Bizarre rock forms 

A hand print pictograph with my hand for size 

Two of my favorite. These may be "counting symbols" according to a local 

Pictographs in "Petroglyph Canyon" 

A Madrean alligator lizard 

Another view. 

One of the Gila Cliff dwellings. Habitations left behind by the Mogollon peoples. 

Greg had to document me actually making sandwiches--a hated task that I normally leave to him. 

Phoebe liked it too! 

Beautiful little spider Greg found. 

Self-portrait 

Onward to New Mexico

As much as we would love to see more of this area (I can’t believe I’m this near Patagonia, AZ and am not going! All I can say is “Elegant Trogon”!), but its time to see New Mexico. Ever since Greg and I started discussing moving to another state, New Mexico has come up again and again—despite the fact neither of us has ever been there (ok—I’ve gone there as a child and roadtrips, but I really don’t’ remember it). New Mexico is one of those “forgotten” states—it seems no one knows much about it unless they’ve lived there. Towns like Santa Fe and Taos echo in artists minds, from Georgia O’Keefe’s desert paintings to jewelry artists.

So here we are! Our first, very brief layover was in Silver City. I can’t confess to much desire to spend any quality time there. We stayed overnight in a very friendly, if small RV park and had some semi-decent Texas BBQ from the only restaurant open on a Sunday after the Pope’s death (we have entered a part of the country that actually pulses to the religious calendar and all the “good,” according to the locals, New Mexican restaurants are closed on Sundays. I’ve read the brochures, but our brief visit wasn’t too inspiring. However, the city is near astounding beauty and nature galore. Just north is the Gila National Wildlife refuge.

The Gila is an enormous refuge—3,321,101 acres in southwestern New Mexico. Containing elevation ranges of 4,500 to 10,892 feet, the park encompasses a lot of different habitats and some rough terrain. The park was one of the first preserved in the US and is little affected by civilization. Archeological resources, mining history, hunting/fishing, wildlife viewing, hiking—this park has it all.

We are staying in the south-central portion of the park, just south of the Gila Cliff Dwellings and Lake Roberts. The Gila Cliff dwellings are a must-see—built by the Mogollon people in 5 natural caves in the 1200’s, the stone and timber homes have been preserved and you can walk through the actual dwelling either on a tour or on a self-guided tour. The park is riddled with archeological resources—if only you can figure out how to find information about where they are! We lucked into a nice woman that told us of some pictographs in a small canyon near our campsite. Unmarked, the pictographs are on both sides of a small canyon just off the main road. Greg and I are very interested in finding more of them—they are just so intriguing!

Lake Roberts is a 72-acre man-made lake. After months of desert, living in trees and seeing vast expanses of fresh water is refreshing. Phoebe has been obsessed with “beach” since San Diego (honestly, you ask her who she is calling on the phone and she says “beach”; where the spider/dog/giraffe is going—to the “beach” of course; where she wants to go—“beach” again. Luckily, she thinks any expanse of rock next to water is “beach” so fountains, rivers, pools, and lakes do just fine). Phoebe spent her afternoon running along the shore throwing rocks in the water and making the small dock rock, while Mom got her fill of birding, finding her first Franklin’s gull and enjoying watching the coots, pied-billed grebes and ruddy ducks dive in the water.

We are camped in a nice sheltered site under ponderosa pines. The campground is “undeveloped,” which means no fire pits and marked roads and FREE ;)—there are still clean pit toilets and a myriad of roads and sites to choose from. Oddly, the campground has a huge sign that says “trailers not recommended” and the only 3 groups that are here are all trailers. You wouldn’t want to come back here without scouting a route first though!

Greg and I have both enjoyed daily walks, exploring the surrounding area. The forest here is similar to California, but has exciting differences—beautiful rocky canyons that just beckon to be explored, and reminders of the nearby desert in the prickly pear, yucca, and agaves that pop up in the drier areas. Having seen pictographs and the cliff dwellings, we are half sure we will stumble across an archeological site anytime—not that we’d be the first to find it, but not all are marked for obvious reasons.

Birding

Being on the road and in southern Arizona, one of the premier birding destinations for North American birders, has gotten me all jazzed about birding again. A little treat for the returning birder in me, I had the opportunity to join Sheri Williamson, author of the Hummingbirds of North America Peterson Field Guide and director of the Southwestern Bird Observatory, for a hummingbird banding session. Hummingbirds, unlike some other more ‘fragile’ and sensitive birds, are pretty calm when being banded and they are able to let the public see them process the birds. They mist net the birds and then measure, weigh, and band them as part of an ongoing study at the San Pedro riparian preserve. As you can see by the photos, being up close and personal to hummingbirds is pretty amazing.

Some of my posts here are going to be pretty wildlife focused from here on out—so just skip ‘em if you aren’t interested ;)

I haven’t gotten to see even a quarter of the birds southeast AZ has to offer—we spent a little too much time in Yuma and want to move toward New Mexico to spend some time there before heading for Indiana. All is not lost though—I’m sure we’ll be back. One of the highlights so far though is seeing Vermillion flycatcher http://www.backyardbirdcam.com/gallery/flycatcher-vermillion.htm), an unmistakable scarlet red and black bird—to me, one of the most tropical-looking of our birds. Vermillion flycatcher’s range in the states is confined to just the southernmost portion’s of CA, AZ, NM and Texas. One of my other favorites thus far are Costa’s hummingbird and Broad-tailed hummingbird http://www.arizona-leisure.com/tucson-photo-9.html). Costa’s is a fabulous little bird with a hot purple gorget (the iridescent patch on a hummingbirds chin) that has droopy “whiskers” descending down. Broad-tailed (not seen until Gila National Wildlife refuge, New Mexico) has a lovely high “burr” when it flies, sounding almost like a swarm of honeybees ringing bells when it arrives.

Another highlight was finding a Curve-billed thrasher nest. Thrashers are large ground birds with big bills. Curve-billed is the most common observed here in the southwest, a loud obvious bird that doesn’t mind proximity to people and their houses and campgrounds. You don’t see them in California though! When we were staying in Benson, AZ, I saw a CB caring a fecal packet (keeping the nest clean!) and knew a nest was nearby. It was easy to find and I took some photos of the two babies.

And away he goes... 

She looks so tiny! Those are the bands in the box next to his hand. 

I had the opportunity to go to a hummingbird banding session. Here is a photo of one of the birds gettting a drink before being released 

Here I am all dressed up to go into the Queen mine. They have a tour of the closed mine in Bisbee that is really interesting. 

bisbee

Greg and I really loved Bisbee. Bisbee has the feel of a small historic mining town in California—touristy on the main street, but you can tell the town has spirit and a great community. The town is full of artists. A curious combination of the normally fairly conservative Arizonians and the liberalness of artists and, well…hippies.

Bisbee was at one time the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco (according to their tourist brochure). Two surveyors discovered some weird rocks when sitting down for lunch and they turned out to be copper. The town is nestled between 31 underground mines and a huge open pit mine. Tons of copper, gold, silver plus lead and zinc were mined out in the town’s heyday. In the 70’s most of the mines were shut down and all were shut down by 1980 (I need to confirm these dates). Instead of becoming a ghost town like many old mining towns, the town became a perfect destination for hippies looking for cheap accommodations. In moved the hippies and artists. I’m sure this description is on all the tourist brochures.

The town’s main street and surrounding streets are full of working art and jewelry-smithing studios and shops. Just off main is Brewery Gulch, a strip of historic pubs that remind me of the pubs in Juneau, Alaska, full of life and history. The town is built on steep hillsides, the houses perched on terraces and seemingly held up by rock walls. Cute, artistic renovated houses alternate with lots that are decaying and have seen much better days. Many of the houses can not be reached by cars—cars are left parked at the bottom and you walk up the towns many amazing staircases. Even the town‘s courthouse is interesting, complete with art-deco doors and fountain. Greg and I didn’t see many of the standard tourist sites, given our toddler entertainment task, but I did go on the Queen Mine tour.

The Queen Mine tour takes you underground into one of Phelps-Dodge’s old copper mines. You ride on the old mine tracks on a train and one of the guys that actually worked the mine leads the tour and tells you about the operations. The tour was really wonderful—don’t miss it if you go to Bisbee.

As exciting for me was meeting Kate Drew-Wilkenson, a wonderful jewelry designer with a shop in town. Kate loved my bracelets and rings and encouraged me to keep making and designing jewelry. She even took me aside and showed me some jewelry ‘tricks of the trade.’ She also nicely invited us to her house to look at her workshop and pick through her bead collection, but unfortunately we couldn’t work the timing to get there. I have an idea we will be back in Bisbee sometime soon.