On Wednesday we headed to Albuquerque, 6 hours on down the road. Upon arriving, we went for a hike in the Sandia Wilderness in the Cibola National Forest. It was beautiful!
On Thursday we headed to the American International Rattlesnake Museum, where they have on display many of our country's native rattlesnakes.
Then we went to the Rio Grande Zoo - somewhat of a disappointment. We've visited lots of zoos, and this was not one of our favorite.
From here, we drove to Elephant Butte Lake SP, where we arrived late and set up camp, then went looking for night critters. We found our first Western Diamondback Rattlesnake, a Glossy Snake, and a tarantula!
In the morning we awoke to the first real view we'd had of the lake, New Mexico's largest, and it was beautiful! See the rock for which the lake is named?
We spent the rest of the day at Percha Dam SP and Caballo Lake SP, where we spent the night. After setting up camp and cooking supper, a huge storm blew in over the mountains. We waited it out in our tent, watching the rain over the peaks and getting the brunt of the wind.
After the storm blew over, we went out and found a Night Snake and Couch's Spadefoot Toad.
We typically slept with our rain fly off, as it was so much cooler. In the middle of the night we awoke to raindrops hitting our tent, and as we scrambled to climb out and get the rain fly out of the car, it started pouring. By the time we snapped it on and were securely back in the tent, we (and all of our stuff) were soaked. Was not the most comfortable night's sleep!
The next day we hiked in Dripping Springs Recreation Area, which was beautiful. Then we headed to White Sands National Monument.
We arrived at Leasburg Dam SP at about 10 pm, as we normally arrived late to our camping spots, but we were disappointed to find the gate locked up. Great - it was 30 minutes back to Las Cruces, where we'd just come from, and where we could get a hotel. About that time, headlights appeared. Lucky for us, the ranger happened to be kicking 2 cars out of the park at that moment, and after hearing our story he let us in to take 1 of the 2 campsites he had remaining.
The next day we headed towards Silver City New Mexico, the gateway to the Gila National Forest. En route, we stopped at Emory Peak (8500+ feet) and Mud Creek to hike. We got caught in a mild hail storm at Emory Peak, and made it back to our car in the nick of time. After hiking, we planned on driving to City of Rocks SP to spend the night. However, as we were driving it was pouring, and on the way we encountered a huge wash in the road that we were uncomfortable crossing. We made the decision to spend the night in a hotel in Silver City rather than get washed out into the desert trying to cross this stream!
The next morning we headed to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, one of my favorite sites.
That night we finally made it to City of Rocks SP, where we encountered unusual rock formations from a remnant volcanic explosion, and jackrabbits everywhere! On our night hike Rod found (almost stepped on!) a beautiful Prairie Rattlesnake. We also found a gnarly looking (but harmless) Whip Scorpion.
The next morning we found a gopher snake.
From here we drove into Arizona, stopping first at the Chiricahua National Monument. Rod found one of his prizes of the trip, the Lyre Snake. This was also one of my favorite places - beautiful.
We then drove to canyon country, staying in Sierra Vista and exploring Ramsey and Miller Canyons and the San Pedro River.
We drove to Patagonia, but the SP we planned to stay at was full, so we spent the night in the border town of Nogales. Then we spent our third cold, rainy day in a row hiking through the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve (but we did get a Gray Hawk there!). As we tried to leave the preserve, we ran into another wash out on the road, and headed back to the preserve to see if we could hang out there for a while. We ran into another hiker, Chris, and visited with him until the staff showed back up and told us of another route to get out. Chris lives in Tucson and offered to show us around when we made it that far in our journey. We ended up having dinner with him before heading to Madera Canyon, my favorite place of all.
Upon arriving, we encountered the Friends of the Madera Canyon doing their annual Bug Night. They had blacklights and sheets hung up, and invited us to hang out with them for a while. The next day we hiked around, and it was my best birding day of all! I got the ELEGANT TROGON, FLAME-COLORED TANAGER, Hepatic Tanager, and Hooded Oriole here.
We drove to Tucson next, and stayed at Catalina SP, where we encountered abundant desert tarantulas and huge Sonoran desert toads.
We spent the next three days in sweltering 111+ degree heat in the Sonoran Desert. The Arizona-Sonora Desert museum was awesome - can't find a better zoo anywhere. The Saguaro Cactus of Saguaro National Park are impressive and beautiful. And Mount Lemmon, high in the surrounding mountains, was a cool respite from the hot desert.
We made one final stop at Picacho's Peak SP. Here Rod found 2 baby Mojave Rattlesnakes.
We then headed to Phoenix, to spend a few days with Aunt Diana and Uncle Don. They took us to their cabin in the mountains, in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest on the Mogollon Rim. It was 114 in Phoenix, and in the high 80s in the mountains.
We spent Sunday and Monday, Aug. 2 and 3, making the long drive back to Fayetteville. We camped in Santa Rosa SP near Tucumcari NM on the way. What a trip it was! Twenty-one days, 3,820 miles, 114 species of birds (37 lifers).
See my articles about our trip! Read Birding Southeast Arizona, Habitats and Birds of Southeast Arizona, Birding Southwest New Mexico, and Habitats and Birds of Southwest New Mexico.
