Patagonia Lake State Park

We’ve been to Patagonia Lake State Park several times, but it’s a lovely spot so we decided to return, needless to say we carefully watched our speed as we drove through the town of Patagonia on our way.

 

At Patagonia Lake, you can camp, fish, boat, swim and hike.   The hike takes you along the Sonoita Creek trail and as we’ve already done that we decided to just have lunch and mooch around.   Unfortunately for us we visited on a Tuesday and the visitor centre is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

We parked in the day use area and set off to have lunch by the lake, it was very pretty but a bit on the breezy side, even the ducks were struggling to make headway so we didn’t linger.

 

Swimming in Patagonia Lake is classed as wild swimming, not that I would it’s too darn cold for me, and the day we visited the beach area was being renovated so it was closed anyway.

These pretty flowers were on the lakeshore, I have no idea what they are.

A view across to the mountains, not sure which mountains though.

We walked around the park and back through the marina, where we watched someone attempting to put their boat back on the trailer and someone else rowing out of the calm waters of the marina onto the windy lake.

Keeping a watchful eye over things and for any unwary fish was a heron perched on the rangers boathouse.

On the way back we pulled in at a layby with a historical marker sign, complete with bullet holes, and discovered that we were on the site of John Ward’s Ranch.   In 1861 Indians kidnapped his Mexican stepson, Felix, army officers wrongly assumed that the local Chiricahua Apache were responsible, they weren’t it was actually the Pinal Band of the Western Apache.   This mistake led to the infamous Bascom Affair between Lt Bascom and Cochise.  I’m not sure if John Ward ever saw his stepson again, but he died in 1867, after which the site became a blacksmith and wheelwright shop, a mining headquarters, a store and finally a produce farm before being abandoned in 1903.

Just beyond the historical marker is the Telles Family Shrine which was begun in 1941 after Juanita and Juan Telles made a vow to God for the safety of their sons in WWII.   The shrine was rededicated in 1988 and the plaque was erected by the Pimeria Alta Historical Society.

It just goes to show you never know what you’re going to find on the side of the road. 

Have fun, we are!

Looking for Greaterville

When we drove over the Box Canyon road a couple of days earlier we took the right-hand road, the left went to Greaterville.   We had no idea what if anything was at Greaterville, or even if it was an actual place so we decided to find out.

 

This time when we came to the junction we turned left, somehow I sort of expected that not very far up the road we’d come into a very small community, we didn’t, although there was a ranch on one side of the road.

 

We continued to follow the road, as we did it got narrower and steeper, we had no detailed map of the area so were following the roads on sat nav, needless to say that didn’t exactly fill me with confidence! 

Eventually we came to a crossroads with a huge parking area and fabulous views over across what I think, is Empire Ranch and the Whetstone Mountains.

DB stopped and I hopped out with my camera, it was pretty windy and absolutely freezing out of the nice warm truck.   I walked over to read what looked like an informational board, but it was blank so that was no help at all. 

Okay so this road goes to Fish Canyon, I’ve seen the name somewhere, but where exactly is it and do we want to actually go there?   Absolutely no idea!

After taking a few photographs and waving to a Border Patrol truck as it whizzed past we decided that as we didn’t exactly now where we were going and it was late afternoon it was probably a good idea to retrace our steps and head back, so that’s what we did.

I still want to know if there's a town/community/village at Greaterville or if it’s just an area, so I need to go buy a proper map for that section. 

Have fun, we are!

Box Canyon to Madera Canyon

After having some lunch by the truck and leaving Kentucky Camp, we decided to drive over to Madera Canyon, by way of Box Canyon.

 

Back on highway 83 and through the Border Patrol Checkpoint, we turned onto the Greaterville/Madera Canyon Road.   Houses and ranches line the road which is paved for a few miles until you reach the turn offs for Greaterville and Box Canyon.

 

As you enter Box Canyon there is the usual sign warning you that you may possibly encounter smugglers and drug runners in the area, even though we’ve seen lots of these signs they certainly make you think, which is what I guess they’re intended to do.

 

It’s a lovely drive on a good dirt road as it winds along a dry stream over a mountain pass and down the other side and needless to say the views are great and, naturally I drove DB mad by asking him to stop so I could take photographs.

 

Starting up

 

Further up

Through the windscreen coming down the otherside as DB said he definitely wasn’t going to stop on this section!

Looking back, the road we drove down is somewhere up there.

Once on the otherside of the mountain we drove past the Santa Rita Experimental Range and onto Whitehorse Road, that takes you directly into Madera Canyon. 

Gorgeous views of the mountains and wildflowers.

Mexican gold poppies and lupine.

Deer at the bottom of Madera Canyon Road

The start of Madera Canyon road, more fabulous mountain views.

We drove as far up Mount Wrightson as the road goes, for a weekday it was surprisingly busy, but I believe it’s a good birding area and that it’s the right time of the year to be looking for Elegant Trogons. 

Even closer to the mountains

Heading back down to the valley.

It’s a lovely spot with lots of hiking, so I imagine this is another place we’ll be back to visit again.

Have fun, we are!

Kentucky Camp

Another lovely sunny morning and another trip to highway 83, this time we were in search of Kentucky Camp, an old gold mining camp on the eastern side of the Santa Rita Mountains. 

We took unpaved Gardner Canyon Road, it’s only about 5 miles from the highway but part way along we thought we’d taken a wrong turn somewhere as we came to Private Property sign.   We had visions of turning up in the front yard of a ranch, but it actually meant the land on either side of the road was private.

 

The parking area is ¼ mile from the camp, you can only drive down if you’re actually renting a cabin in the camp, a guy who was staying down there told us the night skies were absolutely fabulous. 

One of the cabins you can rent.

Gold was discovered at Kentucky Camp in the 1870’s, it was what is called placer gold and the easiest way to separate it from sand and gravel is with water.   There’s not a lot of water around here, so miners either had to haul dirt to one of the few streams or bring in water on the backs of mules.   I bet you probably made almost as much money hauling in water and selling it as you did from finding gold.   The gold was soon worked out and by 1886 most of the miners had moved on.

At the turn of the 20^th century a mining engineer from California, James Stetson (I wonder if he was any relation to the hat company?) had the idea of building a channel of water to bring spring snowmelt to a reservoir that would last 10 months and keep a placer mine operating to extract the remaing gold.   The cost of building all this was between $125,000 and $175,000.   Parts of the channel are still there. 

The assay office.

A wealthy businessman, George McAneny, agreed to invest and the Santa Rita Water & Mining Company was formed.   The buildings at Kentucky Camp became the headquarters.   The day before a stockholder meeting James Stetson fell from a third floor hotel window in Tucson and died, George McAneny got tied up in a contentious divorce and the company failed.   So after spending all that money to build the channel, the company only made about $3,000.00 before it failed.   Glad I wasn’t a stockholder!

 

The buildings were eventually acquired by Louis Hummel and the land was used as a cattle ranch until the 1960’s.

 

I think this building was used as the old ranch house.

   

Now part of the Coronado National Forest, some of the buildings have been stablised using volunteer labour and money from the television series ‘Young Riders’ that was filmed in the area in the early 1990’s and work is still being carried out. 

The long distance Arizona Trail, which runs from the Mexican border to Utah, also runs through the camp, the trail as it comes into Kentucky Camp.

Arizona Trail mileage sign at the parking area.

Yet another interesting place to visit, there is so much to see and do in this part of Arizona and I don’t think we’ll ever see it all. 

Have fun, we are!

Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve

Our destination today was The Nature Conservancy, Patagonia Sonoita Creek Preserve which is just off highway 82 in Patagonia.   Patagonia is a friendly little town, with a great coffee shop called The Gathering Grounds,

 

it is also a town where you really do need to abide by the posted speed limit, as the Marshalls are, quite rightly, hot on offenders.  It’s also about the only place I’ve ever seen huge semi truck’s slow down and actually do just that.  

The visitor centre at the preserve was our first stop for information and a trail map, entrance is free if you’re a member of the Nature Conservancy, otherwise it’s $6.00 each.

Five miles of Sonoita Creek are a perenial water source and the first two miles of that run through the preserve.   The creek is home to some of the most endangered species of acquatic plants and fish in the Southwest.

Along the trail by the creek 

The remains of an old railroad that used to run from Benson, AZ to Guaymas, Mexico from 1882 until 1962 are now part of a trail that runs through the preserve.

 

The preserve is also home to more that 22 species of birds of prey, we can recognise a hawk and a few other easily recognisable birds when we see them, but we’re not birders so mostly we just see, well, a bird.  We can however recognise these two birds. 

Vermillion Flycatcher

Humming birds at the visitor centre

This bird was tucked in the branches of the tree along with the vermillion flycatcher, but we have no idea what it is, probably something really common.

The very green area is a cinega which means that there is a higher level of groundwater, it’s what is left of a wetland area that once upon a time may have extended into what is now the town of Patagonia.   As groundwater in the Southwest recedes cinegas are rapidly disappearing.

A view of the mountains from the trail.

Even though we’re definitely not birders, we enjoyed our trip through the preserve. 

Have fun, we are!

Swimming Pools & Movie Stars, Empire Ranch, Sonoita, AZ

Established in 1871 Empire Ranch, now part of the Las Cinegas National Conservation Area, has a fascinating history, that really does include swimming pools and movie stars.

 

From Tucson, we took I10 to the Highway 83 exit and followed the road until we came to the brown visitor sign, turning onto the ranch we followed the dirt road across rolling grasslands until we came to the ranch headquarters.

 

The original house was a small 4 room building, over the years it was altered and extended to suit the times and whoever was living there, at one time there was also an outdoor swimming pool.

The yard in front of the house.

What looked like an old stock shed

The view from the yard.

As befits a busy ranch, the kitchen was obviously well used, although I was a bit worried about the rattlesnake warning!

Empire Ranch was also used as a location for quite a few films, including Red River and the Outlaw Josey Wales, episodes of Bonanza were also filmed there.   John Wayne, Burt Lancaster and Maureen O’Hara also stayed at the ranch while they were filming. 

This photograph was on one of the informational boards inside the ranch house.

We took the ½ mile Heritage Loop Trail past the leopard frog breeding ponds, sadly we didn’t actually see any.

The trail continued along the dry creek and past enormous old cottonwood trees.   Which is when we found out that it’s not a good idea to sit under a cottonwood on a windy day as they are self pruning, so you just might end up with a huge branch falling on your head!   Not good! 

At the end of the trail you walk past the ‘new’ ranch house that was built in the 1950’s.

It’s a very atmospheric place a lot of restoration work has been done and more is planned.   There are fabulous views across to the mountains and on a quiet Sunday afternoon, we practically had the place to ourselves.   Entrance is free, but donations are appreciated, if you’re in the area and like old ranches it’s definitely worth a visit. 

Have fun, we are!

When possible make a U turn!

Last year our trusty Garmin sat nav suddenly announced that 'there are no roads in the area' and switched itself off.   You might think this happened out on a dirt road miles from anywhere, not so, at the time we were on I10 in the middle of Tucson.   Luckily we knew where we were going.

 

We left it for a couple of days, tried again and it seemed fine, then it happened again and again.   To us the whole idea of a sat nav is for that extra navigational help when you're somewhere strange, so it seemed like it was time to get a new one.

 

After much research into sat navs designed for RV's our first choice, as we liked our Garmin, was a truckers Garmin.   But I have this quaint old fashioned idea that I actually like to see things before I buy them and as I couldn't find one anywhere to look at before I bought it that took care of that.   So then it was a straight choice between Rand McNally and Magellan, both had pros and cons, in the end we, okay I, as I do most of the navigating and map reading, chose the Magellan.

I'm beginning to think it was the wrong choice.   Why?   Because despite having the system set for the correct length, width and height of our truck and fifth wheel.   On the 'mostly freeway' setting on our way to Rincon East RV Resort, it always but always wants to direct us right through the middle of town and then just as we're arriving, it directs of off the road the RV resort is on around a housing sub-division across the street before directing us back to the road it just directed us off.   Hmmm.........

I got online and spoke to a lovely lady at Magellan, who got exactly the same results as I did.   She suggested removing some turns,  okay that can be done, fiddly and time consuming, but it can be done.    But what about when we're in a strange town and I haven't got a clue where I am, how do I know it's going to send me round a housing sub division when there is no need for me to be there? 

While we've been out and about exploring (obviously without our fifth wheel attached!) I've set the sat nav on different settings, 'avoid freeways', 'fastest time', 'shortest time', I even extended the width to 14ft and every single setting sends us round that sub-division!    So I'll be emailing Magellan and asking them to look into this and see what's happening.    And yes, we do have all the latest maps and updates on it. 

So now here we are with a fairly new, very expensive sat nav, that I don't think I particularly trust, don't ya just love technology?

All I can say is thank goodness we always have directions from whichever RV park we're heading for and for good old fashioned paper maps!

Have fun, we are!