Why - Why Not?

This week we are at Why, Arizona - a small community thirty miles north of the Mexican border.  Once again, we are on BLM land which simply means that it is owned by the government and folks are allowed to camp for free, which of course, is our style.  It isn't very crowded this time of year but I understand that it gets considerably more busy over the winter.

It was a week of doing a few chores, going on the occasional drive, and a whole lot of relaxation.  Half of the motorhome got waxes (have to wait until we turn around so the sun is on the other side) and I got half the inside cleaned (don't have to wait until the sun is on the other side).

We do go for our daily walks and particularly enjoy the flowers that are everywhere as a result of some rains a while back.  Mostly they are yellow - all the mesquite bushes are in full bloom as I had not seen before, and the ground is covered with clumps of pretty little yellow flowers.

  And we came across what we think is a small tarantula

plus a small area of some unusual caterpillars.  According to Google, they eventually become a tiger moth.

As we usual do in the desert, I hung a couple of hummingbird feeders.  While I haven't seen a lot of them, one of the feeders seemed to empty fairly quickly.  Well I did finally catch the "hummingbird" which actually was a Gila woodpecker - the rascal.

The other unusual bird is the Phainopepla which I had not seen before but other than the colour, it looks similar to cardinal but smaller.  It was difficult to get a good photo as they seem to be very skittish.

We went for a couple of drives - one to Organ Pipe National Monument.  There is a primitive campground in Alamo Canyon so we went to have a look at it.  We came across a rescue station, something that could easily save a life, but we have not  seen anything like that before.

This area is very beautiful with the heavy stands of cactus - mostly saguaro

As most of you have heard, the U.S. military have been installing concertina wire along the Mexican border.  We have seen military vehicles with spools of the wire heading south; however in the past couple of days, there have been a number of military vehicles heading north hauling heavy equipment.  We have not, and likely won't, take a drive to see what was built.

Until next week, I hope everyone have a terrific week!!

The Week at Tucson

After a couple of cool, windy days, we decided to head out so some lower elevation in hopes of finding some warmer weather. One morning when we got up, the temperature was -2.8C – a bit cooler than we wanted.  Unfortunately, it took a day or two to get some warmer weather – not because of the change in altitude, but the cold snap had to pass.

We went into Tucson – a lovely drive – and our first stop was at the county park to dump, and fill with water and propane.  There was a nasty, cold wind that went right through you.  On the up side, the staff at the county park were super friendly and helpful so the cold aside, the atmosphere was great.

We decided to park at a relatively new casino that allows RV’s to park for an unlimited length of time unless there was event at the conference centre – then you were asked to leave.  We did give our donation so parking was definitely not free!!

It was a great sunny day so we decided to take a drive up Mount Lemmon.  Mount Lemmon is in the Coronado National Forest and goes up to over 9,000 feet.  We went up to the top of the ski hill which is about 8,500 feet.  Because of the change in elevation, we went through various kinds of vegetation – from cactus to deciduous trees, to conifers.  What a drive with some incredible views.  The distance is about 25 miles, but the average speed is only 30-35 mph because of the tight turns.  There were an unbelievable number of cyclists going up this road.  I say unbelievable because I can’t imagine cycling up that road.  Following are some of the scenery along the way.

A Mullien Plant

We think this is a black-tailed deer.  It was a grey colour

Look as these strange pods

The next day we took a drive through Tucson Mountain Park where there are some historic structures at Gates Pass.  Here were a group of university students on a field trip for an ecology class.  They were examining the effects that a trail has on the growth and density of plants.  The first thing Gerry noticed was that the tape measure they were using was metric.

Today was moving day as we drove down to Why, AZ which is a small town just 30 miles north of the Mexican border.  We have stayed here before and quite like it – generally it is a nice, quiet place to stay.  When we arrived just after lunch there was no one right where we parked.  In fact the closest RV to us was about a quarter of a mile from us.  By supper time, four more RV’s pulled in and they all parked within 200 feet of us.  I guess they all recognized us as “Friendly Canadians”.

Worry not - we are careful

This week will likely be spent doing some clean up and maybe work on a few projects.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great week!!

And to end - an Arizona Sunset.  Remember, if you would like to see any of these photos, full size, just click on them!!