These Gila (hila) Woodpeckers are as common in Arizona as Robins in B.C. Beautiful birds though with a distinct voic. Loved our feeder.
Our RV, aka Homer, reflects Catalina State Park, our favorite location so far. This Park is stunning and we went on many hikes, from 3 to 10 miles in a day. Loved it here, but you can only stay two weeks before they insist you go elsewhere. Made lots of new friends here as well.
We were very surprised to find that Northern Cardinals live here all year round. They are beautiful although shy, it wasn't too hard to spot them. The day we left a brilliantly colored male came to say goodbye.
This hike was about 3 hours in cactus land. Fortunately, the trail is well marked and as long as you stay on the trail, cacti can be avoided. Otherwise, they are everywhere!
This was one of the strangest looking saguaro's we saw. The arms of the saguaro only droop down if they have had snow or frost on them. Most saguaro have a lot less arms. Strange cacti.
Lots of different birds land on the cacti and/or make homes in their arms or inside them.
Tried to find out what kind of flower this was, but was unsuccesful. It had an amazing strong scent and was up near the top of the Romero pools pass which was very high in the mountain. This was part of our 10 mile hike day. You could smell this flower long before you found it.
A long hike up, although it doesn't look it, to the Romero Pools. We were fortunte there were clouds as we would have baked otherwise. A great hike, but dogs were not allowed as this is a Bighorn Sheep Management Area. Just as well, as the dogs would never have made it.
A long, hot 2 hour climb, but worth it.
My feet were very hot and tired so thought a dip in the cool water would feel great. Surprisingly, the water was absolutely freezing cold and I could only keep my feet in for about 5 seconds. This was the view on the way down. The trip down took 1 1/2 hours. Somewhere down there is our campground. An amazing hike.
One of the weird looking saguaros (saywaros).
A great hike to the Romero Pools in the Santa Catalina Mountains.
On the way down again.
Mistletoe grows everywhere on unsuspecting ironwood trees.
Pyrrhuloxia, a type of cardinal. Saw lots of these.
Not a great picture, as we were quite a long ways away from these bluebirds, but again we were surprised to find them on the desert.
The gila (hila) monster has a very nasty bite which apparently feels like a lighter is being held to your skin for 24 hours. It eats twice a year and loves Gambel's quail eggs. Normally they move slowly, but can move quickly if hungry. There skin feels like rows and rows of beads.
Red tailed hawks seem to like sitting on the saguaro's as well.
A hog nosed skunk. Didn't want to get t0o close, but apparently they have very poor vision so could have gone closer. This skunk is quite a bit bigger than our BC skunks and has a lot more white hair. We also saw a young dead skunk which we reported and a ranger came and took it away for burial after confirming it didn't have rabies. We also saw lots of huge jackrabbits with enormous ears, but they wouldn't sit still for a photo.
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