Where we are in Sierra Vista

 Our home base for the last few weeks has been Sierra Vista, AZ, about an hour southeast of Tucson, where Steve's daughter and son-in-law live. Sierra Vista is the home of Fort Huachua, where Aaron is a Sargent. His duties right now are in teaching, which is the reason they were transferred back here from KY.

Sierra Vista was founded in the 1850's, similar to many western cities. The Fort was home to the "Buffalo Soldiers", black regiments from the 1860's onward. Interesting history and there is a museum dedicated to these soldiers on the base. 

 

Huachuca mtns lower left; Dragoon mtns center right

Sierra Vista is located in a valley surrounded by the Huachuca, Patagonia and Whetstone mountains. You can see Miller Peak, the highest of the Huachuca's peaks at almost 10,000 ft, from Beth and Aaron's back yard. Currently the mountain is snow covered. There's often a cloud bank hovering over the peaks, which sometimes results in rain or snow in the lower elevations (mostly rain). The valley is at 4,600' and is considered high desert. It is pretty dry all year except for "monsoon season" in the fall.

Backyard view

Miller Peak

Huachuca mtns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their home is typical southwestern style with rock lawn and hardy, low water plantings. There are no grass lawns anywhere in Sierra Vista. 

The house, rock lawn

 

Our bedroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen

Living Room

 

Beth and Aaron have an adorable dog named Dexter, who looks like a smaller version of my boy Jack, and they have two cats, Ducky and Delila, and two lizards as well. 

Aaron, Beth and Dexter in Ithaca

 

Dexter

Ducky

Delilia

Today we went back to Bisbee to have lunch and return the growler to Old Bisbee Brewing co, and to go to St Elmo's, the oldest bar in Bisbee, established 1902. Pretty funny place. Reminded me a little of McSorley's in NYC, but with less dust.

 

Yesterday we went to Tucson to the Pima Air and Space Museum, 80 acres of planes, helicopters and more. Steve was in heaven....and I have to say it was pretty cool! The B-17 in the photo below was the best one. There was a veteran there, signing his book and having his photo taken. He had served in WWII on one of these planes. Amazing history. 

B-17 from WWII

Petulant Porpoise

Blue Angels

Bi-plane

 

SR-71 Blackbird, highest and fastest flying aircraft ever.

 

On the way home from Bisbee we discovered the Coronado National Memorial, where we will go hiking today. Tomorrow we are going to a cowboy concert at the Arizona Folklore Preserve to see Randy Huston. Monday we leave for Kartcher Caverns State Park. So a busy few days. And this will end our time with Beth and Aaron. We start to head a bit farther north in the next few weeks, with Rimrock, AZ as our destination in mid-March, and another visit with family.

Patagonia Lake State Park

 We departed Sierra Vista and Beth and Aaron last Thursday after the worst of the cold and snow flurries were over. It’s about an hour to Patagonia Lake State Park, so not far away. It’s a beautiful ride through golden grasslands.
 

 

That green ribbon is Sonoita creek

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The campsite I had chosen was not very level, so we asked at the visitor center if they could move us and they graciously did. Patagonia Lake is 256 acres. It is dammed but it is fed by Sonoita (so-noy-ta) Creek, which is spring fed and runs all year, amazingly. The green corridor this creates is just a tremendous resource for birds and wildlife. The park offers guided bird walks on Friday and Monday, which we took advantage of. Couple new life birds for us and great to see and hear spring songs.

Arizona Cardinal - bigger crest, more orange

 

Yellow headed black bird

Brideled Titmouse in action

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a couple of Tucson Audubon properties, other state lands and Nature Conservancy areas to explore as well.  We hiked in the state park and in some of the state lands as well.
The little town of Patagonia, 5 miles down the road is very cute. Lots of art studios, restaurants and a good bakery. There is also the Paton Center for Hummingbirds, set up by the Paton family who then opened their land to the public. We saw a Violet-crowned hummingbird there. What a beautiful bird.

Not our photo. Look at that bill color!

We had dinner and lunch in Patagonia on separate days. Really good food. No pics though. We also had Sunday Breakfast in Nogales, 15 m south of the park. We ate at El Ramffels, a family run small place. Grandmother (abulea) waited on us. She almost had to go get her daughter to translate but we got it figured out.

Dinner in Patagonia

 

El Ramffels menu. yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The border wall runs right through the middle of Nogales, separating neighborhoods and no doubt families as well. I can’t imagine what it was like when that was going up.

Nogales border wall

 

 

 

 

 

Aside from the bird walks, we took a short hike up hill to an overlook, and then I took a longer one looking for the park's petroglyphs. I did find some, but they were so faded I didn’t even take pictures. We did not see either of the two things I really wanted to see there, green kingfisher and coatimundi. Oh well.

Campsite with mesquite trees

Dogs :-)

Lake from overlook

Lake shore

 

 Big bridge over the marina

Steep!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week being president’s week, I was not able to find any open campgrounds, so we are back with Beth and Aaron for the week. They are so gracious opening their home to us. 

 

Stats: $30 for five nights with water and electric, with Golden Age pass, which Arizona honors. Sort of heated bathrooms. Nice new baths. We did not try the showers but they looked good. No cell service to speak of.

Road side shrine

Sunsets from the bridge

Reflection

Nogales in the background, 15 miles away. Mtns in Mexico

Some fun days

After a quiet week last week, this week we did some fun things on Monday and Wednesday. 

On Monday, we took a long day trip to Chiricahua National Monument, about 1.75 hours from here. This was a fun drive out through small AZ towns and scenery.

Our Route from Sierra Vista

Curvy road

 

This place is City of Rocks on steroids. There's a nice visitor center, small campground and a hair raising drive up about 6 miles, limited length vehicles. We parked and hiked only about a mile total, but enough to get the gist. It had been snowing when we left Sierra Vista, and the temperature and wind combined to keep us chilly. Elevation is close to 7,000 feet where we were hiking, temps in the mid 40's. Amazing rock formations, incredible views. We saw two animals indigenous to this area - a sub-species of white tail deer called a Coues' deer, and the Goulds Turkey! Steve's photos, of course. 

Fire Tower up top

The Grottoes

Grottoe

Distant snow capped peaks

Goulds Turkey - white butt!

Coues' deer - small like a big dog

Acorn Woodpecker

On the way home we stopped at Whitewater Draw Natural area, to see thousands of Sandhill Cranes, like 20-25,000 of them!  It was snowing on the mountain tops to make for some dramatic skies on the way, and it did start to rain while we were there. I wish I was able to record the sound of these cranes, but it was too windy.

A small section of the thousands of cranes

 

 

Then, for our third stop of the day, we stopped at the Old Bisbee Brewing Company for some Mayan Stout and brats and chili for dinner. It was definitely snowing in Bisbee! But the brewery was full of folks enjoying a brew and some local comradery.  All in all a very fun day. It was good to have Beth and Aaron at home to let the dogs out when they got home. And it was great to get back to a nice warm house after being outside for most of the day. Thanks to Karen Edelstein and Sheary Clough Suitor for the heads up on these places. 

Made from local Juniper berries

 

Mayan Stout. yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stories of crazy Bisbee

 

 

 

 

 

Dramatic Sky

Tuesday night it actually snowed overnight. It was colder in Sierra Vista than in Ithaca for once. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday (today) we met up with Nard and Sheary in Tucson. They have been touring around the area, and we have been near each other but not exactly in the same place at the same time. If you want to read about their travels, you can follow them at Sheary's Polarsteps page. They find more off the beaten path locations than we do. Super interesting (you will have to create an account in Polarsteps, fyi).

We met them at the Fourth street historic district, and walked to the Barrio Viejo district where we had an excellent lunch at El Minuto. Then walked back. It was sunny and near 50. Perfect walking temps. We had such a good day spending time with them. Some of our sights of the day.

The Locks thing

The Hut

 

 

Mural

 

Koi

 

 

 

Historic Fox Theatre

 

 

 

 

Historic marker

h

The Wishing Shrine

 

Beer can art

 

St Augustine's Church

El Minuto with Steve and Nard

 

Street Owl

 

One of the oldest Hispanic Theatres

We head to Patagonia Lakes Sate Park tomorrow. Nard and Sheary are heading to Organ Pipe where we just were. Maybe we will catch up with them again before they head back to Colorado Springs. Good Friends!

Finally, here's a video of the local Gambel's quail. They live in the shrubbery and  front yards of Beth and Aaron's neighborhood and they are a riot. Enjoy.