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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tucson Area

Santa Catalina Mountains at Catalina State Park
Since the last entry we have spent three weeks in the Tucson Arizona area.  Our first stop was Catalina State Park.  This beautiful  park is located approximately 10 miles from official Tucson.; but, in reality the city has grown up to the park entrance and beyond..  Just across from the park entrance is a large shopping center with restaurants, specially shops, a theater, and the ever present Walmart. George loved it.  Make a left turn on highway 77, at the entrance and it is mostly city all the way to official Tucson, a city of over half a million people.

Good Dog
George joins the birders
Home Sweet Home
The park itself is insulated from all this and we had a quiet two weeks there.  The park backs up to the Santa Catalina Mountains.  It is used  by campers and locals alike for hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, and group outings.  Shortly after our arrival George and I participated in a “bird walk”. She seemed to enjoy it.  I thought it was just a VERY slow walk with strangers and another chance to discover how little I knew about something.  We did other hikes together and alone.  I took Teal up a moderate sized hill just behind the camping area and discovered that her tongue can get almost as long as her legs.  She kept at  it and made it to the top and back down all the while navigating through the cactus.  What a dog!

We saw others with bird feeders so we had to have some too.  They worked too  we attracted  humming birds, wrens, doves and other birds I can’t name.  Great fun.  One afternoon we heard canine barking, yelping, and other sounds followed by the sound of what we interpreted as something being crunched.  George was convinced that this was a group of coyotes grabbing a rabbit or perhaps a campground pet.  Could be, I guess

Biosphere II
We toured the Biosphere 2 (earth being Biosphere I) and would highly recommend a visit.  We had a very personable guide who blended humor and the ability to credibly answer all the questions our small group could muster.  Thanks to our friend Glenna Druyestein for the tip.

Bumble Bee
We spent the good part of a day at the Pima County Aviation Museum.  I think I may have liked the place a bit more than George.  At one point (about two hours in) she commented that, "There are sure a lot of airplanes!".  Indeed there were.  She hung in and I think we saw all that were on display.



 Bike envy started to set in as we saw folks peddle around the campground so we purchased a couple of used bikes from a Craigslist listing.  A nice young man delivered them to the park entrance.  When he arrived the rear tire on George's "new" bike was flat so he went across the street to (Walmart) and purchased a new tube, fixed the tire, and even included another tube in case the front tire went flat.  We learned he was a fireman and that his wife is five feet tall.  All that and the price was right too.  He represented the Tucson population well.

We made two new friends, John and Connie, at the campground.  They were camped next to us and I expressed my approval of some anti-war bumper stickers their truck was sporting.  It turned out that they were campground volunteers from Minnesota.  They live on a "small" farm of 300 plus acres.  I guess the shock of finding a like minded couple camped next to them in Arizona was such a surprise they invited us over for cards and popcorn.  A nice evening,

What else.....Oh, we celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary at Catalina.  We had dinner and a movie.  Both were pretty good.  This day reminded us of many things including that our boys should probably start planning for our 50th.  And....we met Ronald McDonald in Tucson.  We had stopped for a quick bite at his restaurant and while standing in line, in he came.  He was in fine form.  He was packing a ukulele.  He asked if George and I were on a date.  We were in fact on a cheap date.  He asked what kind of music I liked and when I answered "classical"  he began playing something on the order of 'flight of the bumble bee' (we're not sure now).  It was sort of classical and he was pretty good.  After our short tune he was off to charm some kids.  Truly a special treat.


Sundown at Gilbert Ray
Daytime view
After we left Catalina we moved about 30 miles to the west to Gilbert Ray campground.  This  county campground is named after a man who spent his career working for the PIMA county in the recreation area.  Each of the campgrounds we have visited seem to become our favorites.  First Dead Horse Ranch, then Catalina, then Gilbert Ray.  The location is remote.  It is located on a winding narrow paved road with a plethora of whoops (up and down sections of the road where you want to go 'whee" if you travel at any speed).  Again the campground was mostly empty with the larger 'loops' closed to minimize maintenance  I suppose. Every campsite was beautiful and most were private with wonderful desert vegetation.

Ed
We arrived on a Monday and Tuesday morning found us on a nature walk led by Ed from the county.  Ed did a good job of naming and describing the cactus, bushes, and birds that appeared along the way.  He even looked the part of a naturalist.  He did appear a little nervous at the start when a supervisor showed up to give Ed what looked to be an evaluation.  She hung around a bit then split.  We've all been there I guess.

We took a part of a day to drive down to Green Valley.  It is about 30 miles or so south of Tucson down I-10,  It appears to be a retirement community with some copper mining activity.  We had lunch and then drove around looking at some houses George had found on the computer the night before.  The newer places we viewed were just too close together to suit us.  I rather liked some of the places that were older.  They had larger lots and there was some variation in style.  We both decided Green Valley is probably not for us.  Part of a day doesn't give the place much of a shot, but I think we are too young  (as least at heart) for the place.  We were also disappointed by the evidence of mining right in sight of town.

Saguaro NM Pictoglyph
Saguaro
Sign on hiking path
Near Gilbert Ray campground is the Saguaro (sa-WAH-row) National Monument and the Arizona Desert Museum.  We went to both.  The Saguaro NM has two sites: the eastern most site is near Tucson and we visited it in 2007. The eastern site is the more developed.  The western site (near where we were camped) had a great visitor center and a dirt road through the desert to tour.  It was dusty (as expected) and the cactus looked stressed, perhaps by a freeze.  There were some good hiking trails along the way though.
 


We spent most of a day at the Arizona Desert Museum.  What a treat.  We found ourselves wishing we had all the grandchildren with us.  Perhaps a few at a time.  We left Teal in the trailer (no dogs allowed) and drove the 3-4 miles to the museum to catch the 10:00 'free flight' demonstration.  This approximately one hour show had ravens, owls, and hawks (and their trainers) strutting their stuff.  I did my best to get some good photos with mixed results.  The crowd really got into the show.  We looked around at other animals for a while (I petted a King snake-George said no way) and then we went back to check on Teal.  We returned for the 2:00 free flight demonstration this time featuring Harris hawks.  I think there were five of them.  These shows are narrated and these birds know how to hit their marks.  After the show we spent a few hours looking at coyotes, cats, a bear, deer, javelina, and other birds and mammals.  I guess we are not too old to go to the zoo.


Brown Mountai
Christmas Eve and day was spent at Gilbert Ray.  We hiked up nearby Brown Mountain on Christmas day The way we did it the trip was about 5 miles round trip.  George said it was enough.  I think is was our first Christmas hike.  When we returned I almost cooked a small prime ribbed roast. on the grill.  I had resolved not to overcook it and I was successful.  A good meal none the less. 




The campground had a strict 7 day stay limit (although it was mostly empty) so we hit the road west and south for Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument when our time was up.  We'll start there next time.


Best wishes to you all for the new year.


George and Chuck
 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Chuck and George, I very much enjoyed your blog of the Tucson/Gilbert Ray activities. You do a good job. I am not sure how one creates a blog - is it an app that you use?

Take care and let us know again when you have another blog.

Best wishes,
John & Connie O

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