Hi again faithful followers! We met super-friends, Cathy and Jim Stirling, at the new Cubs spring training park in Mesa, the last day of our Mesa, AZ stay. Great reunion with our Coeur d’Alene/Tucson friends, perfect weather, terrible game for the beloved Cubbies against the Diamondbacks. Cathy and Jim braved a night in their camper in our Mesa digs and headed back to Tucson to get their place ready for an Airstream invasion that afternoon. When we arrived, our pad was ready, we backed in and looked out back at the gorgeous Catalina Mountains behind the Stirling’s home.
We spent a day hiking the chaparel of the frontage of the Catalinas, and scoping out the campground at the state park there to see if we want to park there for awhile next winter. Our hike was shortened a bit by the fact that dogs aren’t allowed in the higher elevations of the Catalinas from January through April because that is the season females Bighorn sheep calve their young. We walked through a forest of Saguaro catcus as we passed through the more lowland canyoned areas of the park.
4 hikers+ Cisco
Tucson is 3,000 feet above sea level, the air cleaner, and the environment less dusty than the Phoenix area. When we snowbird again, we will definitely look into camping in the Catalina State Park.
John and I spent a day in the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, a well-tended collection of flora and fauna from that part of the world. We timed our excursion to be able to see a demonstration of raptor free-flight with barn owls, grey hawks, and peregrine falcons. They were literally inches above our heads!!
We enjoyed the 4 days we spent in Tucson, and catching up with friends in the area. Time to move north. We’ll wander through Northern Arizona and Southern Utah to arrive in Salt Lake City in time to ski with Joe and Maiga.
Teresa Van Haalen Ventures 