Random Photos from Cave Creek Canyon AZ

Broad Billed Hummingbird

Montezuma Quail.  According to a local exert, they like to
hide in plain site.  He's being a rock!

Whiskered Screech Owl

Great Horned Owl chicks

Sunset over Portal AZ

Moon rise over Cave Creek Canyon

Taking a break on the Silver Peak trail.

Panorama view from the Silver Peak trail.

Friday morning Farmers Market next to the Post Office in Portal AZ.

Silver Peak trail climbs the side of this mountain.

Javelinas visit our campsite most afternoons.

Rick on the Nature Trail, leaving Sunny Flats campground.

Explosives locker (on the Cave Creek Nature trail) built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 30's.  The placement and design is interesting. Here's my interpretation. In the event of an accident, the natural bolder would protect the road and creek to the right.  The mountain on the left would dissipate the energy from the roof and left side of the locker.

Saturday night at the Portal Cafe...

The one man band (above) played rock and "Psychedelic" compositions while the mystery artist (below) painted based on the vib he felt from the music.

Silver Peak hike

5/11/2017

Hiked part of the Silver Peak trail yesterday.  From the valley to the summit is about a 3000 ft rise.  We made our goal, about 1500 ft., before turning back.  Being flatlanders, it took us about 7 hours, taking a LOT of breaks.  Maybe we'll make it to the top before we leave, ha ha.  Pictures are from our highest point down, the lighting was better in the afternoon...

Selfie at our highest point before turning back.

View from backside of the mountain.

On the way down

Can you tell who was happy we turned around!

Portal AZ in the valley below,
and our starting point.

Interesting vegetation

Finally away from the steep drops on the side of the
mountain to a descending plane.

Nearing the end.

A short distance from the trail head we heard a familiar rattle! We froze and looked all around for the source.  We found this guy about 5 feet off the trail.  Obviously, he was not coiled and facing the other way which was fine with us.  We moved ahead slowly and were very wary for the rest of the way.  At first I thought it was a Diamondback.  But after examining the picture, the consensus among us amateurs, is it was a Black Tailed Rattlesnake.  Our expert is out of town but we'll get a definitive answer when he returns.

We took a short cut from our campsite that joined the
trail a few hundred yards from the trail head.  Home again!

Our new home and The Great American Eclipse

5/1/ 2017

After dry camping in the parking lot for a week we moved to our new home, with full hookups and shade, Yay!

Mexican Jay from the camper window

Canyon Towhee

An interesting bug bathed in sun light, still unidentified

Javelinas walking past the camper

5/6/2017

Last night we attended a presentation on the Aug 21, 2017 eclipse by Fred Espenak, a local resident and retired expert on eclipses from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Have known we'd be in Oregon and in the "Path of Totality" for some time.  Although we knew the how and why of eclipses, he gave us a lot of insight on what to expect and "how" to watch an eclipse.

Here's a link to a map of the eclipse path
Here's a link to lots more info. about the Great American Eclipse.

Test shot of the sun using the Eclipse glasses

Other interesting pictures from the week...

In search of the elusive Elegant Trogon on the South Fork trail. More about them in later posts.

We did hear the call and see one but hopefully we get a better view of him in the near future.  We still have a month to find another.

"The Bath Tub" on the South Fork trail.

Black Headed Grosbeak

At the Chiricahua Desert Museum you can get
all your snake catching supplies!

More from Cave Creek Canyon

4/25/2017 cont.
A few hours after we arrived, Barney, the local herpetologist who owns and maintains the the reptile exhibit in the visitors center, came by to clean one of the cages.  We all stepped back to a respectable distance while he removed the two Diamondback Rattle Snakes.

The volunteer we're replacing would leave May 1.  We dry camped in the parking lot of the visitors center till then.  A little better view than a Wal-Mart parking lot any day.

4/26/2017

As part of our training, we visited the Chiricahua Desert Museum. As you can tell, the focus is reptiles.

4/27/2017
Today we visited most of the sites we'd be sending guests to.  Our first stop happened to be the most spectacular.  This view is at the end of an easy  200 yard trail that gets you just above the tree tops.  I read somewhere this is considered the Yosemite of Arizona.

Here's some other views in the area...

American Museum of Natural History
Southwestern Research Station

Late afternoon view into Cave Creek Canyon

4/29/2017

A Blustery Saturday evening at the Portal Cafe with live music.