Empire Ranch, Sonoita, AZ

 Just a 120 mile ride today to get to our other favorite boondocking place.  The Empire Ranch is about 30 minutes south of Tucson’s southern fringe.  It was a 60,000 acre ranch which is now BLM land and leased out for ranching.  This is more desert grassland than where we were before.  And more rolling hills.  We often see antelope here and a wide variety of birds.  Carlene identified a Ladder Back Woodpecker this afternoon and we saw what we think was a Ferrougenous Hawk.  

There was a fire in the grass sometime in the past year, many hills are burnt off.  That leaves just the bare rock and scattered yucca.

Mt Wrightson on our west usually has snow, but not this year.  Unless something appears in the morning sun.

A final morning look at Mt Graham

I-10 west of Wilcox

I-10 between Wilcox and Benson

The Chiricahuas from Benson

And our new views

Here I am,

Another day, another view

Roper Lake State Park, Safford AZ

This was a shorts and T shirt afternoon!   Yup, shorts.  

We spent the morning doing a little packing.  It was only 15 miles from our Haeckel Rd. camp to the state park and we never had a lot of gear outside anyway.  Then a walk out to the west and south from camp just to wander about a bit.  Couldn’t check in until noon at the earliest anyway. 

After lunch we headed to the park.  Did our tank dump, refilled the fresh water, took showers 😁 and then walked around the park meeting people and dogs.  One woman has a golden resembling Skye very much.  We talked with her a couple times. Cathleen lives in Mesa AZ with Lucylu. She camps in a little Scamp camper.  That’s a 10’ camper behind a compact car.  She told us about a women’s group she belongs to called Sisters on the Fly, about 10,000 women who camp and do all sorts of activities. 

Another couple in their 70s from Gilbert AZ, south side of Phoenix, have a small car and a tent.  They were in a cabin today but they travel extensively and often use the tent quite happily.  They’ve been to Vt and all but a couple of states.

This evening it is still warm, 64°, although I’m back to flannel shirt & jeans.  But sitting outdoors until 7:30 feels awful nice.  Some locals are saying it is very unusual weather for early February.

Off to boondock south of Tucson tomorrow.  Only 185 miles.

Jernigan Road

Bright sunny day, forecast for 77° so we went back south near where we went a couple days ago.  this time we parked as far down the road as we could so we would be able to go farther along a different fork of the road.  The first mile was identical to FR 663 two days ago, then we took a right instead of left at the fork in the road.  Ended up being a 5.25 mile hike up to 5000’ elevation.  Several new views, no javelina but I did see a rabbit.  Or at least a rabbit’s tail a few times.  I have a video of where it was, but he even hid from the camera while running.  Even in this sparse countryside they can hide pretty well.

Up farther we came by a couple of water tanks with cattle troughs.  Skye often wants to take a dip.  I’m sure the ranchers would prefer she didn’t.  And some are heavy with algae that we really do not want her swimming in.  We had one of each today, and she did take a dip in one.  We didn’t see it but she came back to us all happy, smiling and wet legs.  It was shallow.

Apparently there are some deer here

If you look in the shadow, center screen, you’ll see that Skye has figured out about staying a bit cooler on these warm days.

There weren’t any glaciers here to place these rocks.  So I wonder how it came to rest like this!

A relaxing drink

Safford

Beautiful sunny day at 70°!

We had to go into town for a Rx trip.  So we had lunch in the park and toured Main St on foot for a while.  

Back at camp for a couple chores and then sat in the sun in T shirts for the rest of the afternoon. 

Supper was constantly interrupted by a great sunset.  We even got a good view of the crescent moon in conjunction with Venus.  That crescent is still enough to throw a shadow this evening.   

Lots of murals around Safford 

Nice extra wide streets

Sunset.  Here the sun sets right on top of Mt Graham 

And finally the Moon and Venus are setting

While watching that we also hear coyotes off in the distance!

We often hear them here, first time this year.