December 2023 – Travels with a Fox

We took the fifth-wheel down to our place just outside Tucson, AZ in early October, so we didn’t need to worry about having to deal with poor weather while we were towing. We enjoyed the rest of October and all of November at home in BC. On our drive south at the beginning of December, the roads weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great either. On the first day, we drove to Idaho Falls through light snow squalls. The snow continued on our drive the next morning. The photo below was taken at the rest area just north of Salt Lake City, around 9 am. Luckily the roads were just wet after this stop, and the HOV lane made the drive easier through the metro area.

We stayed in Page, AZ the second night, which left us with about a six hour drive to complete our trip. We decided to get up early and make a stop at the Gilbert Water Ranch, in the Phoenix metro area. The park is mainly trails between a number of ponds, but the saguaro feature garden really gives us the feel of being back in Arizona.

We got back to our place by about 3 pm which allowed us enough time to set-up and then relax outside before dinner.

And the best sunset of the month was that night! Even the dog across the road was welcoming us back.

We spent the first week back getting organized and stocking up with groceries. We also focussed on trying to see the rare birds that had been reported lately, in case they chose to leave for other parts. The details of those birding adventures will be in the December Birding blog.

On our first Saturday back, we had the pleasure of being invited to a neighbourhood party. We had met many of the folks before, but mostly very briefly as we passed them on the narrow roads. We enjoyed getting to know people better and we left the party feeling like we were part of a community.

We were happy to be back mountain biking. Our favourite trail in the Tortolita Preserve was in great shape. Here’s Wendy riding past a nice looking saguaro that she named “Mr. Majestic.” When we reach this point in our ride, we’ve ridden a little over an hour and have about ten minutes left until the trail head.

We also did a longer ride in the Honey Bee trail system in Oro Valley. The trail passes granitic outcroppings, which are interesting to look at and provide good spots to have a rest and a snack. The 28 km route took us a little over 2 1/2 hours.

We got back into hiking too. One day we hiked our regular loop at Sabino Canyon.

Perhaps we’ve posted a similar photo of Sabino Canyon before, but we don’t get tired of the view.

The next eight photos are of a hike we did that is really close to our place. The twelve kilometre loop starts at Cam-Boh Picnic Area in Saguaro National Park (west). The first section is mainly up Prophecy Wash. Panther Peak is in the middle of the background in the photo below, and the right skyline is the ridge we look at from our fire pit.

Soon the trail leaves the wash. Wasson Peak is the high point in the skyline behind Doug. From here the trail continued gradually climbing.

We love saguaros, especially unusual ones. This “armless” quintet caught our eye.

At this point in the trail, we are starting down from the height of land between Prophesy Wash and Picture Rocks Wash.

We think the top end of Picture Rocks Wash is the most interesting part of the wash because it’s narrower and has rocky sections.

We always marvel at how the ironwood trees and saguaros can live when it looks as if they are growing out of rock.

We chose to come out of the wash on the Ironwood Forest Trail. Soon we could see the built up area of Marana over the ridge.

Then we headed west on the Cam-Boh trail, back to views of Panther Peak and the ridge. On our four hour hike that Saturday, we only met one other person.

We have made several trips to look for birds in the agricultural fields of Marana just north of us. Here’s a view of the mountains to the west, with harvested cotton fields in the foreground. Cotton is a productive crop in Marana, where they grow a longer-fibre strain, known as Pima cotton. The early people in the area (Hohokam) grew cotton thousands of years ago, building canal systems to water their crops.

Here’s a view of cotton bales on a truck. We were stopped for road construction.

Here’s a side view of a bale.

One morning, we were leaving to go birding around 7:15. This was the view in the western sky from the gate.

And this was the view of the fifth-wheel and the sunrise from the gate.

We are lucky to live so close to beautiful scenery. This photo was taken on one of our hour-long walks from our place. This saguaro is probably home to a number of birds.

We experienced the heaviest rain day of 2023 on December 22. It was a record rainfall for the date as well, at 1.25 inches (25 mm) in 24 hours. Since it rained almost all day, it gave his a chance to get caught up on the blog. Wendy also did some machine appliqué. She really enjoys the new sewing centre that Doug built for her. We don’t miss the couch that used to be in that spot.