A MUSEUM & SOME HIKES.
Day 94 – The low here last night was 28 degrees. Again it took a long time to warm up this morning, but by 3 p.m. it had reached 59 degrees, and that was nice! We’re curious if it’ll be warmer on the other side of the mountains tomorrow.
Most of the campers in this park left today; there were only three sites occupied at the end of the day. Rob took a hike this morning on a trail that led out of the campground along Cave Creek. There were a couple of buildings that’d been here awhile and some birds, one of which he’d never seen before.
After his walk, we went back across the border to New Mexico (basically just to the end of the route 533), to The Chiricahua Desert Museum. We’d driven past the building several times and cars had always been in the parking lot. We kept saying that we should go there. The Museum consisted of three areas: (1) The Apache Museum which focused mostly on Geronimo, and on the history of the area, the Indian Wars over the centuries, and there were artifacts dating back thousands of years. (2) The Reptile Museum which also housed old relics and some very alive snakes, lizards, and turtles. And (3) a gift store and artist’s gallery, featuring local artists’ incredible work, indian jewelry, pottery, baskets, etc. It was very interesting.
When we left the Museum, we were hungry and it was lunchtime. We went back to the Portal Store & Cafe. Most of the seating, indoors and outside, was taken. We ate outside, the weather was nice and the sun was warming. It was very good. Then we drove to the birdwatching area we visited yesterday and again saw another bird we’ve never seen before.
And finally, we took two short hikes. First, we hiked through Idlewilde Campground. It was closed to camping for the winter, but we wanted to see what the campground was like in case we came back for birding in the spring. It was located directly below a grouping of huge rocks, and the Cave Creek ran by the other side of the campground. From the road, it looked like a fabulous place to stay, and we’d been disappointed originally that it was closed. After walking through we found there was no need to be disappointed – there were only a few campsites and all were for tent camping.
Next we drove to a place where we’d seen a sign for the trail to Vista Point. We hiked up the narrow, winding trail to the top of a hill. The viewing point had a bench & a telescope, and we had clear views of the north and south branches of the Cave Creek valley and the amazing mountains surrounding us. We were above most of the trees and it was a clear day. Very nice!
Back at our campsite we were heading out to the tent when three deer walked through our site. We got pictures until a neighboring camper’s dog, who was running around unleashed, scared them away. Oh well. Off to the tent for book-reading until the sun set.
We are leaving tomorrow and will be saying good-bye to New Mexico (for now). There were surprises for us in NM, like it was much less desert than we expected – plenty of mountains and lots of trees in some areas. It was colder than we expected, also. We kept traveling farther south to get warmer weather. It never was TOO warm, that’s for sure. It was much more windy than we expected. Dust storms and very, very dry, that wasn’t a surprise. But it was winter and it was not brown, dead, and boring! There were beautiful colors in the grasses, hills, sands, rocks, and cactus flowers. The scenery was gorgeous. Snow in the mountains. The people were extremely nice and friendly. Everyone seemed mellow and fairly happy. And a good percentage of them wore masks! YAAA. Oh, and let’s not forget the authentic Mexican food, with those wonderful fresh green chiles. Yep, New Mexico was a great place to visit in the winter.
For more detailed information about Sunny Flat Campground, click here.