Forest Road 663

Nothing like a warm sunny day to go hiking.  Today we picked another USFS Road not far from the one of three days ago.  But alas,  o great wildlife sightings.  I did hear a somewhat rare bird. A Mexican Whippoorwill.  Sounds much like the Eastern W but those are hundreds of miles from here.  This is a bit far north for the Mexican at this time of year, but it is in its overall zone. You just wonder why it stayed the winter in its breeding ground.  You realize of course that I’m no birder and all of this was nothing I knew at the time I heard its call!  I just recognized a whippoorwill call.  

It was a 6.5 mile hike on the road with lots of good views.  It also was one of the warmer days.  Only the second time I’ve been down to T shirt and vest.  Back at camp it’s the first time I’ve been in a T shirt sitting in the sun outside the camper.  And it should be warmer yet in the next few days.  

We’ll probably be leaving this area on Tuesday.  The last night will be at the state park for a tank refresh & showers. Headed to the Empire Ranch south of Tucson.  After that up to Tucson itself.  

Sunrise this morning

Oak Draw trail

Some cattle at a water tank

Not quite sure, apparently some form of water flow control

I see many of these in pairs, triples are less common

Soaptree Yucca

More cattle

Skye was getting warm,

Laying in the shade waiting for us

This is what Mt Graham has looked like in previous years

Safford

Cooler today but quite sunny, and windy at times.

We just laid low again, doing chores and projects at camp and some walking around.

Woke up to see snow on My Graham today!  So much for our wondering about it.  It’s there now.  Yesterday was cool rain down here but snow up high.

The palm trees are planted and not native, but its still a nice appearance 

Safford

This was forecast to be a cooler and windier day with possible rain.  It turned out to be al of those!

Our solution was to go into Safford for some needed shopping and then hang out here in camp.  Midafternoon in town there were these big very dark clouds hanging jus east of us.  We beat them back to camp just in time.  It did rain for a while.  Not all that hard and with less wind than anticipated too.  We’re snug in the camper.  Skye is sleeping, actually in my seat, with her head on my lap.  That makes typing so easy!

Sunrise

Found this today.  Isle of Skye, Scotland

Forest road 661

Since this was a bright sunny day we wanted to hike again, but it was cooler so we picked a lower elevation trail.  In previous years we have hiked a few trails on the south side of Graham.  Today’s pick was down there and went south from the paved road (Rt 266).  The “trail” on the map turned out to be a fairly wide gravel road.  After we got out and looked carefully at the map we decided to drive out the road instead of walking out.  That turned out to be a fine idea.  The road came to a fork where we parked.  One fork went to a ranch gate so we walked cross country to the other road and followed that for 2.5 miles.  

Along the way we saw cattle, quail, ravens and Javalina!  Plus the 3 road runners on the road down from Safford.  The Javalina were the highlight of the day.  At least 3 of them running away at a shallow angle so we got a good look at them.  But too quick for a photo.  On the way back down we saw them again!  They had come back up to the road where Skye found them in just about the same place we had seen them before.  Again they didn’t stay around  for the photo op.  Yet they stayed near the road so when I walked by with Skye (now leashed) they were just standing there looking at us from 15’ away.  And yet again too quick running off to get the picture.

Skye also found a dried out carcass of a Gila Monster!  She was carrying it around like she does with all her prize finds.  We wanted to see what she had and at first we thought snake, but it had a backbone and ribs.  So we knew it was a lizard of some sort, we thought of a Gila Monster but it seemed small.  Back at camp we checked iNaturalist and confirmed the Gila Monster ID.They get up to 22” and this was a smaller one.

The wind has picked up tonight.  It’s forecast for 20-30 mph tomorrow so we’ll do some touristy stuff in Safford.  It’s a nice little  city.

Gimme back my Gila Monster!

Even the birds walk this road!

The clouds have a question

Where is Carlene?

There she is!

4 ravens flying formation

Painted Bluff Trail

We wanted a new place for a nice sunny day.  It was an hour north and passed through the Morenci copper mine to get there.  According to an info station up there that is the largest copper mine in North America.  The pit itself is 8 miles wide and 12 miles long.

After stopping at the viewpoint we headed up the long twisting road of the Coronado Forest until we found our trail.  This trail is also a Forest Service Road, but mostly used by UTVs.  Few things the size of a Jeep would go there.  We saw foot tracks, tire tracks, deer tracks and dog tracks.  Heard some birds, saw a few.  It wound its way from rocky trail to woods road, through big tree country, Douglas fir & Ponderosa Pine.  Up and down.  The app said we only gained 580 feet but it sure felt like a lot more.  About 4 miles round trip.

Driving up we saw a deer on the side of the road, just stood there and watched us stop for a photo.

Driving back down in Clifton village we saw a herd of mountain sheep grazing on the lawn of the Visitor Center, a converted railroad station.  Did a quick turn to pull into the parking lot for some photos.  Those are on the other camera, the one that needs the laptop to download.  You’ll see them later.