Our travel days have been short and this day was no exception. We drove about 80 miles from Whitewater Draw to Sierra Vista, Arizona. Bob and I know friends who have been stationed at Fort Huachuca, but we have never visited. This would be our first campsite with full-hookups since we stayed at Betty's RV Park at the beginning of this trip. We had reservations and were glad we did because this is a popular winter stop for a lot of retired military.
We had a great site at Apache Flats.
Once we got set-up, it was time to do laundry! Funny how those dirty clothes seem to multiply when you are boondocking! Once laundry was done, Bob and I took a walk around the nature trail at the campground.
The next day was a geocaching day for Bob and I. We went north of Sierra Vista to Huachuca City and found Arizona Land (permit needed to enter) and cached in the desert. We found all but one of the caches on our list. Unfortunately, since it was desert, there was no established trail and we had to fight our way through small mesquite trees to get some of the caches. For those of you unfamiliar with these trees, the have very small
Another day we drove south with Larry and Connie to Coronado National Memorial. It is located near the Mexican border. The visitor center had examples of the armor used by Coronado's men when they explored the southwest. Connie is modeling the helmet and shield.
The visitor center is small, but filled with information. We had a picnic lunch in front of it before heading to Coronado Peak.
This is a panoramic view to the east of Coronado Peak.
In this picture, the dark line running from the mountain to the east is the wall separating the U.S. from Mexico. It was built quite a few years ago.
Bob and Larry took advantage of the shelter on Coronado Peak while Connie and I took photos of the views.
One thing that is ever-present in the desert is cholla, a type of cactus that literally jumps on you. Bob gave this cholla plenty of space as he snapped its picture. Any time we travel west, Bob ends up with cholla somewhere around his ankles or shins. So far, so good...no cholla bites!
This cholla (pronounced choy-uh), the one Bob photographed, has already bloomed and the blossoms are turning into more segments of the cactus.
Another day Bob, Connie and I visited Tombstone, Arizona. Bob found out there was a brewery and we had to visit. It was a small tasting room with good brews.
To vary our activity, our group took advantage of the special bowling prices on base during the weekdays. None of us had bowled in quite a while and we enjoyed ourselves trying to get those pesky pins to fall.
On our last day in Sierra Vista, Bob and I went to the San Pedro National Riparian Conservation Area. It is a huge area that follows the San Pedro River. We hiked and geocached near San Pedro House Visitor Center.
As with most desert riparian areas, the cottonwood trees were huge!
On one of the ponds we spotted these turtles sunning themselves.
Yes, there were geocaches in the area and we found all of those hidden in the area of our hike
We enjoyed our stay (8 days) in Sierra Vista and hope to return to explore more of the area. It was time to head to Tucson to get ready for Escapade!
No comments:
Post a Comment