other.

Cathie enjoyed her FA visit, there were various classes going on, and lots of lovely samples on display. There’s one less basket there now. It was made by one of the instructors there, so Cath bought it with some birthday money Donna had given her for our Alaska trip 2 years before.

Leaving Bisbee, we made our way to Douglas. This isn’t much of a place other than the modern Walmart, pretty well on the Mexican border. Just north of town is a memorial to Geronimo’s surrender. Being here makes events like that a lot more real than before. 

The monument itself isn’t much really:

But the surroundings added some real atmosphere:

We were heading for someplace in the Chiricahua Mtns to stay tonight. Near Portal AZ, in the Coronado Natl Forest, is an area called Cave Creek. We’re camped in Sunny Flat, one of the cg’s. No hookups, but there are toilets and a drinking water tap, and lots of trees and beautiful rock walls. The cg is also out of the flash flood area from the nearby creek, so that's a nice bonus!

The rocks remind us of Zion National Park in some places. It feels like luxury after boondocking for a while, well worth the $10/night it costs. That’s full price, our annual US National Parks pass isn’t accepted here. The Golden Age US Seniors passes are accepted though.

Prairie dogs and moving camp

It was a cool start today, sunny and 16C at 9am. However at 4am it was only 5C, so we had to pull up another blanket. We don’t run the Mr Buddy propane heater overnight, so rely on insulation when not plugged in to electricity. We did sit out with our morning coffee though, bundled up and in our wind shelter. 

After a walk on the road in the camping area, we took a drive to the nearby site where Black Tailed Prairie Dogs are being reintroduced. This is still in the Conservation area where we are camped (it's some 35,000 acres in total), just a km or so away from our camp. It was fun watching these little guys. Hunting is forbidden in the area, so they have never been hunted and were quite ok with us being close.

Some trail riders moving through. They have to go through a gate in the fence, since the horses won't cross the Texas Gates in the road:

Afterwards we found that a site nicer than ours had been vacated, so we moved over to it before taking a drive to the nearby town of Patagonia. 

Pategonia looks like a little cow town, but really is an artsy 
place. Nothing convinced us to buy, but it was nice looking at the items in the artist's co-op store. A local artist is known for his hand-made wooden flutes. They were lovely and it would have been nice to get one, if we had any music-making ability.

While we were there, a Medivac helicopter landed in the town square, quite an event here:

We picked up some groceries and snacks, and headed back to camp, 22C at 3pm. It was still 18C at 7pm, really nice. Around suppertime a small herd of range cattle surrounded the van, just quietly munching away on the grass.

It was up to 25C briefly today, with a brisk breeze. Nancy tells us that's nicer than PEI right now!

Patagonia to Las Cienegas

Friday morning we headed out early to a boondocking site mentioned by the Bayfield Bunch (thanks once again to Al and Kelly!). It was 14C when we started out, cooling further to 9C by Sonoita.

We got settled in a spot in an area called Las Cienegas. It's in a grasslands reserve area, Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. 
We'll be staying Friday and Saturday nights here, partly because of March break and partly because it's just a beautiful shortgrass area, still a somewhat-working cattle ranch with historic headquarters buildings being rescued and restored. 

Later Friday morning we set out for a day trip to Bisbee. Before we left, we set up our little red shelter to mark our spot as occupied, then headed out on a very enjoyable day trip.

We headed south on #83, east on #82, then south and east on #90 thru Huachuca City to Bisbee. Bisbee is amazing; there is hardly any level land so the houses are built up and down wherever there was room. Al has lots of Bisbee pictures on his Bayfield Bunch blog site; it's a very picturesque village. At 5,300 ft elevation, it claims a climate much more temperate than Tucson through the summer. 

It has also achieved some fame due to books by J. A. Jance set in the area. 

Amazingly, we managed to get parked for free right in Bisbee. If the van was any bigger, it would have cost us $10 to park in a nearby lot. 

When we were ready for lunch, we left the main tourist area 
and had a lovely lunch at Anna’s Seasonal Kitchen. It closes at 2pm but luckily we got there about 1:30. We had good lemonade with lunch, and got a couple of banana muffins to take with us. 

Cath stopped in to a Vintage Shop and got a Coldwater Creek cardigan for $12. 

After leaving Bisbee we stopped by Tombstone, a very touristy place trading on the famous (or infamous) gunfight at the OK Corral, involving Wyatt Earp and his gang vs the Clantons. 
Recreations of the event are held daily, for a fee.

We had a good walk around. It’s a real tourist town but fun, with lots of shops with souvenirs. We picked out a t-shirt for Donna, then headed back to camp. There is still snow on some of the high peaks and vineyards around Sonoita. On the way in to the BLM Empire Ranch land (our boondock area) we saw 7 antelope.

Organ Pipe to Patagonia State Park AZ

We left Organ Pipe Park pretty early this morning, heading for Tucson and beyond. We had a nice drive, seeing a coyote along the way. We also saw a number of discarded black water bottles; apparently these are discarded by the unofficial migrants that come through the area overnight.

We did stop in at the Kitt Peak observatory before we got to Tucson. It's a pretty neat 12-mile drive from the highway to the top, going up about 4,000 ft elevation.

On the way up we passed a cyclist pedalling his way up. Did I mention that it’s 12 miles up with a 4,000 ft elevation rise??

On the way down we met several more cyclists churning their way up. They were very spread out, with the laggers not having much fun. It looked like they came in a tour van that was parked at the bottom of the hill. "Where's that electric-assist when I need it?"

We got stopped along the way at a Border Patrol Station, pretty common around here. The officer asked if we were American; when we said “Canadian”, he said “Close enough”, and waved us through. Every time we went through one of these checkpoints the officers were very polite to us, must be part of their training.

In Tucson we stopped at a Walmart for another data card for our Internet service. Also we had another browse of the Camping World store, where we bought our new step on the way west. 
I’ve never seen such disinterested and poorly-trained staff at a Camping World store before.

Before leaving the Tucson area we stopped at a Truck Stop to fill up our 10lb propane tank. $7.80 with the Good Sam 10% discount. We also had to try 2 slices of Meat Lover’s takeout pizza for $5, cheap and quite good.

We found #83 down from I10 quite a pretty drive. It reminded us of the hilly grasslands in and around Custer State Park in South Dakota.

We found a site at the Patagonia State Park for Thursday night. It's a nice park, but we didn't find the staff particularly friendly. I think they are freaking out, imagining the next few weeks as March break is rotated around the state schools. We could only get 1 night (which is all we wanted anyway) because the park is fully reserved for the rest of March. Lots of birders here.

View of Cormorants from our site:

Great-Tailed Grackles serenading:

We had never seen Grackles like this, and they were amazing singers.

Hiking around Organ Pipe

The Gambrel quail were roaming around the site again this morning, very pretty little creatures.

Just hiking and sunning today, the van didn't leave its parking spot. This morning we took a hike to an old mine; the Victoria Mine trail starts on the edge of the campground. It was about 7km return, and we were glad to sit down at the campsite after a shower.

No, just a saguaro cactus skeleton 

This van picture likely looks odd. No we weren’t having engine trouble:

Apparently packrats can get into engine bays and do some damage. Shedding some light on the site can discourage the rats. Not sure how common it is, but there are warnings posted all over the place. So you'll see the majority of vehicles in the park with their hood partly or fully open.

We'll be checking out of here tomorrow morning, on our way to Tucson for some shopping. Our 10lb propane tank finally ran out, after 3 years. After Tucson we may be heading south to the Patagonia area, not sure where exactly.