Hiking & Geocaching - Catalina State Park

Today, we decided to explore the park by doing a little geocaching. Behind our campsite is a section of the Bridle Path. The path is designed for horses and is fairly deep with sand. It made walking difficult for about a mile. Along the way we found four caches. At the end of the Bridle Path, we picked up the Nature Trail, which was much easier walking (no sand). We found two more caches along the trail, and picked up a Beanie Travel Bug. We plan to carry the Travel Bug with us and deposit it in an appropriate cache in Texas.

A youngster

The park as numerous examples of Saguaro Cactus (cacti).

Caught the back-end of a mule deer at the far end of my telephoto.

View from the trail.

We put the flag out for Veteran's Day

Later in the afternoon, I cooked some steaks on the barbie, and we sat around watching the ants carry-off the bird seed we had put out.

Doing what fulltimers do...relaxing.

There goes the birdseed!

Shots around the campground at sunset.

Catalina State Park - Tucson, Arizona

Today we arrived at Catalina State Park, just north of Tucson, Arizona. The park host said it wasn't too busy, just drive around and pick a site. We opted for one of the back-ins in Campground B. There is plenty of room between the sites and it backs up to a natural area.


We were barely set up, when the local welcoming committee (road runners) came by to check out our digs.


We also spotted this bird while walking around the park. According to our friends, John & Terri, it is a male Pyrrhuloxia (pie-ru-lox-eah), AKA a gray cardinal.

There are several geocaches in the park, so we can keep busy for the next few days.

Fort Verde State Historic Park - Camp Verde, Arizona

Today we visited the Fort Verde State Historic Park. Fort Verde was the base of operations for U.S. Army scouts and soldiers in the 1870s and 1880s. It's considered the best-preserved example of an Indian Wars period fort in Arizona. Several of the original buildings are still standing, including the Commanding Officer's Quarters, Bachelor Officer's Quarters and Surgeon's Quarters.

We also found a few geocaches while driving around town. Then back to the rig to get prepared for tomorrow's departure.

Commanding Officer's Quarters

Pretty nice accommodations for a frontier fort.

Child's Room

Bachelor Officer's Quarters

Seeing Double?

Navajo Twins - Bluff, Utah

Our son, Chris, called this morning and said he was "seeing double". We thought he was having eye problems. Nope...our daughter-in-law, Megan, is going to have TWINS! She is due next June. I guess our travel plans for next summer are changing?

The first sonogram shows two distinct babies in the same amniotic sac...identical twins?

Montezuma Castle & Well - Camp Verde, Arizona

After the exciting news this morning, we drove over to Montezuma Castle National Monument. It was built by Sinagua farmers in the early 1100s. The structure is five-stories high and has 20 rooms. Up until 1951, the NPS allowed visitors to climb ladders up to the ruins. Now you can only enjoy them from the ground; or an electronic, virtual tour on a screen in the visitor's center.


A few miles north is the Montezuma Well. The well is a limestone sink that is fed continuously by an underground spring. The Sinagua people irrigated crops with its water by creating ditches to divert the water.

A very large sycamore tree. To Y's left, is where the water exited the well and ditches were built to irrigate crops.

After dinner we were treated to a spectacular sunset.