Arizona Adventures, Part I

It was after 1:00 when we dropped into our beds at a Phoenix motel -- the first Saturday morning of our trip. It wasn't going especially well. We had hoped that by only going as far as Phoenix the first night we were going to avoid this sort of late night, but the car rental agency we had visited was bustling and it took hours to get everything sorted out.

So, there we were, late at night, tired, and not thrilled. The rough start brought a sinking gloom which colored all of our expectations for the rest of the week. As it turned out, our worries were unfounded, and the following week afforded many wonderful experiences and a particularly sweet opportunity to enjoy creation.

The next morning we got up at a reasonable hour and made our way to the western end of Aravaipa Canyon. Aravaipa Canyon is a cottonwood-lined watercourse that has been reserved by the Nature Conservancy and the BLM as a wilderness area accessed by permit only. You can drive into its parking area, though, through private property on the western end, and we hoped that, despite being limited to the access road, we would be able to find Common Black-Hawks. Black-Hawks are a very widespread tropical species, but they have a limited range in the southwestern United States. This range is actually largely outside of southeastern Arizona, and so we hadn't run across any in our previous trips. This time we were setting aside a day to look for them.

Our reasonable start landed us on the road along Aravaipa Creek at around 10:00 am, and it was already in the mid 90s. We really enjoyed having a thermometer on our rental car, as it allowed us to quantify the degrees of pain we felt every time we stepped out of it. We also had the opportunity of rejoicing every time it dropped a degree when we would drive up into the mountains.

Anyway, the best way to see Black-Hawks is to go walking in after them, but I didn't want to do that in the heat, so we hadn't secured one of the permits. Instead, we stopped many times along the road and scanned the cottonwoods for perching raptors. We had great luck with birds of prey for the day. The air was full of soaring Turkey Vultures, Harris's Hawks, Gray Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, and we had a few exciting moments of uncertainty caused by low-flying Zone-tailed Hawks. Outside of the canyon we also saw Swainson's Hawks and a fly-over Prairie Falcon. But, there were no Black-Hawks, despite all our effort.

We still enjoyed the canyon, though, and its stately saguaros and verdant cottonwoods. Vermilion Flycatchers were feeding in pastures, while Brown-crested Flycatchers darted through mesquite thickets. Overhead there were dozens of Purple Martins -- cavity nesters that take full advantage of the holes Gila Woodpeckes make in these same Saguaros.

A bit after noon we started to drive south to Green Valley. And, wouldn't you know, but just as we begin entering the Tucson metro area, a warning light blinks on on the dash - low tire pressure. But, providentially, immediately after the light came on we drive past a Big O Tires. So, we pulled off and confirm that one of the tires had a hole, pull into Big O Tires, and get a patch! They, by the way, provided us with a great customer service experience.

The evening we spent in Madera Canyon, where we had hoped to find some owls. We didn't, but we did see a beautiful crimson sunset illuminated by distant lightning strikes - a beautiful punctuation mark on the fantastic display of color. We were serenaded by Common Poorwills on the hillsides above us, too, but with nothing else showing and rain threatening we headed back to our tent. And on the way we were inundated by a driving thunderstorm, which drove a rattlesnake across our road. That was cool. And then, later, when it had died down, we got to see an enormous toad in the campground. It was a full 5 inches long!

That night the thunder and lightning continued, and one strike was near enough that there wasn't a detectable delay between the flash and the sound. Which is pretty scary in a tent.

A couple of pictures from the day are on Flickr.