As we traveled from Las Cruces, NM to St. David, AZ we saw a variety of terrain. Mostly just arid scrub ground but some beautiful mountain views, also. It was very windy, so the drive wasn't as relaxing for Glenn as some drives have been. Just before crossing into Arizona, we decided to get off the interstate to see what we might see. No wildlife, great mountain views and a lot of Border Patrol! We were running real close to the Mexican border.
We drove through Bisbee, a mining town, with houses perched on the hillsides. We stopped a moment to take a picture of a HUGE pit mine. It was too windy to stand outside for very long, so we continue on to our campsite, driving through Tombstone on the way. More on Tombstone later.
This is a very pretty campground just south of the town of St. David. There is a small lake and the mountains are visible from the motorhome.
For the third day in a row, we have had 32 or below temps. in the morning. Makes us start our day trips a little later than we'd like. It should make it to 65 today. YEAH!
On Tuesday, we drove to Chiricahua National Monument. On the way, we stopped to watch a huge flock of birds which we later found out were thousands of Sandhill Cranes. Boy, were they noisy! Once at the park, we drove to the top of a mountain where we "found" an Earthcache. This entails using clues and GPS co-ordinates to get answers to a quiz. Then you submit your answers and if they are right, it counts as a "find". We viewed some fantastic rock formations and spotted some Mexican Jays. One mountain top is called "Cochise's Head" and it really does look like a man's profile! The altitude was getting to us, as was the cold wind, so we left the park to do a little birdwatching. Saw mostly red-tailed hawks and kestrels.
As we headed back to the campground we saw a sign for Ft. Bowie ruins, so off we went. Parked the car and then hike towards the ruins. It was 1 1/2 miles to the actual ruins. We only made it 1 mile. We were getting tired and it was going to be dark by the time we got to the car if we went the whole way. The trail wasn't too bad, but we didn't want to stumble around in the dark. If we get back to the area, we will definitely go back and do the whole thing.
Wednesday we stayed in the campground. Glenn fished a little and I bird-watched. I have been trying to reconstruct my birding LifeList. We found out my birding program wasn't on the backup we had when my laptop crashed! I have come close to the original number and have added quite a few new ones while here, including a Phainopela. This bird looks like a black cardinal.
Thursday was a trip to Tombstone. We tried to find a geo cache. Drove off on some pretty rough "roads" but gave up after a while and went on to town. Tombstone was founded after a big silver strike. The town has a lot of historical buildings and re-enactments of gun battles including the shootout at the OK Corral. We were dissappointed to learn each show had an admission charge (unlike Cody and Virginia City) so we skipped those and took the trolley ride where we learned a lot of the history of the town. Had a great dinner in a historic saloon.
We drove through Bisbee, a mining town, with houses perched on the hillsides. We stopped a moment to take a picture of a HUGE pit mine. It was too windy to stand outside for very long, so we continue on to our campsite, driving through Tombstone on the way. More on Tombstone later.
This is a very pretty campground just south of the town of St. David. There is a small lake and the mountains are visible from the motorhome.
For the third day in a row, we have had 32 or below temps. in the morning. Makes us start our day trips a little later than we'd like. It should make it to 65 today. YEAH!
On Tuesday, we drove to Chiricahua National Monument. On the way, we stopped to watch a huge flock of birds which we later found out were thousands of Sandhill Cranes. Boy, were they noisy! Once at the park, we drove to the top of a mountain where we "found" an Earthcache. This entails using clues and GPS co-ordinates to get answers to a quiz. Then you submit your answers and if they are right, it counts as a "find". We viewed some fantastic rock formations and spotted some Mexican Jays. One mountain top is called "Cochise's Head" and it really does look like a man's profile! The altitude was getting to us, as was the cold wind, so we left the park to do a little birdwatching. Saw mostly red-tailed hawks and kestrels.As we headed back to the campground we saw a sign for Ft. Bowie ruins, so off we went. Parked the car and then hike towards the ruins. It was 1 1/2 miles to the actual ruins. We only made it 1 mile. We were getting tired and it was going to be dark by the time we got to the car if we went the whole way. The trail wasn't too bad, but we didn't want to stumble around in the dark. If we get back to the area, we will definitely go back and do the whole thing.
Wednesday we stayed in the campground. Glenn fished a little and I bird-watched. I have been trying to reconstruct my birding LifeList. We found out my birding program wasn't on the backup we had when my laptop crashed! I have come close to the original number and have added quite a few new ones while here, including a Phainopela. This bird looks like a black cardinal.
Thursday was a trip to Tombstone. We tried to find a geo cache. Drove off on some pretty rough "roads" but gave up after a while and went on to town. Tombstone was founded after a big silver strike. The town has a lot of historical buildings and re-enactments of gun battles including the shootout at the OK Corral. We were dissappointed to learn each show had an admission charge (unlike Cody and Virginia City) so we skipped those and took the trolley ride where we learned a lot of the history of the town. Had a great dinner in a historic saloon.
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