What a perfect way to start a vacation!
Our first walk during this trip was along the San Pedro River, just outside of Sierra Vista. There are a number of areas along the river that can be hiked, and all of the trails I’ve taken to date have been lovely. (I’ve included a link to the BLM’s map of walking trails along the San Pedro River on my Trail Markers tab, under the Trail Maps section, for reference.) This time we chose to begin from the San Pedro House, a familiar location to 
both Mark and me. Unfortunately, the monsoons have been sporadic this year, so although the landscape is greener than at other times of the year, the river we walked along was little more than a trickle. Even so, the trails in this area of the river bottom are quite beautiful, and very peaceful. The Friends of the San Pedro River 
work alongside the BLM to advocate conservation and restoration of this heavily used river. FSPR also operates the San Pedro House gift shop and facilitates educational programs and walks (PDF of their brochure here). We generally walk on our own, however, looking and listening for birds, watching for lizards skittering across the path, and generally breathing in the tranquility. If you should find yourself in the Sierra Vista vicinity, I would highly recommend visiting the San Pedro House and taking a walk along the river.
This year, most likely because of the time of year, high heat, and lack of rainfall, the river was fairly quiet. We could hear hawks, woodpeckers, and doves through the trees, but the only bird we actually spotted was a Lesser 
Goldfinch. The lizards were quite active, however, moving quickly away from us on both sides of the trail – and almost always moving too fast to be photographed! Butterflies could also be seen from time to time, most of them new to me (if I find out what the butterfly in the photo is, I’ll let you know.) Near the building that houses the gift shop, there is usually more activity, since there are feeders around the gardens. We settled in on a bench after our walk to watch White-winged Doves, Blue Grosbeak, Gila Woodpeckers, Inca Doves, and more Lesser Goldfinches, as well as several species of hummingbird.
Of course we are in desert country here, so the trails are usually dusty and/or rocky, and there are a wealth of cacti and other fascinating desert plants 
wherever you look. I do love the desert – as arid and sometimes barren-looking as it might seem, it has an intricate beauty all its own. Along with my family, I used to travel to Arizona nearly every spring break when I was young, and I have many fond memories of identifying different types of cactus, scanning the roadsides for Roadrunners, and generally enjoying the warmth of the sun! I don’t recall doing much wandering in my youth, however, and as an adult I find great pleasure in exploring this unique countryside in more depth. To be honest, I 
probably knew the names of desert plants much better when I was growing up, but I’ll re-learn them eventually, I’m sure!
For now, I’ll leave you with these last few photos. We have several more days to spend wandering in this area…we will be walking in the Sulphur Springs Valley and into the canyons of the Huachuca mountains, so there’s definitely more to come.
The photos below:
Trees along the river, with the Mule Mountains in the 
background;
A lone, exquisite hummingbird feather to finish the day.
See you soon!
hand, the time spans from egg to caterpillar, caterpillar to chrysalis, and chrysalis to butterfly, etc. But two things to be prepared for: first, you’ll need to make sure you have plenty of milkweed for the caterpillars! I was told they do nothing but eat and poop, and that is no exaggeration! It’s amazing how quickly they grow, how fast they mow through the milkweed, and how much excrement they leave! You’ll want to also be prepared to clean the habitat every day – it’s the best practice, in light of their rapid rate of growth. But overall it isn’t difficult, and the end result is the joy of releasing a beautiful Monarch butterfly into the world! This photo is our very first butterfly, a healthy male we released into the sunshine on a light breeze just this morning. We have an additional five chrysalises and two more little caterpillars at this point in time, so this is only the start!
were walking in the prairie when one of the naturalists found this beautiful Garden Spider – what a striking creature! Notice the intricacies of the web, including the lightning bolt pattern beneath her. Nature is a never-ending source of fascination!
wonderful place just outside of town, the Yellow House Lodge. Situated in a valley surrounded by the Andes mountains and mile upon mile of cloud forest, Mindo is not only breathtakingly beautiful, it’s also well known worldwide as one of the best places, anywhere, for birding (with over 500 species of birds) – especially if you enjoy hummingbirds! While there we also saw toucans, macaws, motmots, vultures, warblers… too many species to list here. We stayed for a couple of days and did do some exploring, but two days wasn’t nearly enough time!
it was around 14 or 15, I believe. In the bushes below the deck we were able to spot numerous hummers at rest, as well as the distinctive Bananaquits, with their white eyebrow and bright yellow breast, which also shared the same feeders.
Ecuador and other South American countries (we didn’t try any). I also nearly stepped on the little fuzzy tarantula pictured here, but saw him just in time to step aside.
Occasionally we were given a fleeting glimpse, beyond the heavy curtains of greenery, of the valley stretching away below us. It was a spectacular walk, and I recall it so vividly…the warmth of the day, the views all around us, the tree roots crossing the path as we were climbing, the many unusual flowers and other plants waving at us as we passed by. And the sounds…oh the sounds! I will never forget the riot of wild voices surrounding us that day! As I said, two days was not enough time, not nearly enough time, to spend in such a rich and varied landscape. One day we will go back! Well, I will go back – Mark isn’t as fond of travel as I am, so I might have to find a friend to accompany me!
across the path. When the trail opened up to the lake, we were treated to serene views, with very little breeze to ruffle the surface of the water. Wild life was all around us, busy with day-end tasks. Taking little notice of us, we observed Red-winged Blackbirds, Muskrats, a Green Heron, Canada Geese, Mallards, Wood Ducks, and a pair of Trumpeter Swans in the distance, just going about their business. There was also a 
Great Egret doing some leisurely fishing not far from the boardwalk. We were quiet and moved slowly, but it definitely wasn’t paying any attention to us.
tucked deep into reeds and often difficult to see. In one nest, which was fairly close to the boardwalk, we could see, even from a distance of about 15 feet, a tiny bit of pink at nest-edge. When later I blew up the photo on my laptop, two nestlings (pictured here) were easy to make out. These were the only avian youngsters we spotted during the walk, but this was certainly a fun sighting!
time spent in the prairie was short. As we were about to walk back into the woods, the sun was starting to set and cast a warm glow on the trees dividing prairie from woodland. The sight of the path disappearing between those forest guardians brought Middle Earth to mind…who knows what adventures might await us?
But there were a few that had dialed back a notch or two, like this female Mallard, napping right in the middle of the trail (her mate was lying in the grass beside the path, just out of sight). Luckily we were at a “Y” and opted to take the other path so as not to disturb her.
so too are most fireflies, sadly. So no, not a single firefly to be seen. But there were quite a few young bunnies darting around near the nature center. I tried to get a quick photo, although there wasn’t much light left… So I’ll leave you today with this rather dark photo of a Cottontail youngster washing it’s face. Until next time!
The trail is not really maintained (we actually lost it once), and you are likely to encounter some muddy ruts here and there. But even though the trail undulates consistently, the way is not challenging. Be prepared for mosquitoes and ticks. While we didn’t pick up any hitchhikers, I’m happy to say, it was a muggy day and as we built up a sweat the mosquitoes became progressively troublesome. Aside from that, the forest was delightfully shadowy and cool, with a slight breeze. The SNA borders County Road 6 in Medina/Orono, and we could hear traffic sounds most of the time, but once you get into the forest those noises do soften a bit, and it’s easy to let them fall into the background and focus on birdsong.
With such a thick canopy overhead, there isn’t a lot of undergrowth in much of these woods, but every so often we’d find a nice carpet of green – such as this expanse of maple saplings (above). There were also a wealth of insects here, including many species of dragonflies and damselflies. At one point along the trail we seem to have disrupted a rather large family of long-legged spiders, and watched them scatter in all directions. We quickly moved to the side of the trail and left them in peace – hopefully we didn’t step on many, or any! We also found these tiny butterflies, happily and peacefully feeding away alongside a beetle. Inclusivity is a good thing!
Among the shadows and downed trees it was easy to find various species of lichen and fungi, and I took a few pics of several. This one is my favorite, though…
I did a little Google search on this SNA after our wanderings, and read that many folks seem to feel that this is not a good place to “get away from it all” as it is heavily used. We only encountered two people (and three dogs) on our walk, so our peaceful experience might have been an anomaly. But we certainly enjoyed it, and regardless of how well used it might be, it is quite a beautiful forest. We definitely recommend it. I’ve included a couple of guided walks in Wolsfeld Woods on the Walking Events page, under the Trail Markers tab, that might interest you as well!
