OzarksPhotosTravels

Yesterday afternoon Marilyn and I were again at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. We had the pleasure along with a couple hundred other people attending the free flight bird exhibition. It featured a Gray Hawk and a family of Harris Hawk’s. The birds put on a terrific performance and it was amazing to see how unafraid of people they were. The docent had warned people to not raise anything above eye level and the warning was well heeded by everyone. This warning proved to be very factual as there were times when birds would skim by barely over the attendees heads.

Below are four images of a gray Hawk.

Below are several images of Harris Hawk’s. The docents explained that Harris hawks live in a group or family. By doing this it increases their efficiency at hunting.

These hawks were beautiful and it was very interesting and exciting to view them in flight and taking perches.

The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum has many interesting exhibits it is well worth a visit. Put it on your bucket list!

Recently while we were near Apache Junction, Arizona at the Lost Dutchman State Park camp ground we heard about what was supposed to be a very nice drive to visit the store at Tortilla Flat, Arizona. It is located a few miles beyond Canyon Lake. While the drive was on a good road it was very curvy and had some pretty steep hills. It also had some wonderful views of canyons and gorgeous mountains, unfortunately it seems as though all the powerlines ran along the same route so the photo opportunities were nonexistent. We do have some dash cam footage and we hope to get it edited in a few days. I will post it in a new post when it is finished.

Below are a few images of the lake and some of its visitors.

The lake is surrounded by several very tall bluffs.

It also has a variety of avian visitors.

after spending a bit of time at the lake we continued on up the Apache Trail Scenic byway to the small settlement of Tortilla Flat. It primarily consists of a lot of old time memorabilia scattered everywhere and a small strip of stores. A bar/restaurant, a store selling touristy things and one or two others. We did not stay long as there was not much of interest to us. Below are a couple of images from there.

That’s all for now, hopefully you will enjoy the video once I get it completed,

Larry

We were in Phoenix today and enjoyed meeting up with my nephew from Pennsylvania and his friend. Had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Made our usual after 2 o’clock visit to a Starbucks and Marilyn toured the IKEA store. After this we visited another Starbucks to finish off the day and then drove up to the Superstition mountain and checked in to the Lost Dutchman campground.

As it was late and almost dark we only got a few images before calling it a day and having a wonderful dinner.

Superstition mountain.

Just a few of the cacti.

and then the sun set and it was pretty dark.

Last night at sunset we were treated with some Desert skies with color. A few images below.

While in Tucson we decided to travel north and spend a few nights at the Catalina State Park, just 12 miles north of Tucson. It is a very nice park with paved roads and paved pads to park on each night. Just to the east of the park are the Catalina Mountains which offer many opportunities for photographs. You will see some below.

Greeting us our first day there were the round tailed ground squirrels.

Below are multiple images of the mountains surrounding the Catalina State Park campground taken throughout the day.

Awe inspiring beauty!

Thank you for visiting our blog,

Larry

Catalina State Park is located north of Tucson, Arizona. It encompasses several thousand acres and many hundred saguaro cactus along with other cacti, wildlife, etc. below are a few images we took while we were visiting yesterday.

The Sonora Desert Museum is located just south west of Tucson, Arizona. It has a great number of exhibits and many presentations by docents. The outdoor exhibits are along a 2 mile trail. They have wheelchairs and electric powered chairs to assist those who cannot walk that far.

At various times during the day they have docents giving exhibitions of various animals and plants living in the desert. Below is one giving a presentation on barn owls. She indicated that they have a long list of farmers waiting for any barn owl’s they are able to rehabilitate.

The museum have some very unusual cactus plants, fortunately they put names on them. See them below.

There are thousands of saguaro cactus and you see them in every direction you look. There are also many other varieties of cacti. One thing that amazed us was how far up the mountains they were able to grow. We were told that the mountains shown in the second picture were 47 miles away.

In addition to all of the cacti and wildflowers they also have some wild animals in captivity. There also are several species of birds.

And then of course any place there are people and food there are these free roaming ground squirrels of the desert.

Lest you think that saguaro are the only variety of cactus at the museum please peruse the following images.

And for the finale, the king of the saguaro cactus!

we hope you enjoyed this abbreviated tour of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.

After spending some days in El Paso, Texas with Marilyn’s relatives we came over to Tucson to keep an appointment at Freedom RV. We had several minor problems with a Roadtrek and they spent the better part of a day getting almost everything up to snuff. Aaron, the tech that did most of the work was very efficient and effective.

After that we decided to spend some time exploring the area. They have lots of Starbucks which pleased me. 😎

We spent part of one day driving out to the Sonora Desert Museum. While we intend to visit the museum the next time we visit we enjoyed driving around the area. Below are a few of the photographs from our exploration.

This is our Roadtrek, Geraldine III which has served us faithfully on our travels. Behind her is a veritable sea of saguaro cactus.

Below is a barrel cactus surrounded by some delicate yellow flowers.

A closer view of the top of the barrel cactus.

Below is what I think is a Silver Cholla, certainly a cactus one would not wish to stumble and fall into. A multitude of shiny silver spines.

We were amazed at how high up on the hills the saguaro cactus grew and also that there were so many of them.

We hope you enjoy this brief report on our visit to the Sonora Desert Museum area which is part of the Tucson Mountain Park. It is located south and west of Tucson and well worth the visit if you like to see sticky bushes.

😎

Recently we had the opportunity to attend a gathering of family and friends to celebrate the 80th birthday of Carol Stephens here in El Paso. It was a surprise party and even though there was a large number of people that knew it was coming no one spilled the beans and it was a total surprise to Carol.

The party was put together by Carol’s children, Russell, Cheryl and Dennis. They did an excellent job with a slideshow of memories from Carol’s life showing on three large displays during the gathering. When it was time to end the ceremony each of them spent some time reviewing memories of their life growing up with her as their mother.

A very short video showing a few of the guests and the family preparing for the celebration.

Below is a photo of the family and guests preparing to welcome Carol into the room for the celebration. The three large screens were playing memories from Carol’s life.

Below is Carol entering the room. She had been told that they were gathering to get a family photograph taken. Cheryl opened the door while her son Russell was pushing her into the room followed by her son-in-law Walter.

Carol reacting to The greeting from the crowd gathered to celebrate her 80th birthday. Immediately afterwards everyone joined in singing happy birthday to her.

After her entrance many of her fellow teachers, friends and church members spent a lot of time visiting with her. This was followed by a delicious meal for all that attended. A very wonderful celebration for a very wonderful lady.

Tomorrow will be two weeks since we left Missouri. First was a quick stop in Pensacola, Florida to visit a niece, then on over to the Houston, Texas area. Drove in rain almost all the way. Finally after about two or three days of rain and the Houston area we got some sunshine. That was really nice.

While in the Houston area we were invited to a birthday party for a cousin, Larry Poore. Had a very nice evening and got to catch up with some of our relatives.

After that we spent a few nights with our good Roadtrek friends, Ken and Dottie. One day during our stay in the Houston area we drove down to Galveston and met up with a classmate from 60 years ago. We had a very nice lunch and got reacquainted with Ellen Beasley from our 1958 graduating class from high school.

After a couple more days of driving across Texas we are now in El Paso with Marilyn’s sister and her family. We will be here through Thanksgiving and be able to celebrate with them.

Sometime after Thanksgiving we will be heading further west. We have an appointment in Tucson with the Roadtrek dealer so they can determine fire under hood generator is not recharging our batteries. our appointment is for December 11 so we will not have to be in any rush to get there. We are thankful that we have been in a lot of sun the last few days and our solar panel has maintained our batteries.

We once again our traveling with a cat. Frisco is his name. He watches over us and our Roadtrek as evidenced by the photo below of him on the dash. This was taken laded night.