High country hike - Greenhouse Trail

the other day we decided to hike to higher elevations.  Our Sunny Flat campground in Cave Creek Canyon is 5180 ft.  we drove up this jeep trail west of campground about 4 miles to 6500 ft.  We wanted to see Winn Falls which drops 400 ft.   Here are some iPhone shots.
Thought we could reach base of falls on this GreenHouse trail.

Started out quite pleasant through forest glens into the Chiricahua Wilderness.
Across streams


And up, up, up, more up!  Turns out a whole bunch of switchbacks through the 2011 burn.  However we finally made it to the crest and saw this view which was worth the hike.

We sat in the shade eating out nuts and fruits.  I drank from my "sippee cup"

We finally saw the falls.  Turns out we saw it from above not at the base.  Still beautiful.  Falls 400 feet!


- blessings from the road

Back to the Chiracahua's

We enjoyed our three nights in Silver City, NM.  We stocked up on good grub from the local Coop, and stuffed ourselves with good food at the Curious Cumquat, and Sheveka's along with spicy New Mexican chile Rellenos at Jalisco.  Now back to the Chiricahua mountains and Portal, AZ, a birding mecca. (Surprise surprise).
Driving down the 100 miles from Silver City we recalled how we have driven across I-10 several times and looked south at these mountains.  From a distance they look like many of the other mountains around the area.


As we moved closer we begin to see the definition and the cliffs of Cave Creek Canyon.


Driving up Cave Creek Canyon we begin to see just how beautiful this area is.

And of course, we put out the hummingbird feeder.  Already seen 6 different species and migration has hardly begun.  We are early for the April-May migration.

We make up for it in the Sunny Flat Campground, arguably one of the most scenic forest service campgrounds anywhere in USA.  These photos are from my iPhone and seem a bit washed out compared to the actual visual.


We are surrounded 360 degrees with magnificent cliffs and mountains.  And, while no Stellars or Scrub Jays, we have plenty of Mexican Jays, Juncos and Orioles keeping the Hummers company.  more about Hummers later.


- blessings from the road

Chiricahua National Monument

We drive on a dirt road over a 7600 ft mountain pass from our campground to this area.


15 million years ago a volcano blew similar to Mt St Helen's, spreading deep layers of ash which welded and fused together in varying degrees of hardness.


The ages eroded and weathered the rocks to leave these incredible hoodoo like formations.


We hiked a 4 mile trail through an area called Echo canyon and marveled at the amazing shapes.


This area is in Apache country. I could just imagine Cochise and Geronimo riding through here.


- blessings from the road

Location:Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona

White Lined Sphinx Moth

Up at Massai point in Chiricahua National Monument , there is a short half mile interpretive nature trail where you can learn all kinds of things about the flora and fauna of region. As we hiked the trail, we noticed some flowering Pointleaf Manzanita bushes and spotted, what we thought was a hummingbird.  So we trained our binoculars and my camera on it and....

No.  It was a White Lined Sphinx Moth.  It is sipping through its probiscus.  I had my portable hummingbird camera kit set up with the 70-200mm and 2X extender on the 5D3 camera body.  Shooting at 1/2000 exposure f5.6 so the wing is a little blurry.

Click on any of these to see a larger version

Bisbee Part II

We had heard of a really cool old time area and a very creative, original RV park nearby so we drove Mr. Toad (the jeep) east down the hill past the open pit mine to find a really fun area of BIsbee called Lowell.  At one end of the main street was an old grocery store converted into a food Co-op where we shopped for some goodies.  The main street had all kinds of old time gas station pumps,  storefronts from the 40's and cars.  I spent an hour photographing with the big camera and will post more later on that.  Here are some pix from my iphone

Notice the signs and old Greyhound bus

This Indian set a land speed record of 140 mph on bonneville salt flats.
Remember the movie, "The World's Fastest Indian"?

Shady Lane RV Park filled with vintage trailers set up as a motel

Of the many fun things to do in Bisbee is walk the Bisbee 1000.  Here is the map of the 5K walk (or run for some) that is used in October for their event.  We had it open on iphone to see route.  We walked about 700 of the steps but didn't complete the route due to darkness.  I noted where our RV park is in lower right and also the top highest point from which I shot the photo below.  Was really fun.

5 K walk isn't bad.  Glad we live at elevation because bisbe starts at 5160 ft

one of the stairs.  to the highest point.  you can see 5 on map above

here we go.  whew

Creative metal sculptures masquarading as fence

View from the Top.  you can see our RV way down on middle right if you squint.

Bisbee Part 1

For us, as RV'ers the really neat thing about Bisbee is the RV park right next to Queen Mine and overlooking downtown Bisbee.  Several years about we had driven through Bisbee but spent no time here. (Ask Sraddha about this one).  Anyway we originally intended to spend one night and ended up spending 2.  We were able to walk around the town enjoying the unique creative, architecture and hills.  Glad we live at elevation in the Village because we climbed a lot of steps and made it through.  Here are some pix.

Our back yard - The open pit copper mine

A creative take on downtown retail store.  Wonder what is inside?

In the middle distance is our RV park

Our Front Yard at RV park. Downtown Bisbee in background

Next to RV park is the Queen Mine.  Daily tours are conducted by former miners so we took the undergound tour that goes back 1500 ft into mountain.  Quite fun and informative.

getting dressed for trip underground.  Quite the fashion hound!

 Did you know this mine produced 8 billion pounds of copper during its life.  Shut down in 1975 due to copper prices, there is talk of re-opening.  Also produced 2 million pounds of gold.

Interesting bicycle undergound for shift boss to ride around

 The miners were quite inventive and humorous.  The carts were never on level ground.  they used little blocks to hold in place.  Imagine some prankster......

And you can guess what this is for right?

Patagonia to Bisbee

Driving through Southeastern Arizona you are struck with amazing grasslands.  Did you know the movie "Oklahoma" was filmed here?  Neither did I.  Unfortunately I didn't take pix.  sigh

We took a backroad to Bisbee from Sonoita which the AAA map said would go through but turned into gravel so we had to unhook, turn around and rehook the toad.  Fortunately, my model railroad operating skills were handy here in figuring out the best way to do it in a narrow road.

Our new "detour then took us, so the sign said, to Fort Huachuca.  We thought the city, but nooooo, the back gate to the military installation.  Gulp.  We smiled at the guards and asked if we could just pass through.  "Show me some ID" she said, upon which we produced our Driver's licenses.  She eyed me again.  I took off my sunglasses and smiled. (Thinking, I am not a terrorist am I?).  The guards allowed us through.  "Just stay on main road and you will find main gate.  Little did they know.....

We drove until we came to a round about and saw the sign to main gate.  But Jeeves, our GPS wanted us to go straight through so we did.  Second big mistake.  (first was trusting the AAA map for back roads).  We kept driving but came to a blocked road.  Some event was being set up for motorcycle jumps so the east gate was closed.  What to do?  Jeeves couldn't find main gate.  do we retrace?  first we have to get turned around.  not easy sometimes.  In process we asked some soldiers.  "Gee we aren't allowed off base so we don't know."  Oh great, then after a little conference he told us some directions which we tried but ended up in a dead end.  another turn around. We thought we saw a frontage road down past the main blocked road so we went back down there.  Picture a big motorhome towing a jeep just driving around the base with impunity.  We kept expecting the MP's to come haul into the brig at any moment.  Never happened though.

We made the frontage road and proudly drove to east gate only to find it closed (again for the aforementioned motorcycle demo). but, as we drove past, we spied a sign that said Main gate to the right.  Another turn around.  Yep, this appears to be the correct route.  following a couple other cars who did the same thing, we finally made it out of the main gate and were on the correct road!  Whew.

We drove 6 miles out of Sierra Vista to San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area along the San Pedro river where we stopped for lunch and explored a little.  After lunch we continued to Bisbee.  What was originally planned as a 2 hour leisurely trip turned into 4.5 hours of wrong turns and turnarounds but still it was fun.