Patagonia Pleasures

We had our first travel day with weather on Friday as we moved to Patagonia Lake State Park. The rain stopped though, once we arrived at our site and got set up in what turned out to be a very unlevel site. But the set up was worth the trouble because we have a fantastic view and sitting area, decent privacy, with loads of birds visiting our feeder.

View from our site #5 which is situated up a slight hill for a view of the lake.

Hans had scoped out the happenings in the little town of Patagonia, just North of the State Park and on Friday night we went to the local theater to catch the wonderful Conjunto Royal. They played a wide variety of Latin music and we thoroughly enjoyed them.

Patagonia Lake State Park is known as a birding destination and on Saturday we went in search of the elusive and much sought after Elegant Trogon. While we were unsuccessful on that count, we did see this cute little guy:

Saturday night we had a good visit and dinner with Hans' cousin Linde and Nandor at Patagonia's Velvet Elvis restaurant. They drove over from Sierra Vista to check out our home on wheels. It's so good to be able to meet up with friends and family all over the country!

This morning we took a birding boat tour of the East part of the lake which is offered each weekend throughout the winter season.

Neotropic and Double Crested Cormorants.
You can see some of the water front camp sites in the background.

Later we met up once again with our friends from British Columbia, Joanne & Don and Steve & Carla, for more hiking, this time at  Sonoita Creek State Natural Area. The Natural Area is just half a mile outside the State Park entrance and you must have a permit (available from the State Park kiosk or visitor center) to hike there.

We did a 5 mile figure eight loop that took us through Sonoita Creek bed and the surrounding hillsides. This part of Southern AZ is at about 4,000 feet elevation so it is just barely starting to green up.

Early on the trail we came across this little slot canyon. 

We walked among rolling grass, yucca and mesquite covered hills. Lots of pretty clouds today as the latest storm fades away.

At one point we were excited to spot several javelina's traveling across a the next hillside over! Too far and too active to get a picture with my little point and shoot.

This was an unusual cactus...I don't know what it is, but I liked the symmetry and colors.

We were a colorful group today!
Steve, I'm sorry your face was hidden!

When we drove past Tubac on Friday we noticed that the Cottonwoods had suddenly turned green, but at Patagonia they were still in their winter coats. Today random Cottonwoods stood out in spring green:

The last leg of the trail passed the West end of Patagoina Lake where we encountered some of the locals whose land we had been sharing all day.

This evening we had the great pleasure of meeting fellow bloggers Rick and JoAnne after they pulled in to stay for a few days. We met them thanks to a tip from Dave and Sue, who also happened to pull in to the campground today!

Today was our six month full time RVing anniversary! So far, so good...I think we'll continue for a while!  :-)