Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve

We again woke to snow on the mountains at the campground and then traveled to the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve. The Nature Conservancy runs this important wildlife corridor into the mountains.



Sign at the information center.






Railroad Trail



Sonoita Creek has about five miles of perennial water flow (other places the water goes underground or dries up) and two of the miles are in this preserve.  We saw other flowing sections at Patagonia Lake State Park.

Water flowing in Sonoita Creek

 










The cottonwoods along the creek are a great habitat for birds.  And they are old, huge, and wonderful.


Helen at one of the large Fremont Cottonwoods



Bruce with felled cottonwood cut for the trail to pass.

 Helen

Tubac & Tumacácori

Lovely names, eh?  Tubac had a historic presidio-the first fort built in what is now Arizona, (by the Spanish) but we passed it by for the artist's shops;  but more for freeing up time to visit the Tumacácori  Historical Park. 

Tumacácori National Historic Park preserves the ruins of a Spanish church, convent, orchard, etc. It was established by the Jesuits in the 1600's near a Pima Indian Village.  Later the king of Spain gave the mission to the Franciscians. The structures still remaining today are from that era.   

Entrance to Tumacácori Historical Park 



Adobe church begun in the 1700's and never finished.




Interior of the church, looking toward the front, at Tumacácori 



Interior of the church, Tumacácori 



Remains of the convent where the fathers lived, Tumacácori 






Copy of the Spanish map of the mountains of Mexico & Arizona
all part of Spain at that point in time.

 The museum had excellent displays, including the above map.  The orchard is being replanted with species that were available then.  An irrigation channel brought water from the Santa Cruz river to the mission.  The cathedral/church was never completed due to Indian raids and change of governments.
Helen

Madera Canyon

We just cannot miss Madera Canyon when we visit southern Arizona.  It's a great entrance to the sky island of the Santa Rita Mountains.  It's famous for birding, and has great hiking trails.  We waited until we had warm weather for a few days, because we wanted to hike up into the mountains, and had hoped the warmth would have melted off the snow.  Not so, so we hiked the lower trails.  The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm.


Mt. Wrightson, Santa Rita Mountain Range

 Hiking the Proctor Trail along the creek.


Helen on a rock.




Bruce on the bridge at the beginning of Proctor Trail.



Along Proctor Trail



Trailside rocks

As Madera is a great place for birdwatchers, we met many. 

Three of the birders on the trail, Loretta, Mateo, and Bob

One of the great birds, Hepatic Tanager

There are several places to stay in the canyon, lodges, bed and breakfasts.  All have bird feeders out.  Santa Rita Lodge gets more than birds at their feeders.

Coatimundi

There is a campground nestled among the oaks and junipers.  It was my favorite camping site of the trip.  Well, it's a toss up between this one, Bog Springs Campground, and Gilbert Ray (Tucson Mountain Park) in the desert.


View from our campsite




Campsite at Bog Springs Campground, Madera Canyon

 Helen

Another winter day in southern Arizona



Common Ground-Dove

 As I write, the snow is still coming down here at Patagonia Lake State Park, near the Mexican border. They say it has been a record month for snowfall. The mountains should be beautiful when this storm is over. Last evening Helen's phone suddenly came on with a bunch of alert sounds followed by "winter weather advisory for your area". Her phone hasn't ever done that in Ohio.... The Common Ground-Dove is definitely not common.
- Bruce

Patagonia Lake State Park - second visit, Feb. 19-21

I really like Patagonia Lake. For one thing there is water! The campsites are great and the trails are fun. Today was memorable for three reasons: Helen baked rolls; the snow was beautiful, and we finally found a trogon.

Sonora Desert Museum

We spent a half day at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  It has wonderful displays inside, great botanical displays outside, and a few animals in outdoor contained settings-wolves, mountain lion, bear, pecaries, etc.

Sonora Desert Museum, overview.


The mineral, cave, geology, and mining displays were inside, down and dark.  

Minerals


A newly added aquarium complimented the aviary and hummingbird walk-in habitat.


Band-tailed Pigeon

Twice daily there is a Raptor Free Flight program that had birds fly overhead and return to their trainers.  There were so many spectators that we had to watch from afar.  The birds who flew over our heads and gave a wonderful show were a Barn Owl, a group of four Harris Hawks (they hunt cooperatively), a Peregrine Falcon, and a Grey Hawk. 

Crowd at the Raptor Flight, note the hawk on a Saguaro.





One of the perches was ironic!


Harris Hawk on sculpture.



Harris Hawk on handler's glove.



Trail, with railings made with local mesquite wood.

 We enjoyed browsing the quality gift shop's wide variety of items.

Helen

Catalina State Park, near Tucson, Arizona

We made this park our base for five days, taking side trips around the area, but also hiking a couple times in the park. The park is at the base of the Catalina Mountains. While camping here, it snowed twice up on the peaks.  We hear it is a rare event to have snowy mountains, for a woman who has lived here all her life was all excited by the sight.


Snow on the Catalinas.

 One morning we hiked the Canyon Loop Trail.  In one of the canyons there was water.  Water in the desert is thrilling!

Water in Sutherland Canyon

Along a south facing ridge grew the tallest Saguaros we've seen.


The tall saguaros.



A brilliant Vermilion Flycatcher welcomed us at our campsite.
Helen

Still more pictures

If you'd like to see more pictures than are included in our posts, we've added picasa web albums that you can look though.  Here's the site for the Tucson walking tour.  After viewing that album, you can go to the home tab at the top and find other albums.
https://picasaweb.google.com/105661449876807677021/TucsonWalkingTour#

Biosphere 2

Biosphere 1 is earth.  Biosphere 2 was built in the eighties and early nineties for research.  Maybe some of you remember the experiment of folks living inside the self contained space for two years. 

The facility is now used by the University of Arizona for a variety of research topics and as a conference center. 

Biosphere 2

The interior had three climate areas. 


Ocean (and wetlands)



Desert




Rain Forest



The infrastructure to maintain the biosphere is tremendous. 



The lung, that stores and releases air as the pressure varies with temperature.



The lung.



Housing in the conference center.



The two year live-in experiment was supposed to gain knowledge applicable to a possible space mission.  Lots of information was gathered, but no self sufficient space dwellings with plants and animals has yet resulted!  Helen