3000 MILES FROM HOME

440 horses drive the wheels of this chrome and steel
Like a freight train through the night,
My foot is lead and my eyes blood red,
And my knuckles showing white,
My hair is slicked with oil,
and my breathe flows gasoline.
Well I'm a smoking' flamin' death machine
And the lonely lights of another lonely town
Lonely highway I keep rushing down
And there's a 100 miles till I sleep tonight
Well I've got to put the hammer down.

- Johnny Cash

GREATER ROADRUNNER

SANTA ELENA CANYON, RIO GRANDE', BBNP

April 22:  Despite Gale’s protests, we got up before dawn even thought of cracking and drove the short distance from Cottonwood Campground in BBNP, TX, to Santa Elena Canyon, one of the three great canyons cut by the Rio Grande’ in BBNP (the others are Boquillas and Mariscal).  Only at first light does the sun shine directly into the canyon, illuminating its towering and majestic 1500 foot walls.  A roadrunner zooms past the short trail that climbs sharply up the canyon wall and allows entrance about 200 yards into the narrow canyon.  The descending liquid notes of a canyon wren cascade from high above as northern rough-winged swallows course silently over the river.  We were the only people present. Sometimes magic comes from magnificent scenery, sometimes from the song of a tiny bird.

RIO GRANDE'

BLACK JACK'S CROSSING RESORT, LAJITAS, TEXAS

GOLF IN THE DESERT

From Santa Elena, we drove to Lajitas, just outside BBNP, to play golf of all things.  After all the natural wonders we had been privileged to witness, it seemed VERY strange to see an upscale golf course and resort imposed upon this desert wilderness.  So we did our best to wear it out.  The course was actually a lot of fun and we saw a bunch of new “trip” birds while playing, most notably flocks of migrating American pipits.  Some of the elevated views of the Rio Grande’ were spectacular, especially with the artificial green of the course laid out amidst the otherwise xeric landscape.  Our night was spent in the less than elegant RV park across the street, where giant motorhomes were lined up like cruise ships at the dock.  But they did have big showers, big toilets, and WIFI, from where I made the last posts.

April 23:  We took the road less traveled and drove along the Rio Grande’ from Lajitas, Texas, to Presidio, TX, with a short stop at the Terlingua “ruins” where the world’s largest annual chili cook-off is held.  The serpentine road along the river climbed, twisted and turned through the desert, cutting through this geologically tortured landscape, revealing gray, brown, gold and red layers of sedimentary and igneous rock.  One of the few other vehicles we encountered along this road stopped at an overlook with us and said, “I’ve lived in Texas all my life and never been on this road.  This is amazing!”

We turned north at Presidio, steadily gaining altitude until we reached Van Horn and turned west toward Arizona.  We stopped in El Paso (“I’m just an asshole from El Paso” - Kinky Friedman) to resupply and then hugged the Mexican border all the way across New Mexico on Route 9.  Almost every vehicle we saw along this extremely flat desert route was from the US Border Patrol.  We had to stop at an inspection station and get sniffed by a German shephard (dog) to make sure we hadn’t just come from Oregon or other godless pot-smoking region.  We arrived in Portal, AZ too late too get a campsite, but the folks at the folksy Portal Store were kind enough to let us just park in their lot for the night.  We were beat after 12 hours on the road so that was just fine.

ROAD FROM LAJITAS TO PRESIDIO

ROAD FROM LAJITAS TO PRESIDIO

MOONRISE, ARIZONA

FLOOD WRECKAGE, CAVE CREEK CANYON

April 24:  An early start took us up the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon, one of the most beautiful locations in the entire state.  The canyon walls glowed red, yellow and green in the early sunlight, surging a thousand feet above us.  These shear rock faces are pocked with deep caves, inspiring the canyon’s name.  For those who haven’t been here in some time, in 2014 a monster flood tore through the canyon, sending boulders, trees and and all sorts of debris hurtling down the canyon.  The old picnic/campground became inaccessible by vehicle and the formerly placid stream bed was a jumble of rocks, now dry.  Gale was shocked (as was I), when I correctly identified an unseen blue-throated hummingbird by the sound of its wings!  Our target species here (and for everyone else) was the elegant trogon, the only one of its family to breed in North America.  A number of people were there with the same goal and we were taunted by two male trogons frequently calling and flying up and down the canyon but remaining invisible to all.  Finally, one male, in all its crimson and green splendor, appeared and we had very satisfying looks at it.  There were quite a few other birds around as well - bridled titmouse, plumbeous, Cassin’s and Hutton’s vireos, Townsend’s, yellow-rumped (Audubon’s), orange-crowned, black-throated gray warblers and painted redstart.  If you don’t know what these gorgeous birds look like, go find out!  They’re stunning little jewels.

ELEGANT TROGON

We then drove a 25 mile loop through the high mountains, looking for high elevation species.  These roads are narrow, dirt, extremely winding and rough, so if you don’t have the heart for it, don’t do it, especially in an RV.  Plus it was extremely windy.  Unfortunately, in 2011 a fire swept through much of the area around Rustler Peak and Barfoot Park, wiping out much of the habitat for these birds.  All we saw was a flock of Gould’s subspecies of wild turkey, which were surprisingly black and white in color and VERY large.   

GOULD'S WILD TURKEY

Dinner was a delightful outdoor pleasure on the restaurant terrace of the Portal Store. On the return drive to the campground we saw a common poorwill in our headlights as it fluttered off the road into pitch darkness.  No moon and clear skies meant an insanely gorgeous star-filled sky.  We could even see what brand of pants Orion was wearing! 

April 25:  This was our desert birding day near the eastern flank of the Chiricahua Mountains, right along the New Mexico state line.  We started at the “Jasper Feeders”, a yard designed and maintained to attract birds and the owner welcomes the public, even providing seating.  There were swarms of lazuli bunting, green-tailed towhee, pyrrhuloxia, Gambel’s quail, broad-tailed and broad-billed hummingbirds, and in the parking area, a crissal thrasher perched up and sang for us!

LAZULI BUNTING

GAMBEL'S QUAIL

Unfortunately, the wind was howling by now and our attempts to bird the open desert were fruitless, despite trying.  We headed southwest to Douglas, AZ and found a laundromat so we could get the dust and dirt out of our clothes.  We decided to be tourists for the rest of the day and drove through Bisbee, AZ, home of one of the world’s largest open pit copper mines.  Then on to Tombstone, to walk the wooden sidewalks and check out a few of the saloons.  These days, you can get quiche, paninis, or a reuben with a very nice selection of wines if a steak and a beer isn’t what you had in mind.  We ate at Big Nose Kate’s, who reportedly was Doc Holiday’s gal.  All the employees dress up in costume, including a gun-totin’ dude who runs a mean digital cash register.  Much fun, even if a tad hokey.  Interesting to stand in the places where the shootout at the OK Corral really happened and where Wyatt Earp’s brother Virgil was gunned down in a billiard parlor.  I tell you, pool starts with a capital P and that rhymes with trouble, or something like that.

BIG NOSE KATE'S BAR, TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA

GALE WITH OLDER MODEL RV, TOMBSTONE

BISBEE COPPER MINE

We had a little problem with a sticky closet door in the RV (herafter known as “Albie, short for Wandering Albatross).  Having been trained in the blacksmith school of carpentry  and cabinetry (this is where you learn to put in a reluctant screw with a hammer), I applied a little extra force, resulting in the whole door coming off in my hands and screws flying everywhere.  Next stop - Ace, the home of the friendly hardware man, for some new bigger screws.  We found him in the sprawling town of Sierra Vista, carried in the whole door for demonstration purposes and acquired some fatter screws that did the job.  Door rehung and now working fine.  We’re so proud of ourselves!

On to our campgrounds for the next three nights in Ramsey Canyon, just south of Sierra Vista.  I can’t believe the hideous sprawl of what was, 25 years ago, a tiny quiet town.  

Good night, all.

MULE DEER

April 26:  Dawn came early (5:38 AM), because AZ is the only state in the union that does not believe in daylight savings time.  At 5400 feet elevation, it was also very cold and we were extremely happy that our heating system worked.  Before breakfast, we walked a half mile up the canyon on the paved road, where it terminates at the Ramsey Canyon Preserve of the Nature Conservancy.  At the nearby B&B feeders, magnificent hummingbirds zipped back and forth, flashing their brilliant lavender and emerald iridescence.  We returned to our lovely campsite, where we overlooked the foothills of the Chiricahua Mountains.  Mule deer placidly grazed below us and singing hepatic tanagers perched close by.  We had breakfast al fresco, enjoying the scenery and the wildlife.

HEPATIC TANAGER

Next stop was the Ash Canyon B&B in, you guessed it, Ash Canyon, about ten miles south of our temporary home.  Apple and Google maps are amazing - you punch in the name of a place and the directions take you right to it, no matter how far down a twisting dirt road in the middle of no place.  We visited to find the lucifer hummingbird, a tiny bird only found in the USA in the southwest.  After a bit of waiting, it showed up, flaring an amazing purple gorget that covers its throat and the sides of its neck.  

SPOTTED OWL

LUCIFER HUMMINGBIRD

After a delightful lunch (I have discovered the elegant combination of peanut butter and banana on rye sandwiches), we proceeded

to Beatty’s B&B in Miller Canyon, another spot that for a small fee, invites the public in to observe at its feeders and walk the grounds.  We watched the hummer feeders for a bit, and then learned that there was a spotted owl less than a mile up the canyon.  We decided to go for it, got good directions as to where to find the owl and started the strenuous walk up the canyon.  Our legs were in better shape now, after our workouts in BBNP, but the elevation was over 6000 feet and our breathing was labored.  After a half hour, we started searching the pines for this one bird, hidden somewhere in the boughs.  I was sure the owl was watching us, but we just couldn’t find this elusive hooter.  Another half hour passed and FINALLY, I saw a head poking out of a nearby pine on the high side of the trail.  We couldn’t see the whole bird from the trail, plus we were looking almost straight up, so I scrambled up a ledge and up and over some boulders to get behind the owl and more at eye level.  Did this disturb the bird?  Apparently not, since it never even batted any eye from its daytime nap.  This owl is the same species that caused such a hubbub in the Pacific northwest, since it requires mature old growth forest for nesting and habitat.  Loggers didn’t like that.  The bird we were seeing is the Mexican subspecies and lives in the dry oak and pine filled canyons of our southwest and northern Mexico.  High fives and day over!

April 27:  We spent the entire day at Fort Huachuca looking for a very rare Sinaloa Wren.  No luck.  That’s life in the bird lane. Sometimes you rip; sometimes you dip.  

COOPER'S HAWK

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we saw Cooper’s hawks in full breeding dress, with flank plumes Gypsy Rose Lee would die for.  Many other new birds for our journey, bringing our trip list to 268.  Perhaps the hawk scared all the birds away.

Now we will continue our Continental Drift with dinner at the campground where we will eat from tectonic plates and try and avoid Continental Divide.